Our First AFL Game

Happy Monday! 

On Friday night Tj and I did something pretty cool - we went to our first AFL game! The AFL is the Australian Football League. Please don't ask me to explain it, but just know that most of the Australians I have met are super into it. Everyone always asks me if I've picked a team yet.

Watching it kind of seemed like a mix of soccer and rugby, maybe a little bit of basketball mixed in, but a lot more aggressive lol. The field is huge and you can tell the players are incredible athletes - they do so much running! We were lucky to have people there who could explain it to us, but I still had no clue what was going on most of the time.

We went to see Collingwood play against the Western Bulldogs at the Etihad Stadium in Melbourne. It was packed. I had been warned that fans were intense but actually that was one of the most entertaining parts. In our section there were so many hecklers! Oh boy. They were very creative with their yelling. And there was almost a fight between some fans (there was definitely some shoving and getting in each others faces). One guy even got kicked out lol. We were with some people who have been to many games before and they said that they've never seen that, so I guess it's not typical haha. 

The game has four quarters. At the half-time, a bunch of little kids came out and played some mini games. They were so cute!

One thing we found a bit lacking was the production. There were no announcers, so music playing, and they had a big screen, but the score was so tiny I could hardly read it. It was interesting to me that they don't have any commercial breaks - the game just keeps going. The group we were with was outraged at the suggestion that they would stop the game for a tv break.

I had an order of french fries and a hot chocolate, both were pretty affordable. Tj said it was about 10$ for a small beer which is a little expensive. Our tickets were only 25$ and apparently a child's ticket is like 3$! No wonder it's so popular, it's so affordable for families.

We left when there was just under 10 minutes left to avoid the crowd on the train. It was a great night and something we definitely enjoyed! It will be fun to take guests to see a game, but I don't know if we will get into the sport.

The rest of the weekend was pretty quiet. I have a bit of a head cold so I was a little cranky. Saturday we had a really nice day though, even if I was feeling a little lazy. We went to the CBD for lunch. I was craving Asian noodles and he found the perfect place that wasn't too far from the station and was really good. Then we did a bit of shopping, stopped at a café, did a bit more shopping and then went home for a nap. Later we went and saw the movie Deadpool 2. I didn't remember much of the first movie, but I really liked it. Of course I fell asleep for the big fight scene, but I woke up to see the end of the movie so it wasn't a complete waste lol. Movie tickets are a little expensive here (25$ each) but  the seats are like armchairs and super comfortable (and we weren't even seeing a VIP movie). 

I hope you had a good weekend :)