Melbourne Gaol/AFL Game at Melbourne Cricket Grounds

Saturday, April 20, 2013

Dagan's got her now!

Third floor of the gaol

first floor of the gaol

We went to the Melbourne Gaol this morning. It was interesting and a little creepy. We wandered in and out of the jail cells reading about the different inmates and conditions they lived in. The infamous Ned Kelly had a section to himself. He was a legend in Australia. He was in a large siege when he was captured. He wore armor that he had made himself. It held off a few gunshots, but they captured him in the end. He was hung at the Melbourne Gaol. They had the scaffold in the gaol. By the time we had looked at the third floor, Dagan had had enough. This place gave him the creeps. He was more than ready to leave.

Different items used at the gaol.

Adam tried on a replica of Ned Kelly's armor.

Ned Kelly's armor

We went to the Library of Victoria next to see the actual armor that Ned Kelly had created and wore in the gun battle. It was interesting to see. There was a dent from a bullet right between his eyes. They ended up shooting him in the legs to bring him down.

A view of the AFL game

In the afternoon, we saw Collingwood and Richmond play AFL or Aussie rules football.  Adam read up on the teams we watched today. Collingwood has been around since 1892, and Richmond has been around since 1908. Collingwood is the most popular Australian sports team. We had heard about this team when the family we went canyoning with told us to go to an AFL game when we went to Melbourne. They told us people either love them or hate them. We went to the Melbourne Cricket Grounds for the game. There were probably 80,000 people at the game.  We were in the nosebleed section. It took a little while to figure out how most of the game works. They have to kick the ball through the goal post.  There are four goalposts.  Kicking the ball through the short ones are worth 1 point and, kicking the ball through the tall ones are 6 points. The ball continually moves. The players kick and pass the ball to each other.   If they run with the ball, they either bounce it once before kicking it, or stop, move backward, and then kick. We still don't totally understand it, but it was fun to watch. In this game, they get really high scores. After it was over, all four of us decided we liked this type better than footy which we watch in Wollongong.

Ending score

We wandered through Federation Square again after the game. A dance troupe from Sydney was performing. We decided to have Greek tonight. They have these souvlaki down here. They remind us of a gyro. We got a couple if these. They were really good.

We enjoyed our last day in Melbourne.