Melbun has got it all goin' on.    We’re back in a country where eggs are eggs, but r’s are optional.      Our stay is a wonderful combo of relaxed and flat-out.     

The energy highlight came with attending an Aussie Footy game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG is seen everywhere and was recently one of the venues for the World Cup Cricket championship) .      We had locals on all sides of us, adopting us, explaining the basic rules of the game, giving us the scoop on the players, and on top of that, we got to enjoy the most amazing display of athleticism I have ever seen.    Great fun to whoop it up and whistle for our shared team, the Hawthorn Hawks.   

We took the tramway to the stadium.    The public transport here is top drawer with trams, buses and trains all covering the city and surrounds.     The downtown core has no charge, allowing people to motor around seamlessly.        One of the historical tidbits that make this possible was an English guy who was sent to a young Melbourne to lay out the downtown.     He chose a large area along the river and established five main streets, each 100’ wide.    Between them lesser streets (meant as back alleys) were 30’ wide.     Those large streets accommodate 2-way car traffic and a center runway for 2-way tram traffic as well.     Slick and convenient.

We hopped the transit out to St . Kilda area, where locals hit the beach in the summer and a turn-of-the-century fun park (with wooden roller coaster) still attracts a lot of people.     Another day we hopped on the trains and headed to the Yarra wine region and the Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary, where only Aussie animals and birds are featured.   Wallabies, kangaroos, dingoes and the Kookaburra birds (in an old gum tree, as the old children’s song says) all looked at us while we looked at them.      Many had just a rope keeping visitors from joining the wildlife.  

The city has a constant stream of events and activities going on.    The National Comedy Festival was on, and off we went to see one of the funniest guys on the slate.      The city also offers free walking tours, which turned out to be fantastic.     The guide was a volunteer who had lived many places and knew his country well – instead of encouraging us to go to the typical tower for a city view, he took us to the highest business building in the city, where the bathrooms have floor-to-ceiling windows to let us take in the view in a down-low kind of way.

Loved this city and its people.      We expected a modicum of social coolness compared to the warmth of Kiwis, but none discernable yet.        Gotta love a place where "no worries" is a national state of mind.