Wednesday, 01-10-2014. Day 42.

Farm Animals, Fair Food, and Dumb Ways to Die

Today was the last day of the Royal Melbourne Show, which is a lot like a county fair in the U.S., except without deep-fried everything.

So we walked down to the West Footscray train station, invested in a set of myki cards (essential for getting around Melbourne without a vehicle of your own), and rode out to the show grounds.

There was, like any fair, a lot of animals. We saw a wide variety of sheep, chickens, cows, a few goats, and a couple of alpacas — which right now is the kids’ favorite animal. No, we’re not sure why.

The Show (as they call it) is also heavy on the arts & crafts and cooking. There was a whole eggshell category that used just about every type of egg you could imagine (except kiwi eggs, of course) to make some really fantastic work.

And this beer cake was rather impressive. Yes. the whole thing is cake.

In general, there was more food at the Royal Melbourne Show than other fairs we've been to. As mentioned before, with the exception of the Dagwood Dog (and hot jam doughnuts, but come on), there was nothing deep fried.

We did have some burger bagels from the Round the Way food truck (there's a vibrant food truck culture in Melbourne) and some ice cream made from liquid nitrogen from a place called 196 Below.

The most interesting part of the event was the show bag. Every booth sold a bag jammed with goodies, usually a collection of goods relevant to what they were showing off. Because it was the last day of the show, many of these were on sale.

There was even a whole pavilion that sold nothing but show bags, though most of these were full of candy, toys, and other licensed goods (ninjas, Adventure Time, princesses, Hello Kitty, etc. It attracted the most people of any place in the show.

And, like any county fair, there was a wide variety of rides at the Show. We didn't do any of them, mainly because we ran out of time, but also because they were expensive — about $10 per ride!

We caught a train back the Melbourne CBD (Central Business District) in time to meet up with a friend of Samantha's from high school who was living in the Melbourne area with his family.

They treated us to a wonderful meal at Longrain (and we all had to wonder if it’s “long rain” or is it supposed to be “long grain?”).

On the way home, as we hustled through the train station to catch our final train for the day, we spotted some Dumb Ways to Die posters on the walls of the Melbourne metro, much to the delight of the kids.

Notable Statistics

• Trains ridden: 5

• Dumb Ways to Die Posters encountered: 3

• Show bags purchased: 0

• Tea towels purchased: 1

Header image: The Ferris wheel, that midway staple, at the Royal Melbourne Show.