The Royal Melbourne Show (the Fair)

Turns out they have the fair in Australia too. This weekend we thought we'd check it out, to really get a true feel for the Australian culture. Once again, the similarities were quite remarkable. Here we are on the other side of the planet and it went about like fairs usually go with Nikki and I. We eat good junk food. We walk through the barns because I like checking out the pigs (I took pigs to the fair as a kid) and Nikki complains about the smell. Then we take forever to go through craft/art/girly section and check out the cake decorating (Nikki did this as a kid). Then we walk around the rides and mention how they may be fun, but "how can you spend $18 to ride them things!" Then we remark how incredibly cheap we are. There were a few differences though. First of all, there were the home improvement/gadgets/appliance booths, that we so love to walk through but in addition to those were several brewery and winery booths set up, and they were more than willing to give tastings. Times like that that I appreciate public transport. Probably the biggest difference though is "show bags". Every booth has a show bag or twenty. You know the cheap plastic junk that you can only find at the carny booths. There are endless booths of the showbags set up. You pay like $15 for a bag full of plastic toys. Or $10 for a bag full of candy bars. Or the booths inside will have a showbag with "the amazing Shammy towel" with a super special show bag price!


We both really enjoy the fair, so it was nice to not miss it.