ANZAC Day

Anzac day was March 25th and it started very early in the morning. A bunch of us got up at 4:00 am and headed to Torquay for the dawn service overlooking the ocean. Structurally it was quite similar to memorial services at home. The flags were different as were the uniforms and battle references, but the mentality was the same. Then around 9:00 we took the train to Melbourne to watch the marches (parades) and attend the Anzac day game, the 2nd biggest game of the year, after the grand final. I'm just going to add some pictures from the day to give an idea of what it was like.


Service men and women at the dawn service wearing their distinctive hats.



Sunrise over the ocean



Honoring ANZACs in Melbourne


Playing footy at Ben's family's tailgate before the Collingwood/Essedon game. Tyson is Ben's younger brother and he is a blast. I'd bring him home if I could, but I think there's some sort of import restriction on 14 yr olds.



The guys playing footy


Inside the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) for the pregame festivities. It is an enormous stadium. Holds about 100,000 people and it was a sold out game.


The Game - Collingwood is in Black and White, Essedon is Black and Red.


Falling asleep for a few minutes right in the middle of it all. (Remember I did get up at 4 am)


Since Essendon lost, Adam had to wear a Collingwood jersey and sing their song.


By the time the game got over it was quite late. This is one last shot of Melbourne as we were heading for the train station to get back to Geelong.