August 12th, Australia Day 172

I took the opportunity this day to do some more wandering about the city, in particular, a ride up Melbourne's 2nd tallest building, the Rialto Tower. Until recently, it was the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere until it was overtaken by the still uncompleted Eureka Tower close by. It still holds the record, though as the tallest office building in the Southern Hemisphere and just over 250 meters I think. Near to the top there is an observation deck which offers you an unobstructed 360 degree view of the city and beyond.

The first stop was the RialtoVision Theater which offered a quick 15 minute presentation on the sights of Melbourne year round. In November, the Melbourne Cup, a horse race, is run and the city comes to a standstill. It is the only place in the world that gives a public holiday for a horse race. Horse racing is a big thing in Australia with large portions of the sports section devoted to it. There is also greyhound racing and the motto is "Just Think of Them as Little Horses"; actually that 2nd part isn't true but they do race greyhounds. After watching the informative video, I took an elevator ride up to the observation deck where I had a stunning view. After snapping many photos, I returned down to the street and wandered the city some more, eventually making my way to the M.C.G., but seeing that it was completely closed, I just wandered around it a little bit and then returned by train to Glenroy.

That evening, I went out with my host's goddaughter and some of her friends. We first went to a pub with live music but then moved onto a more classic pub known as O'Sullivan's. It was in the Ukrainian part of the city, in the suburb of Essendon, home of the AFL team the Essendon Bombers (known as the Dons), although the pub itself was not a Ukrainian one, as the name would suggest. There was live music there too but at times it was hard to breath since smoking is still allowed inside pubs in Victoria. I had to get a breath of fresh air every so often but otherwise, it was a great experience. I thanked my associates and then was driven back to my hosts' residence where I took a well earned sleep.

Photos now available at: http://australiaday172.blogspot.com/