Day 270! I may still be sick, but that’s not going to stop me from enjoying a beautiful day, watching the biggest Australian sporting event.

I woke up this morning still not feeling great, but feeling a bit better! Nothing a warm shower couldn’t help fix.

I wasn’t super hungry this morning, after feasting at the barbecue last night. So I made myself some toast and peanut butter and a nice warm tea.

Immy and I then grabbed our laundry and threw it into the wash. We’d thought it’d be smart to split the cost of the washing and drying since it’s $5 AUD per machine… unlike Thailands 50 Baht/Kilo and it’s not even folded for us!

I then took my book into the TV room and settled down for the next two hours reading and waiting for the laundry to finish up.

I think there’s a solid chance I finish this book up tomorrow!

I finished folding my laundry and went to the kitchen for a quick lunch. We were meeting our friends out at a bar 30 minutes away to watch the big Australian Football League (AFL) Grand Finals!

There was leftover potato salad and cooked onions from the barbecue, so I had some of that and heated up the rest of my chicken as well. It was a perfect snack before going out drinking with my friends.

We went to a bar called Rising Sun. This bar is the bar for the team the Sydney Swans. The Sydney Swans used to be a Melbourne team (then changed their name after the move) and played just down the road from this bar.

There was a lot of excitement in the air and the bar was packed with fans all dressed in red and white.

The game kicked off and it went downhill fast…

Sydney was playing the Brisbane Lions and the lions came out hot. In Australian football, there are 4 posts at the end of the field, reminiscent of a field goal in American football. If you kick the ball between the outer two posts, it’s one point. If you kick the ball in the middle it’s 6 points. Otherwise the game is played by aimlessly running around and tackling each other… or at least that’s what it looked like.

To process the ball you can kick it or smack it with your fist. But every 25m you must pass the ball or bounce it. If you kick the ball and it goes a certain distance (I believe 15m) and someone catches the ball, the play is dead and it’s essentially a free play where you can’t be tackled. Otherwise if you have the ball you can be tackled at any time.

Before the game, there was a pre-match performance by… Katy Perry? It was strange to have a non-Australian artist performing. And it was definitely trying to emulate a mini halftime show from the Super Bowl.

Brisbane took a commanding lead very early on and didn’t let up the entire game. In the end the atmosphere at the bar was pretty sullen since Brisbane won 120 to 60…

Apparently, this is common for the Sydney Swans. They play an amazing season, make the grand finals, and then choke on the last game.

But everyone from my hostel had a fun time! There was a solid group of us, maybe like 30-40 people, who all ended up going to this bar to watch and hang out. We also made friends with some locals who chatted with us about the game, Melbourne, jobs, where to travel to, etc. Even with the loss, it was a fun time!

Most of us decided to keep the night going and we hopped on a tram to St. Kilda.

Some of us went to a bar called Ellora, which was a rooftop bar with cheap happy hour drinks. After hanging out here till the end of happy hour, we made our way to everyone else who were at a bar called Hotel Esplanade.

This bar was huge, with lots of places to stand and chat and even a DJ room.

We had a fun night dancing and chatting, but I was starting to get tired and not feel that great. So a small group of us headed back on the earlier side.

When we got back, I whipped up a quick quesadilla for dinner and then called it a night hoping that I’d feel better when I woke up!

– Elie