So Drew made the trip over last weekend and I am still in the process of recovering from it.
Drew cooking something vegetarian in my kitchen
We started the Thursday out with lunch at Transport. That night we just took it easy at the local Port Melbourne pub The London.
On the Friday we began post-work drinks at Madame Brussels. For those that don't know, Madame Brussels is a rooftop bar that has astroturf and incredibly expensive beer! We quickly moved on to the European Bier Cafe, after which we went to Section 8. Section 8 may, in fact, be my favourite pub in Melbourne. I've never come across anything like it, and its the simplicity of the place that makes it work.
On the Saturday we started out around 5pm at The Pub at Crown. Our high-school friend from Perth, Janice, had just moved over to Melbourne a couple of weeks ago, and so around 6:30 we headed to catch up with her and some of our other high-school friends over dinner on Lygon Street. Following this we went to the uber-snobby Supper Club. According to the hostesses you weren't allowed to walk around in the joint and you had to stay seated at your assigned table at all times!
After this we headed to Tuscan rooftop bar for a quick beer, before going to the crazy upstairs section of the Elephant and the Wheelbarrow. When that closed at 3am we went to some pub down an alley way that was full of emo looking type people... yeah, we got out of there around 4:30am.
Then on the Sunday we just had a quiet few beers at the St Kilda Sea Baths - think of the Cott, with salsa, but on a smaller scale.
Zillah was over recently and we had a brief catchup. We had dinner at Veludo in St Kilda:
Veludo Restaurant
I have to say that this is one of the nicer restaurants that I've been to in Melbourne and I would happily go there again. That's for dropping by Zil!
I had the pleasure of having Beth visit the other day with her friend Sarah. We arranged to meet up on a Friday night at the ever popular Transport Bar:
Me and Beth at Transport
I think I got to talk to Beth for maybe 10 minutes before she was off talking to a bunch of other people, and I didn't get to see her again! Oh well, it was nice to see her for that brief moment anyways and I'm sure she had a grand time here in Melbourne.
*warning: post contains various references to poker terms and lingo*
So after many promises Ron and Choey made the trip over to Melbourne for a week. For the first 2 nights they were staying over at my place, and sadistically my plan was to make them sleep head to toe in a queen bed. Ron resisted and instead found comfort on the floor, while Choey snore away on the bed.
For the most part all we did was play poker. As soon as they got off the plane we had a home game going and I was up a decent amount early on. Then we went to Crown where Ron discovered that the computerized "PokerPro" tables treated him much better than the standard live tables. I have to say that I don't mind the PokerPro tables either because since there's no dealer you can say what you want, and to me poker is a lot more like poker when you can verbally discuss cards and draws and outs etc. Really the only annoying thing about PokerPro is the way it just folds your cards automatically and without warning if you don't act within 25 seconds... that cost me a fair chunk of money
The following Friday we did a long poker session at Crown, I believe I started at 5:30pm and finished at 8:30am. Since it was a Friday night I drank Pure Blonde the whole time. I played the whole time at a table with Choey and it was the most amazing table that I've ever played on (i.e. lots of action).
It was a 2/3 $200 table and everyone had verbally agreed to blind straddle (min $6 but some people made it more). As soon as the guy on my right sat down, he bought in for the maximum, and anytime it was his straddle or he was under the gun he went all-in blind. The 3rd time that he was under the gun he went all-in blind, so since I wasn't running that well I figured what the hey, and went all-in blind behind him. We ended up having 7 people all-in pre-flop that hand! When action got to the big blind he looked at his cards and said "I have seven three suited in spades". He thought for like 2 minutes figuring out what to do! The table was telling him that he had to play because of the pot odds, but the guy couldn't do it. So he folded. There were so many side-pots to figure out that the pit boss had to come over to help sort it all out, and then the poker pit supervisor had to come over to double-check everything. The hand probably took 15 minutes to play out because of the side-pot calculations, and in the end the guy at the top of this picture took down the whole pot:
But as is with the general niceness of people in Melbourne, he bought the whole table drinks immediately afterwards. Befittingly, the guy who folded 73 would've made his flush and taken down the whole pot - he couldn't get over it and tilted off the rest of his chips shortly afterwards.
On the Saturday night Ron wanted to do things "that he couldn't do in Perth". So we found a place in the CBD that was open all hours where you could play pool and table tennis for $5 per person. Great, table tennis and pool, games that Ron can't be beat in. Following that we went bowling at about 1am where Ron demonstrated his usual bowling prowess by closing every frame on his way to 250 or something around that.
Sunday was our last day so naturally we spent it at Crown. Ron and I played a satellite to one of the preliminary Aussie Millions events. I busted relatively early by losing a pre-flop coin-flip, after which I went to see how Ron was doing. I sneak a peak at Ron's hole cards and see pocket kings and I think to myself that he's going to double up here. So he goes all-in pre-flop, 2 others are in pre-flop also, and of course his KK is up against JJ and AA. No K on the board and we spend the rest of the day giving our money away on PokerPro.
Vercess spent a week in Melbourne the other day with her friends Yin Hua and Shannon. In the early going we did the touristy thing and took in dinner at a restaurant on Lygon Street:
Yin Hua, Shannon and Vercess with the happy semi-smiles for me
After this we went to Crown where Vercess entertained us all with her high quality Karaoke skills.
Later still we went to Club Odeon upstairs at Crown. It was actually pretty good and I would be happy to go there again.
The following week we went out on the saturday night. We began with some Japanese food in the CBD, then followed it up by checking out venues in Fitzroy and Richmond. It was really nice to see Vercess again and I really hope she enjoyed her time over here...
Rahel came to town with a couple of her friends for the 2nd time in as many months, and it was great to have a familiar face around. For those that don't know, I've known Rahel for over 10 years now and she's the best female friend that I have! Awww:
No photos please!: Rahel and Madeline in their swish serviced apartment
We spent Friday night having dinner at "The Pub at Crown" and watching the movie "Australia". Then on Sunday we checked out the St Kilda and South Melbourne markets, (which I had been dying to visit), before it was time for Rahel to head to the airport.
There've been a lot of visitors in and out of Melbourne recently, and the latest were Doerte and James. On the Saturday night we went out to The Loop, a pretty cool, funky type of bar hidden far away down an alleyway (as they for the most part are in Melbourne), then on the Monday we took in dinner at a mexican restaurant in St Kilda:
Hora de cenar!: James, Doerte, Doug, Ross and Me
In some good news, I now have another friend here, as Doug (pictured above) made the move over from Perth in the last couple of weeks. To add to the good news I received a $1500 bonus for referring him to my employer - sweet!
All is going very well in Melbourne at the moment. Life is good folks.
I have to say that I'm looking forward to the Perth summer (and swimming!). The city has a good vibe to it at the moment because everyone knows that it's just around the corner.
The long weekend was a great opportunity to do some catching up. On Friday night Janice, my friend from high-school, had a surprise birthday party at the Oxford Hotel, Leederville. Caught up with a few people from high-school that I hadn't seen in over 10 years. I was surprised to see my non high-school friend Vercess there (smart parents coming up with what I think is an awesome name), and it was good to catch up with her. Interestingly in the past I've talked to her a little bit about her boyfriend of however many years, but I'd never met him before. He was there and wouldn't you know it, he's from my grade in high school so we know each other and everything. I'll say it for the millionth time, Perth is scary small sometimes :-S
On Saturday it was the big game, the AFL grand final, so I was able to catch up with some of the boys from school at Hendo and Mel's house. Morph is tying the knot in December, so it was good to be able to see him so that I could put in my suggestions for the bucks night ;-) Also I hadn't seen Rosko, Smithy, Mick, Burv, Smale or Timo for a while, so it was great to just hang out with the Willo boys like old times.
Last night I caught up with my sister and some of her friends at The Brisbane hotel. I got to say, that place is definitely alright. You could put it down as my favourite place to go out to at the moment. Yeah, there's going to be some fun/great Sunday sessions in the coming months.
Less than 2 months to go until it's officially summer. Definitely looking forward to it...
Italy has quite a story. Great weather, amazing cities, awesome ice cream... and rude people! Yep, while it's a must visit place, the people aren't the friendliest lot going around. But never the less, it was a fascinating place to check out. This map, courtesy of http://www.map-of-italy.org, shows the route that we took: Map of Italy.
I chose not to post too many pictures of Paris because I wouldn't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't been there yet... but I'm going to spoil some of the sights of Italy, so if you're planning on travelling there you have been warned! Our first stop was Pisa. Basically the entire town revolves around the tourism generated by the extremely popular Leaning Tower:
Me in front of the Leaning Tower of Pisa
We only stopped there briefly, just enough time to get some lunch, and then continued on our way. Next up was Florence. Florence is most famous for its renaissance art, or as Juppy likes to put it, a lot of the Ninja Turtles were lured to work their magic there:
A picture of muah! Oh, and the replica of Michaelangelo's David too
Yep, there's heaps of statues and impressive buildings in this city. We stayed in Florence for 2 nights, and one thing I have to say is that the accomodation was excellent. Air-conditioned bliss and our cabin even had a fridge! This is also where we had the "No Clothes Party" that I mentioned a little bit before... but I have no pictures of it (probably a good thing).
So next up was the one and only, Rome. It is another city (like Paris) full of unreal architecture from hundreds to thousands of years ago. Let's start with the most famous one:
The Colosseum
Also always drawing a crowd are the Spanish Steps:
The Spanish Steps
But for me, the best thing that I saw in my time in Europe was without a doubt the Pantheon. Juppy was ever so nonchalantly leading us down a side street, not mentioning too much about what would meet us at our destination, when this huge building emerges out of nowhere:
Nat, Me, Mick and Drew in front of the Pantheon
Now I really don't know how they managed to build thing this in 27BC. I mean it is a monster building on the outside, and when you see the inside it's just mind-blowing: Inside the Pantheon. Definitely the highlight of my trip, it is one inspiring piece of human construction.
Now Vatican City, or "where the pope lives", is recognized as the world's smallest city. In my books it could also be listed as the world's biggest tourist money maker! I mean who makes you line up for 2.5 hours, then charges you 11 euro to enter their country?!?! I'm not kidding about the 2.5 hours either, this picture gives an idea of what the queue is like:
But it's one of those things that you have to do, and I have to say that I came away as a happy used tourist. The are two things that stand out from the Vatican: one is the roof of the Vatican Museum. I don't know how long that took to make, but the end result is that it looks amazing.
And the other thing that was highly memorable was the roof of the sistine chapel:
The roof of the sistine chapel, painted entirely by Michaelangelo
That image is a little fuzzy, so for a clearer picture look here. On the right is my personal favourite, "Creation of Man", the one showing God touching Adam's finger, aka Adam and Eve.
So that covered some of the architecture in Rome. Another great thing about Europe is that alcohol is relatively inexpensive compared to here in Aus. For example, a 700ml bottle of Yagermeister here costs at minimum AU$40, but when we bought a bottle from a supermarket in Rome it cost us only 10 euro (AU$17.50). Bargain!
Following Rome we headed to Venice, but on the way we made a stopover at the small city of Verona. Verona has a couple of cool things in it, like the second largest colosseum in the world, but my personal favourite was the Romeo and Juliet setting. There is a bronze Juliet statuette set up, and legend has it that rubbing her right breast will bring you happiness in love. Well, this wasn't an opportunity that I was going to give up, and I figured that if I upped the ante a little bit and used my tongue that it would have to guarantee me success:
Juppy and I doing our best to guarantee ourselves happiness in love
We weren't in Verona for too long before we made our way to our final Italian stop, the legendary Venice. Now of all the places I went to, I would say that Venice was the hardest to get around, namely because there were just so many tourists there! This is a so-so picture of me above one of the main canals:
Looks like I had a BIG one the night before
The place is pretty much Kevin Costner's Waterworld. There is a little bit of architecture there to check out, and we also took a fairly relaxing gondala ride. It is a pretty cool place to check out.
We stayed a couple of nights in Venice, and both nights we just went to the pub that was on the campsite:
Pub in Venice, Dave and Andy on the left, Karps in the center
I drank too much so I don't actually remember taking these videos at the pub, but this first one includes Tezza, Juppy (who looks extremely drunk and jokingly threatens to bite off my finger when I give him a wet willy), Karly, Phoebe, Drew, Grace and Karps:
Now I had to be really drunk to take this next video. For the whole trip we referred to the guy in it as "The Russian" because he is just one huge dude, similar to the russian guy from Rocky IV. I love the look of Ali's face as I walk up with the camera:
I've been wanting to share my thoughts on Ibiza for a while now, so here goes. Now whenever I mentioned to any girl that I was going to Ibiza, they would always raise their eyebrows up and down and give me a "Oh, you're going to Ibiza hey". The accompanying comments (and I am quoting here) ranged from "Well behave yourself Kev" to "Kev, are you going to Ibiza to sleep with lots of girls?" Ah Ibiza, what a reputation you have (edit: and what a reputation I must have! But to anyone who knows me they know that this is a misconceived reputation). But I've always doubted that any place could really hold true to such a reputation, and now I am here to shed light on the reality that is Ibiza.
Well first and foremost the reason that I wanted to go to Ibiza so badly was just so that I could say that I have been there and done that. Ibiza is well known as the party capital of the world, so naturally I wanted to check it out before it was too late (i.e. before I got too old). The map below is pretty useful because it shows all the main towns as well as the main nightclubs (very useful if you are planning on going there):
Ibiza Map, courtesy of www.ibiza-spotlight.com
We shacked up in Ibiza Town itself since it was the cheapest place for accomodation at 35 euro each per night. Staying on the beach in San Antoni or Playa de Bossa would've costed us upwards of 100 euro each per night.
So on the first night that we got there we just crashed because the previous night we'd been up really late in Barcelona. The following night we were rested and ready to go (I think we both slept 18 hours the first night) so we drank a whole heap of beer and I think we did half a bottle of Yager before heading to Privilege, the largest nightclub in the world. It was our plan to drink a heap before going to the clubs each night because all I had heard about was how expensive the alcohol would be once inside. The cover charge at Privilege was 30 euro (no free drink). We got there at midnight and were pretty much the first ones there:
Drew out the front of Privilege
I had a hip flask full of Yager in my jeans pocket, so when the bouncer started frisking me on the way in I thought that for sure it would get confiscated. But for some reason he felt the bottle, and he definitely knew what it was, but he let me take it in anyways. On the inside the club was huge, with numerous areas inside and out. Probably the most noticeable thing was the large pool area in the center of the club. We bought ourselves a 375ml bottle of beer there just to see how much it would cost: 9 euro (AU $15.75). Hmmm, not going to be buying any more of those!
Overall Privilege was quite an experience, but the Ibiza reality is that the ratio was about 4 to 1 guys to girls, which is absolutely what I was expecting. People were not exactly throwing themselves onto each other is what I am trying to say here.
The following night we went to Space. It cost us each 60 euro to get in (AU $105) and Drew decided to test the bar out by buying a bottle of beer: 12 euro (AU $21)! Amazing considering 6 packs of the same beer were selling in Barcelona supermarkets for 2 euro, or 40 cents per can. Ok so let me tell you about Space. It's true, there are girls there who are incredibly hot and incredibly scantily clad. I remember I was quite taken by the sight of one girl who had on only lycra suspenders for a top. I remember Drew was quite taken by the sight of a girl wearing only a medium sized hankerchief for a top, which she had tied around her neck but didn't tie around at the back anywhere else. Yep, we really should've taken a camera with us.
But the reality was a 6 to 1 ratio, and basically all of the girls there were with their boyfriends. Edit: Random people were not throwing themselves onto other random people. Yep, this is what Ibiza is really like. And possibly the evilest thing about it all is that salt water comes out of the taps in the bathrooms!
On on final day there we went up to San Antoni to check out the beach. It is a massive stretch of beach that was way too far for us to cover. I have to say the beach there is very, very nice, with only a hint of waves and fairly warm water:
San Antoni Beach
Drew and I sat at a bar that was on a jetty basically in the middle of the beach and ordered some beers... for only 2.50 euro a pint! There's really no consistency in the pricing, basically each club is their own country and they charge what they like while the actual island itself is fairly affordable.
Ok ok so one highly noticeable thing about the beaches is that around a third of the girls choose to go topless... maybe this is why Ibiza has the reputation that it does? I dunno. I mean sometimes you have to do what is necessary to avoid a tan line. And topless on the beach is pretty much the norm in Spain anyways.
So after 3 or so pints on the beach we headed home, drank some more beer, and made our way to Pacha for our final night on the island. Our 50 euro cover charge got us into a really packed club with Roger Sanchez... and of course the usual 6 to 1 ratio. Yes, I am trying to make a point here to debunk all the looks and comments that I got before coming to the island. But still, it was a great party atmosphere, and all of the Ibiza nights are nights that I will always remember, and remember fondly.
I guess my point is that I don't and never did see Ibiza as the massive meat-market that girls see it to be. Moreover, I think that if you're into your e's and your speed and your dance music then this place will be heaven for you. I did enjoy my time in Ibiza because I'd always wanted to go there, but now that I've been there will I ever go back? I think it's now a case of been there and done that... but I am very glad that I did have the opportunity to do it.
