Melbourne 11/29/12 - 12/1/12

One of the main reasons for us to get to Melbourne was for Matt to meet up with his friend, Mike, that he met and travelled with in Central America during 2009.  They have kept up on Facebook and he was very excited they'd get to see each other while we are on our journey!

Mike picked us up from the airport and we began a great weekend with more AMAZING local Australian hospitality.  As Mike is currently renovating a house, we all stayed with his dad close to the middle of everything.  His dad was so kind to have us and extremely welcoming of us into his home. 

We spent the first day getting settled, eating, playing frisbee and footie in the park, and of course watching a DVD of a championship footie match.  The season runs from March - October, so we weren't able to see a game in person, but we learned all about the game from our own footie expert and biggest Geelong Cats fan, Mike.  You might ask yourself, "What is Footie?"  It's short for Australian Rules Football;  a mix of football, soccer, and rugby jumbled into one game.  This game was also founded in Melbourne.  The game is quick paced and full of action, and we both thoroughly enjoyed this new sport!

On Friday, we went into the city to walk around and visit the famous Queen Victoria Market while Mike went into work for a few hours.  Lots and lots of food, clothes, shoes, everything you could ever want to buy.  Later on in the night we met, Bec, Mike's girlfriend and all went out to eat in Melbourne's "Little Italy" section and then to Koko Black for dessert.  Delicious!

Our last full day in Melbourne, we went to the city for a big breakfast in one of the side streets/alley ways.  Then we went on a cool drive outside of town to the Dandenong Mountains.  It was very peaceful and serene up in the mountains. 

Afterwards we went to Brighton Beach for a short walk around and a look at the colorful Brighton beach huts.

After our fun-filled day, we went out for a fantastic dinner at a cool little place called Cookie in the main downtown area.  The restaurant had a dress code of no shorts, but thanks to K-Mart Matt was able to join us for dinner for only $8.50 :-)!  He had 2 pairs of jeans to start off the trip, but neither survived. 

Our dinner was delicious and we thoroughly enjoyed the company!  It was sad to be our last night, but felt good being with friends we hope to see again.  

Mike and Bec took very good care of us during our visit and we were very grateful.  The next morning we were up early to say our good-byes and were off to the airport for New Zealand!