Melbourne Beach Handball Championship!

So after joining a few training sessions on the beach, I got to join the team for the Melbourne Beach Handball Championship (YAY!) that was played on the 17th of December 2011.
December had started out with the temperature around 20 and some rainy days. Not that I complain, I thought the weather had been very pleasant. :)
But the day of the championships the sun was shining and the temperature reached 32°, and as people arrived, the small spots of shade cast by the palm trees were filling up.


The court was set up, and the first two teams up, that happened to be the two South Melbourne Women's teams (one in black, and one in red), started to warm up.
I started out as the super in the black team. As a super, you count as a goalkeeper, and every goal you score is a two-point goal! 

The game started out slowly, with a whole bunch of missed alley-ins, some goals and a two point penalty shot I managed to score,  the first half ended in favour of the red team, 9-7.

We would have to work harder for the second half, and after a motivational talk, I think we were all a bit more pumped! Now Kim took over as super, and I felt a bit of the pressure leaving my shoulders.

After a second half with a solid defence we managed to win 6 to 5! :)

That meant it was a tie, and we went to shoot-off!

I was the second shooter after Nanna, who barely missed her first spin shot. To my huge joy, I finally managed to pull off both the spin AND the shot, that I up until this time only managed to succeed with either one or the other. And after my rather impressive shot in the top right corner (that might have been more luck than aim^^), i had to work hard to stay cool. People cheered a little so I put on a "yeah, I do this every day..."-face as i left to make room for the next shooter, but inside I felt like a kid on Christmas! :)
The score was 3-2 to us, when they had their last shooter stepping up. Was she going to safe it and go for a normal shot to go to golden goal, or would she go for the two-point spin shot they needed to win, but risk missing and handing over the victory to us?
She runs towards the goal, goes for the spin!
Everyone are holding their breathes...
She scores! Leading the red's to victory, but I'm quite certain every player felt happy with their performance, and it was a exciting and fun game to play. :)
Next up was the boys!
South Melbourne in blue vs. Monash Uni in Green.
It's fun watching them play, because they do not save their energy at all. They run like crazy (or like indoor) and running in the sand makes you quite tired.^^ 
In the end Melbourne wanted it more, and won. :)


Next game for me! Melbourne blacks vs. Monash Green!
I had a flow, scoring another penalty, and some goals. :) You could really tell that the girls on the other team played a lot of indoor together, and they kept scoring one one-point goal at the time. But using our beach-techniques, we managed to win both half's,  first one by 3 points, and the second 11-8. ^^
As Melbourne men's team played against Monash (mixed) in purple, I noticed at least 5 big digital cameras which had huge lenses and stuff... and at one point, even a big tv-type camera was filming us while we played this crazy sport on the beach^^
Melbourne won the game. :)


Next game up, women! I was fortunate enough to get to double, so I was now on the our red team for the game against Monash in green, which I had already played against with our black team.Although they seemed to have some different players this time, and there were more of them. 
Since this was the last game of the play-off's, and the two teams were playing in the finals anyway, we decided that this game would be, and count as, THE FINAL! :D

Monash started out strong with 3-4 two point goals by their goalie, which made me a bit nervous to be honest, but  was to regret the doubt when our coach Nanna stepped in with some quick and clever changes to our game-plan, and we managed to win the first half! :D
By this time the sun was at it's peak, and the shade from the palm trees was nowhere to be seem. Our feet were killing us, and the burning sand combined with the seashell-crush made it feel like running on broken glass.
But we pulled through, and managed to secure a win in the second half, that gave us a spot in the National championships in the end of January!


I had an amazing time! And I was told I was welcome to join the team for the Nationals if a were to return to Melbourne after Sydney. ^^

Discovering Melbourne...

The last couple of weeks I have been on the go, which is why I haven't updated anything here.
As I meet more people, I am out and about more, and although its regrettable that I don't have time for updates, I am having the time of my life. so be patient. :)

So, after beginning my stay in Australia with a lot of nature and animal exploration, the last couple of weeks I have been exploring Melbourne.
It started with doing the one hour train ride in to Southern cross Train station (equivalent of Sweden's T-centralen), on Wednesdays for beach handball practise, on Port Melbourne Beach.
But, me being a extremely active person, that wasn't enough, so I found a team to play futsal with in Collingwood on Sundays.
To make the most of my days, I got in to Melbourne early those days, and either met up with people, or went on my own to discover and explore. I saw exhibitions, art galleries with aboriginal art, beaches, alleys, churches, restaurants, bars and a lot, lot more. :)
I even had the great fortune of joining a group of backpackers and locals on a round of Hide and Seek, in Ikea Springvale, the largest IKEA in Victoria. :D
(9th Dec-11)

 It was so funny, because as I was hiding in the showcases, I noticed all the books were in Swedish^^
I also ended up translating the names of furniture, and explain why the candle's named "Tindra" and the bathroom set is called "God morgon". :)

And I can't even explain how funny it was that, as I was looking for hiders, a woman working in the store, asked me if she "could help me find something". ^^ I kindly replied that I didn't think so, and turned the corner before I started laughing^^

And to my great joy, they served Swedish food in the cafeteria! :D
Omg what to choose!?

Yes, ended up getting Swedish meatballs with mashed potatoes, Apple juice, and for dessert, strawberry flavoured candy laces!

Oh the joy! Even got a Swedish flag ^^

This is one of many things that I have been up to in the last few weeks^^ This, along with markets, and other exploration of Melbourne, have been amazing!

The Great Ocean Road 2 Dec -11

Basically, a road along the ocean coast, from Torquay to Warrnambool, with the most amazing views on the way... A kind of place where pictures say more than words ever could... So enjoy!

(Remember, you can click the images to get them bigger ;)

Twelve Apostles

1st Advent!

Today is the first advent, and I am reminded that Christmas is getting closer.

This year, for the first time (ever?) I wont be spending it with MY family, but fortunately, I am getting to know, and have the great fortune of spending this holiday with, an Australian family. :)
And I am looking forward to it!
I hear it's getting colder and colder in Sweden, and in the meantime, the weather here is only getting warmer. :)
I got a picture sent to me of Sergelstorg in Stockholm. :)

Hope everyone is enjoying this magical time! :D
And enjoy any snow you might encounter, everyone aren't blessed with it ;)

Beach Handball 23 Nov -11

The day started off like it wasn't really sure what to bring. I felt a little tired and lazy, and the weather was a bit grey and there was some rain. But as the day went on, it just got better and better.

During the one hour train trip in to Melbourne City Centre the sun came out, the temperature went up and I felt excited! I had been looking forward to this since even before I'd left Sweden! After a short 15 minutes trip on the tram, I finally arrived at Port Melbourne Pier. After a short walk I was at the beach, one hour early. ^^

That hour I spend walking up and down the beach, before I finally saw a group of people putting up the goals. :)
The next 2 hours we ran(getting use to the sand), jumped, passed, practised our 360 spin, kempa's and ended it all with some play. :)
I had a great time, and I met a bunch of new and fun people. :)
With the sun setting, we packed everything up and went back home... Already looking forward to next Wednesday :)

My first trip to central Melbourne 20 Nov -11

 Sunday!
I've been around Geelong, but for the first time in two weeks since I landed at the airport in Melbourne, was I to go back. It was time for the Polish Festival on Federation square!

I had the fortune of meeting up with some people from a travelling community online, but since I was the only one with any connections to Poland, I ended up being the guide and translator/interpreter. This was kind of ironic... anyhow!
I was happy to find that amongst all the stalls, in which they sold everything from amber-jewellery and clothes, to wooden handicrafts and food, they had a beer tent... With Polish beer!

Sarah and I

 They also had a stage where they preformed polish songs and folk dance. :)

I had the most amazing Polish lunch! They served (amongst a lot of other things), bigos and pierogi! For dessert, apple-mint Tymbark, and polish cheesecake (they were all out of makowiec *sadface*)

After the festival I met up with a friend and went to see Melbourne Victory against Perth. Got sneaked in into the supporter area (sv: Klacken) and actually had a really good time ^^ Even though Victory managed to tie with a 2-0 advantage in the first half... 

Me in a Melbourne Victory-shirt, with my Polish-flag paint which I had to remove since apparently red and white are the colours of another Melbourne team. (It would have been like standing with AIK supporters with green/white on my face) ^^

Phillip Island (day 2) 18 Nov -11

With most of the things on my "List" crossed off on the first day on Phillip Island, the second day was more relaxed. :)

After waking up and having breakfast, we left the cabin and headed for a walk on a boardwalk among mangroves. :) 

I saw a heaps of small holes in the mud under the boardwalk, that apparently were made by crabs!

I looked for them for a long time, but couldn't find a single one, until I finally saw one crawling into a hole, and suddenly there was a lot of them! I saw them everywhere! 

So next stop, were the Forrest Caves, eroded by the sea, and only available to see at low tide. :) Included a walk on the beach to get to the caves. You can see them to the far left. :)

And here is one of the caves! They really looked amazing. :)

On to The Nobbies!

I had expected "Australia's larges fur seal colony", but only got a few seals on a distant rock that I barely saw with binoculars, but that was ok, because the surroundings were stunning!

"The Blow hole", a 12 meter deep cave. Waves come in, compressing the air in the end of the cave, then the water sprays out of the cave. Looks like a whale's blow hole, sounds like thunder. :) 

By the Nobbies is also where I saw my first venomous snake! :)
"Oh, it WILL kill you, but it's not THAT poisonous"
Well that made me feel A LOT better ;)

Next stop! Swan lake!
On the way to the lake I saw a sign that said that there was a lot of echidnas around, can you imagine how excited I was!?

So I walked around, looking for anthills and scratching in the ground, that were suppose to indicate that a echidna could be close by.
Unfortunately I did not find anything more than a whole bunch of marks in the ground.. :(
But we did get to swan lake, and I saw my first black swans ever. :)

Last stop, pyramid rock, a short walk, wonderful view: :)

After a long day, we went home in a amazing thunderstorm, and i even managed to get a picture of a lightning with my amazing reflexes ;)