12/26/16,
“Melbourne 1956”
Melbourne,
Victoria, Australia
I know
almost nothing about the Games of the XVI Olympiad, and I know even less about
cricket. However, the Melbourne Cricket
Ground, where I am currently watching the first day of the famed Boxing Day
Cricket Test, was the home of the Games of the XVI Olympiad. Taking place in 1956, it serves as the midway
point between the Games of the I Olympiad in 1896 (the t-shirt I am currently
wearing) and the most recent Games of the XXXI Olympiad in 2016. After this, only one remains, and I will be
visiting the Stadium in Sydney four days from now, where I will finally finish
this quest.
Setting foot on all seven
continents was easy compared to this monstrous task of stepping inside all 27
Olympic Stadiums. “26 Down, 1 To
Go.” Those were the words I uttered as
the Australian national anthem began playing before the test. This was the only activity I had on my agenda
for today, and, even with my limited knowledge of the sport of cricket, it
promises to make for an enjoyable day at the G, as they call it.
When the day is over, I will be able to walk
back across the street to my hotel and have dinner there before taking the
overnight ferry to Tasmania. It will be
a relatively boring day, but no day that includes a visit to an Olympic Stadium
can truly be considered boring, and the ferry ride to Tasmania promises to be
an adventure. Tasmania is another one of
those places that I always heard about growing up but never expected to
visit. That will be the activity
tomorrow, the day after I will make my way to Cairns, then the next three days
will be the Great Barrier Reef, the 2000 Olympic Stadium, and my NYE Celebrations
in Sydney. On paper, it seems like a
light trip, and perhaps it is, but the epicness of what is upcoming in the week
to come cannot be doubted.
After I
closed last night, I published from that same bench before walking back to my
hotel. I made a cup of tea and fell
asleep almost as soon as I was done with the tea. I slept intermittently and woke up for
breakfast around 8 AM. It was completely
packed, and the food was depleted.
Eventually, I found a seat, and they replenished the food. It was a proper English fry-up, and I got
bangers and rashers and taters and shrooms, along with a slice of bread and
some coffee. After breakfast, I went up
to the room and started to get ready.
My
hotel was right across the street from the G, and I could see people walking
there. I was wondering if I would be
able to bring in my computer bag, and I saw plenty of people walking with
backpacks, so that answered that question.
Once I was ready, I left my suit and suitcase at the front desk and
walked to the G. I picked up my ticket
and made my way to the gate. It was
packed, and it was definitely full of people gearing to spend the whole day
there. It would be an adventure for
sure, even if watching cricket would be the least exciting part of it for
me. Taking my ceremonial picture, having
all sorts of food, and smoking at the G would be the adventure for me. The test meant nothing to me, but the
experience meant everything.
I went
through security, which was rather perfunctory and headed to my seat, as the
Australian national anthem began playing.
I took my ceremonial picture and then sat down to watch the beginning of
the test. I had no idea what was going
on. After half an hour, it now being 11
AM, I went to get lunch: fries, a burger, and two beers, all of which I brought
back to my seat, well, a different seat actually. I ate my lunch at my seat, finishing my first
beer with lunch and saving the second beer for my entry. I then proceeded to write this entry, which I
will now close so that I can watch a little more cricket before I go out for my
smoke.
At sea, Spirit of Tasmania I, Bass Strait, En
route Melbourne-Devonport
Toronto,
Sarajevo, Ushuaia, and Beijing. Those
are the iconic locations where I have smoked the 2006 Christmas Pipes on various
Days 1 of my Christmas trips on either 12/26 or 12/27, along with New Delhi and
Kathmandu on my Thanksgiving trips.
Since this trip has slightly different timing, I am smoking at the end
of Day 2 with a far less glamourous dateline than Melbourne would have provided
last night, but structuring the trip like this was the price I had to pay if I
wanted to include Tasmania in this trip, and that is where I will wake up
tomorrow morning. Those trips were are
incredibly epic, and this trip is on track to put them all to shame.
After I closed at the Stadium, I watched the
rest of the first session before heading out during the break to have an Ardor,
figuring a pipe to be more proper for a cricket test than a cigar. By the time I got back to my seat for the second
session, having stopped for ice cream and a flat white (an espresso drink
invented and beloved in Australia, much like a latte), I had a better
understanding of the sport of cricket, but it was still a very boring thing to
watch, and I spent more time looking at my phone than at the field. It was okay.
I had nothing better to do today, and I was in the Olympic Stadium. I was home.
That was all that mattered.
Soon
the rain came, and they suspended play not long before they were scheduled to
end the second session. There would be
no third session today. I headed
outside, grabbing a meat pie on the way, and found a bench in a covered area in
view of the Olympic wall that listed all the champions from the Melbourne
Games. I lit up a Por Larranga, and I
was fully relaxed. As I finished my
cigar, it became clear they would not be resuming play that day, so I headed
back to the hotel. It was almost time
for dinner anyway.
Seeing as it was
Chanukah, I even picked up a jelly donut after my cigar, along with an
espresso. This was a bad decision, as
dinner was going to be in another hour or so.
As I left the Stadium, I said something that I almost never say on my
travels: “That was fun.” I don’t travel
to have fun. I travel to see the
sites. I can have relaxing at my
apartment, and I enjoy that far more than I could ever enjoy lounging on the
beach. I got back to the hotel and used
my laptop in the lobby for an hour before changing into my suit and heading
down for dinner.
The adorable waitress
asked me what I wanted to drink. I asked
if she had club soda. She looked at me
blankly with her cute smile. I tried
again and asked if they had seltzer.
“What’s that?” I tried once more
and asked for sparkling water. “Oh, you
mean just soda water.” Yes, that was what
I meant. For food, I ordered a fish and
chips made with local fish. It took so
long, and the taxi would soon be there, that I was about to walk up and leave,
but it came at the last possible minute.
The restaurant was packed with people coming from the cricket test, but
to wait over half an hour for fish and chips was unacceptable, and I’m sure my
reader understands that I didn’t have much of an appetite to boot.
After I was done eating, I got in the taxi
and was on my way. I asked him to stop
at Carlton Gardens on the way, as I had forgotten to take my picture with the
Plaque yesterday. I got my picture, and
we were on my way. I then realized that
I had completely forgotten something else: souvenirs. Yesterday, everything was closed, so I wasn’t
even looking, and today was all about the Stadium, so I didn’t think about
it. I was disappointed, but I did have
my souvenirs from the Stadium, and I could get souvenirs from the ferry. How did I make such a rookie mistake? Completely forgetting to get Melbourne
souvenirs?!? I clearly hadn’t brought my
A-game today.
We were soon at the ferry
dock, and I got my ticket before boarding the ferry. I left my pajamas at my seat and then headed
up to the back smoking deck, which had benches.
I lit up an Oliva and put on the soundtrack from Moana, very fitting for
a long voyage by sea. I alternated it
with La La Land for Oscar comparison purposes, and “How Far I’ll Go” is my
clear choice for the Oscar. “City of
Lights” is too bland, and “Fools Who Dream” is too derivative. Meanwhile, I messaged my friend about Dwayne
Johnson’s shockingly excellent singing voice.
I expected him to be asleep, as it was 4 AM back in New York, but he
messaged me back.
We messaged almost
nonstop about various pop culture theories for over two hours before, I
suppose, he passed out, since he stopped answering. As soon as we set sail, I lit up my Davidoff
Yamasa Toro, which I traditionally reserve for the first long surface journey
(car and ship both count). After the
Davidoff, I changed into my pajamas and went back up to the deck. That was when my friend stopped messaging,
and we were soon going enter Bass Strait, but I needed to wait for that so that
I wouldn’t have to change my dateline. As we started to enter the strait, a large crowd gathered to watch the
passing, and I filled up my pipe. The
crowd left as soon as we entered the strait, and I lit up my 2006 Christmas
Pipe and proceeded to write this entry, which I will close so that I can
publish and maybe post my photos, too, before getting some sleep.
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