After the King & I walked around the Federation Square area in
Melbourne we finally got to meet up with fellow ballpark chaser Ken
Liu. Ken arrived in Melbourne a few days earlier after we initially met
him in Sydney at the Light Brigade before game one of the MLB Opening
Series at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Ken lives in Los Angeles & he's
a Dodger fan. He decided sometime in February that he was also going to
go Down Under. We wrote back & forth so we could arrange to meet up
while we were going to be there. I knew he was going to Melbourne too
because he e-mailed me his itinerary. He told me if we had time he
wanted to meet up again there. With that being said, we did indeed. This
time we met him at a pub called Young & Jackson which is known for its good beer. It's a hotel
and pub that was located on the corner of Swanston Street &
Flinders Street. It was right across the street from Flinders Street
station which made it easy to find. It's an iconic building which has
been there since 1861.
 |
| Young & Jackson |
I
got to use WIFI from time to time which allowed me to finalize plans
with Ken so we could meet up there. Ken was at a casino during the day.
He said he was meeting a friend & he asked us if we wanted to join
them. I told him that would be great. We planned to meet there at
4:30PM. We walked around the pub looking for him because I lost my WIFI
connection at that time. The building consisted of three different
floors. The ground floor which had a separate dining room along with a
bar, the second floor had a bar & the rooftop where they had a
cider bar which was the first one in Australia. In other words, this place was massive. It was also mobbed
with people which made it difficult to find Ken. After trying for 20
minutes or so, we finally found him. He was with a lady friend named Nat Kulynycz
who he met in his previous world travels. Nat now lives in Melbourne
but she's originally from Perth which is on the west coast of Australia.
She said she moved there within the last year. She said she likes it
there.
Once
we all got settled in, we decided to sit down at a table in the dining
room so we could eat, drink & talk to each other. The King & I
ordered fish & chips since we were hungry. We didn't get to eat much
during the day. We also tried a few different craft & micro brewed beers that they had
there. Ken & Nat also ordered food to go along with their drinks.
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| Xavier Player, Nat, Ken Liu, the King & I |
When
we were almost done, we got to meet up with a young man who lives there
too. He's another ballpark chaser. His name is Xavier Player. I got in
contact with him once I booked my flights to go Down Under. He told me
lived in Melbourne. I told him I wanted to meet up with him. He said he
had a membership which is a season ticket to the Melbourne Rebels. The
Rebels' are the local Rugby Union team that plays at AAMI Park. I told
him that my friend the King & I plan to go to the rugby match while
we were going to be there. He told me we could meet up by Federation
Square around 6:30PM. The way it turned out he met us at the pub. By
doing so, he got to meet Ken & Nat too.
Stay tuned for a special post that will go into detail about how the rugby match we saw went.
Thank you for reading & following along.
Yours truly,
Gary Herman
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