Melbourne - Community day at Grand Prix

WRUMM! WRUMM!

That’s the all-day dominating sound of the Formula 1 Grand Prix at Albert Park in Melbourne and I was part of it on the Community Day which is absolutely FREE! I arrived there at about 1pm and walked along the track which is set around the lake which I hardly recognized (Markus and I have been to Albert Park two months ago).

It was all about cars all day, speed, excitement and having a great day around the track. V8 and Porsche where doing practice sessions. It was very loud and every time when you heard something coming you looked up and took your camera out. I borrowed the camera of Tim who I am staying with.

There was lots of entertainment going on around the track. I love these huge hash-tags (see here for the Australian Open hash-tag) and air-shows.

Lots of merchandising of course. You could literally buy anything with a F1 / Grand Prix print or the print of a specific team on it. Michael Schumacher articles were very popular as well…

Car-driving and cars, cars and more cars all around. It was fabulous and I wish Markus was with me to explain interesting things about one or the other car. I did not know what to look for and if there was something really special amongst them.

Unfortunately I was way too late to line up for a signature. Well, these guys didn’t care about this sign and waited in the sun anyway.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is Sebastian Vettel’s car!!! Respect please, I only stood a meter away from it. WOW!

 And more cars everywhere! You could walk behind the pit lane and see V8, Porsche's and all the tyres and historic cars and more cars...

In the action zone there were bikers and cyclist doing stunts on ramps and within this cage (sorry the camera is not fast enough to catch a good picture at this speed). At one point there have been three motorcyclist in there and I was really scared that they would crash into each other. Absolutely amazing stunts!

Pit stop challenges, simulators to test your speed and reaction, educational centers and lots of more things to do and see.

To get from the start-finish-line to the other half of the track you can walk over the lake where you have a great view onto the city skyline with black swans in the foreground. It was a perfect day out.

There I walked around the kids zone which was themed as Disney’s animated movie ‘Cars’. It was fantastic.

And at 6pm there was finally one Formula One car on the track making lots of noise and overtaking the V8 and Mercedes AMG in the Ultimate Speed Comparison without a single problem.

After that I got on the way back to Footscray where I spent the evening with Tim and his flatmate Joon (a Korean). It was a very chatty and distracting evening.

Now I can tell you why I went to the track so late. Because of my broken camera I went first into the CBD into a big camera shop which also includes a camera museum. If anyone could repair the camera it would be them. I thought the camera needs to be opened and cleaned up and put back together for 50 AUD, maybe 100 AUD max. Can you imagine how shocked I was when they told me that it is very difficult and time-consuming to dismantle compact cameras and that it would probably cost 300 AUD and several weeks to do it? I was near tears when I heard that. So I asked for a new camera but they do not have this model anymore but the next new one but that costs 580 AUD!!! I went out of this shop, wandered around without knowing where I was heading, sat down and tried to collect my thoughts. After a while I walked again and past JB Hi-Fi which is kind of a discount electronic shop, like Media Markt. There I asked them about the camera and they also only had the new model for 550 AUD. And then I cried in the shop. Honestly, it was too much for me not finding a job, not knowing what to do next, being alone and then this great camera which documents my journey in a fantastic way breaks because of a bit of sand. But the shop guy was amazing. He ran away to get me some tissues and asked me what is going on and then told me how he as a 19-year-old had a one-way ticket to America and only 200 $ with him. He cried as well and panicked but he also explained there is an Australian No-Worries-mentality for a reason! However bad it is and however crazy everything seems it will somehow work out in some way. Well, in such a dry and life-threatening country like Australia with all its dangerous animals and climates everywhere you have to have this attitude, right?

I calmed down eventually with him making jokes all the way to cheer me up. He was great and I so appreciated it. He gave me a pack of tissues and also his office number in case I needed someone to talk to. So I walked around the CBD, got some lunch and a nice big donut before I headed to the Grand Prix track, leaving the camera issue for later.

This is a very heavy experience for me to deal with. Thanks to my former travels especially in Europe I know that I will learn some valuable lessons from this for my future life and I will get more relaxed about things eventually. Despite the sadness and the pessimistic thoughts that I have from time to time I know that this is an important part of my journey. Probably even more important than scuba-diving or seeing the Uluru if you understand where I am heading with this. I don’t know exactly how to put this into (a few) words but please don’t worry about me too much as I will definitely make it through this phase in some way and I know the Grand Prix will be part of it ;-)

Yours sad-and-happy-Grand-Prix-track-experiencing Stefanie