Day 8 - Shopping, the Crown and the Market

Day 8 - Queen Victoria Market
Originally uploaded by photog larry.

wow…really don’t feel like doing any work today!
day 8 brought us back to the city. we ate at a small café that was nothing special. I had a calzone that was pretty good, and Linda had a crappy wrap. so our record for choosing our own restaurants remained pitiful. we did some basic window shopping, and then Linda headed over to D. to go and meet up with her colleague. I headed over to the crown casino, in search of souvenirs and perhaps a quick game.

the crown is pegged as the “largest casino in the southern hemisphere”. I have no basis for refuting this claim, since this is my first time in the southern, but I guess it was pretty big. I walked through the many stores, and whined about the high prices of the decks of cards that I eventually still ended up buying, and then headed down to the poker room, just to see what was up. I did end up sitting down for a few minutes, with no real significant result, but a funnier story was the first pot that I won while sitting. I just took down a fairly decent pot and traditionally, I tip the dealer $1 when I win a pot. unfortunately, the chip denominations that I had in my stack were all $2 chips. So I asked the dealer to break the $2 for me. he gave me a funny look when I asked him, but still ended up doing it. I then flipped him $1 and he then understood why I had asked him for change. he politely laughed and told me they were not allowed to accept tips at the table. This seemed very surprising to me, given that every casino I’ve ever been to thrives on tips from its customers to keep its employees happy. I guess this is consistent with the no tipping policy at restaurants and for service in Australia though. still strange though.

I ended up playing with some South Africans and struck up a short conversation with them. they asked me whether I was Canadian, and I told him yes! I was surprised that they would know that I was Canadian. But then he told me it was a default answer when they talk to anyone with a North American accent. He explained to me that Americans don’t care if you call them Canadian, but Canadians get offended if you call them Americans. Interesting observations. I think it’s true.

After the short trip to the casino, I went back to meet Linda, and we headed to the Melbourne night market. It was a pretty decent market, by market standards. Lots of food kiosks, and some unique souvenirs, as well as the usual littering of crappy gifts. And I’m pretty sure everyone at that market was a tourist, but that’s ok, it was still a good experience.