Hopetoun Football Finals

In my second week in Australia, we visited the kids' great-grandfather in the small town of Hopetoun, about 3.5 hours away from Ballarat. The small town has approximately 500 inhabitants and is very rural. It's far away from city life and therefore really relaxing, especially at Lake Coorog where there are also small cottages and campsites. We stayed there for two nights during the week and 'Pa' (great-grandfather) was very happy about our visit :)

In and around Hopetoun, you can find many silos, all about 30 meters high. These are professionally painted by the 'Silo Art Trail' project (https://www.facebook.com/pg/siloarttrail/photos/?ref=page_internal), beautifying the area and being a popular tourist attraction. There are currently six creatively designed silos, including one by Guido van Helten. He is an Australian artist famous for his murals that really look like photos, as if they were taken with a camera. His art is inspired by 'a deep curiosity about what’s at the heart of people and place'. I was very impressed by the images on the silos, as they really touch you when you stand in front of them and let them have an impact on you. You can see the people's emotions in the pictures, as their facial expressions are very well drawn. They are people who come from the area and are well known there, for example, farmers. I think that creates an incredibly great community for the people who live there.

I spent my weekend with the other German au pairs in Melbourne again, where a huge event awaited us: The football finals! It was the first time in 37 years that the Tigers (the team from Richmond, the area where we live) made it to the finals! We watched the game at the Public Viewing at Federation Square with many other fans, lucky enough to have great weather outdoors. It was a great experience for us to be part of the atmosphere there, even though it would have been much more enthusiastic, for example, during the World Cup final in Germany! :)

Anyway, the Tigers won by a big margin, scoring twice as many points as the Adelaide Crows, and we were there to witness it. After the game, the real highlight of the evening awaited us: Melbourne Cricket Ground, one of the most important stadiums there. The reason why we went there after the game was the live performance of the Killers at the free concert! :) The gates were really crowded, but eventually the doors opened for us too and we were able to experience the Killers in the impressive stadium among all the happy fans. After the concert, all the players of the Tigers team came on stage again and were celebrated with their anthem and fireworks! After a pizza for everyone at 'Dominos', I also went to bed :)