Michael Shelby's blog

Prague - Third Full Day

Terazin tour

Walking to petrin hill saw this

Show pics from bridge looking at castle

Petrin hill again, chill on hill overlooking castle

Show pics of castle from hill here

Then back down hill to castle and then across bridge

Show view of Charles bridge from other side

Into old town square to grab a kielbasa

 Show pics from square of Tyn chapel and market

 Then home for a bit then back out to eat and have a beer. 

Prague - Day two

Got up a little earlier and fueled up at my included breakfast buffet. This is one thing the Czechs can't mess up.  Eggs and bacon!

Yesterday was the old town, today i went across the river via the Charles bridge and hit the little quarter and castle quarter.  Had to walk up steep streets to get to the castle square. This castle is apparently the biggest in the world. 

St vitus cathedral - one of my fave churches in the world. Top notch Old royal palace Basilica of st George Golden lane Lobkowicz plaza - interesting art collection and Mozart notes from a couple of his symphonies.  Very cool.

Sat next to kampa island and watched a bunch of geese and ducks gather around bread throwing peeps.

Put pic of bridge from bench here

There is a replica of the Eiffel tower high above the city called the Petrin tower.  It's only 200 feet tall but bc it is high on this hill it matches the height of the eiffel tower, which was built only two years before this one.  I can attest to the height of the hill. I walked up the hill and it was quite steep.  But that kept me warm on a cold day.  At the top there were kids and families going up this tower and into a hall of funny mirrors.  In an effort not to seem creepy by hanging around a bunch if kids that aren't mine, I wandered down a path along a high wall at the top, of this hill down to the Strahov Monastery.  Pretty cool spot for some priests overlooking the city. I ducked into the monastery which was pretty much blocked off and dark. It could be cool if I was able to get close and it was well lit.  So I exited and hooked a left up into the library. Two huge rooms full of books that are like 200 years old. Floor to ceiling, 30 feet high. And other random artifacts. Including A NARWHAL HORN!   Sweet.

This was a small area so was done and back into the courtyard pretty quickly.  It was about 445 by this time so I went down to the little restaurant that was just feet from the monastery to try.....beer!  Brewed on site.  A delicious ipa, consumed sitting outside with a blanket in my lap. Every booth had 4 blankets there for you to use.

Post beer I started to head down the hill but enjoyed the view for a while

Put pics of view from monastery and back up to monastery

On the walk down I spotted a bar that looked cool -- small, crowded, and a spot at the bar.  After having a 0.5L beer for $2.50 I kept walking, this time headed to a bar recommended by my buddy Rob - cafe konvikt. Problem - it was raining.  So I walked like 20-30 minutes in the rain, hitting blocked roads and dead ends. So annoying.  Finally made it and ordered another $2.50 beer for a half liter of Pilsepner Urquell. What a deal!  Grubbed on some pork knee, which had a lot of bone and fat, and headed out.  The aloof bartenders didn't make me want to stay.  Dear bartenders of Prague - show some interest in your patrons. Say hi. Ask how they are doing.  Shoot, smile. 

With a full belly I made the long walk back to my hotel and stayed in for the night.  Figured it my plan for tomorrow and considered where i should stay then wrote my blog for today and yesterday.

Now its time for bed.  Going to the concentration camp tomorrow.  Fun!

Prague - first full day

My first full day in Prague was spent in the old town.  I had heard the best part of prague was the Jewish quarter so that was my first destination.

Klaus synagogue

Pinks synagogue

Jewish cemetery - looks like a pile of rubble bc Jewish bones aren't supposed to ever be moved and this was the only place where Jews were allowed to be buried by the city Ceremonial hall - small, pics of how burials work Maisel synagogue Spanish synagogue

Not too crazy about this section.  The sites were all kind of boring. 

Wandered the riverfront then went north to the st agnes convent where the museum of medieval art.  There was no one there but it was a really cool museum. 

By this time it was getting dark and raining so I walked 30 mins back to my hotel, changed my wet jeans and went back out for dinner and beer. I went to a place recommended by Rick Steves.  They brew their own beer and have some original Czech cuisine. I ordered what the menu said was the #1 Czech original favorite.  Here it is

Put pic of pork dish here

Pork in brown gravy.  Sauerkraut. Dumplings which is really just undercooked French bread.  This is why you don't see many Czech restaurants in your town.   They offered three beers - light, dark, and mixed. I got a mixed beer which was light on bottom and dark on top in the same glass.  It was ok. 

After dinner I wanted to hit an Irish pub suggested by Rick Steve's - the Molly Malone irish pub. The 25 minute walk thru the old town square in a drizzle got me to the bar ready to get out of the rain. Sat down at the bar and had a Guinness and watched my tottenham hotspur win.  But not a great scene. Smoking weirdo couples on both sides of me and two unfriendly bartenders.  After two beers there I walked the long walk back to my hotel to get ready for another long day of sightseeing. 

I didn't hit the bridge today  but I have a few days to do so.

Christmas Day - When Europe Shuts Down

Going to Prague

I woke up around 8 and hit the streets after a little Christmas breakfast at the Ibis hotel.  There were surprisingly 2 other tables in there.  A 40 year old lady by herself and a pair of grandparents and their grandson.  Wonder why those people, were not celebrating w family.  Losers!

I knew noting was going to be open so I did what I did the day before - went to the castle, weaves through the shut down Christmas market, and decided to walk up and down the river.  saw a few sites I hadn't seen before but I did. See something I didn't expect -- an open Starbucks!  I would have gone in but I don't drink coffee so I kept on rambling.

The train for Prague leaves at 41 past the hour every hour so I got to my hotel to check out at 11 and headed for the train station. Picked up some Mickey d's then to buy my ticket. Prague, 2nd class, departing at 1141.  Got the printout and noticed something - the ticket didn't list a platform number to catch my train. It said BUS.  Derrr.  What?  No clue where to catch a bus and I have less than 5 mins till the scheduled departure. I hit the DB information desk and the lady pointed me outside to the only bus waiting outside -- a DB bus headed nonstop to Prague.  So knew?  S here I sit on the 3.5 hr buried to Prague.  No traffic.  Double decker bus.  14 seats in 2nd class with 5 of us on the bus.  1st class, upstairs is much more full. 

 What have i noticed on the bus?  Solar panels everywhere.  On farm houses.  On hillsides.  I don't know what they use, whenever I am in Europe it is always cloudy.  But they do harness something I see a lot - wind mills -- scattered on hill tops.  Big ones. Spinning.  They spinning homey, they spinning!

 Nothing it open countryside from the time we left nuremberg well into the czech republic.  Smal town spotted thruout the trip.  What do these people do?  Farm?  I don't get it. 

 After getting to the train station I was out on the street within like 2 minutes.  Again, I love the train system here.  A little pricey but you can get to your train or bus 5 mins before departure and then be out of the station within minutes.  Instead of 1.5-2 hrs at airports in the US.  I was staying about a mile from the train station so I used my iPhone to direct me.  Crossing street after street with no stop light or stop sign. I think the only intersections with lights are those that are crossed by street cars.  But it all operates very smoothly, even with all the pedestrians crossing as well.

 Got to my hotel and checked in, and by that time it was dark.   It was only a little after 4 but the sun sets at 4.  And most of the sites close around 4 or 5 so my plan was to just wander the city and plan out my stops for the next day. I just wandered without a plan north through some of the streets and then without warning came upon the old town square.  It was quite a sight. A huge astronomical clock. Christmas market with a giant Christmas tree and a singer performing on a stage.  Then the huge Tyn Church looking quite old with its layer of black something on the towers.  And people everywhere.  The busiest Christmas market I have ever seen.  Roasted chestnuts.  Sausages grilling everywhere.  And Trdelkin.  So delicious -- just baked dough that's rolled in sugar and walnuts.   I had three in two days.  But I wandered through the market and the surrounding neighborhood several times before settling in for one of those grilled sausages w mustard.  So good.  Street meat, does it get any better than that?

 So not too much else to talk about here.  It started raining, it was cold, and. Or much was open so I went back to my hotel room to plan the next day and watch the one channel in English - sky sports news.  Oy. The same crappy news every hour. 

 So then I went to sleep!

Christmas 2012 - Day 1 Nuremberg

My flight out ofAtlanta was delayed a bit by mechanical problems but after about an hour delay we pushed back and took off. I watched Ted then laid down to sleep. Despite constant turbulence I think i got 3-4 hours of sleep before breakfast was served at 6am Nuremberg time.  After landing it was pretty quick to get my bag and head to the train station.  I had to catch a bus from the terminal where landed  to the train station but that wasn't too hard.  I recognized the escalator ride up fromthe street tothe train station from when I rode into the airport to go home last year.  Walking thru the station made me realize that, despite trying to learn German during the last year, I am pretty clueless in the useful terms needed to get around a train station. The ads around the station were stillgibberish to me.  Disheartening.  I bought a cinnamon roll to carry me thru the two hour ride and went down to my train platform to catch the train. 

And here's the sign for my train at 9:37am on Dec 24

15 mins later I was on board, in my reserved seat, and off for Nuremberg.  A 2.25 hr train ride w only three stops.  So efficient. I got off the train and figured everyone would want to see what i saw when i got off the train so i figured i would take a picture:

The hotel in Nuremberg was really close to the train station.  Only 2 blocks.  On my walk to the hotel i had to cross thru the wall that used to surround the city.  The portion of the city that is inside the remains of the city wall is calked the old town, the portion outside the wall is called, surprisingly, the new town.  A good bit of it still remains but the part i walked to get to the hotel was open but there was a cool turret or watchtower on the corner where i had to walk thru. 

I got to the hotel a little after noon.  Three hours before check in.  So I dropped off my bags at the front desk along with 20 other bags and wandered the city.  I wanted to hit three sights on my visit - the Nazi party rally grounds, the history museum, and the castle.   Luckily everything was closed for Christmas eve so everything I visited had to be seen from the outside.  

The first thing you notice about Nuremberg, other than the myriad churches, is the castle at the highest point of the town -- kaiser???   Most of the other sites in the town were on a straight line walk from the hotel to the castle so this was my route to see the castle.  

It was a warm day, probably upper 40s.  Thank goodness, I do not do well in the cold. But even at noon the sun was very low in the sky.   Everywhere I have been in Europe over Xmas has had this issue -- it is so far north that it always seems like the sun is about to set.  I need to get over here in July. 

So I walk down the main drag through old town and immediately hit the Christkindelsmarkt (Christmas market).  I have seen Christmas markets in other parts of Europe but this one is supposedly one of the best.  There are different markets in different platz (plazas) around the town with the names in lights above each area.  Theres even a kids christmas market (kindelchirstmasmarkt).  And the town seemed into it - at noon there were huge crowds of people huddled around wooden shacks or outside of shops drinking muehlwein(?) from little ceramic mugs.  It's a euro specialty - warm red wine with fruit?  Whatever it is, people like drinking it at noon on a Monday.  So people are standing around drinking this wine, or munching on some bratwurst, 4 to a person, about the size of your pinky and inside a little French bread type roll.  The stands that weren't selling brats or hot wine were selling all kinds of little nick nacks - snow globes, trains, wooden doo hickeys, toys, etc. seemed like the whole town was out there.  this is a little out of order but I was back wandering around the stands later in the day I noticed they were starting to break down certain booths.  I was starving by this time so I stopped at the nearest brat stand.  People are throwing down money and pulling sandwiches off the shelf in front of the grill.  I step up and ask for one.  And hand the lady an Australian coin to pay. This does not go over well. By the time I find a euro and pay there is one sandwich left.  I take that sandwich and within seconds the window to the booth gets slammed shut. I got the last one!  And thank goodness because it was 215 and the town was proceeding to shut down. Within 20 mins the whole old town was a ghost town and I would have had few choices of where to eat.  Tumbleweeds.  Loco. 

These squares where the Christmas markets were set up are some of the famous places in town. Churches. Old fountains. 

Past this first Christmas market was a bridge that over the Pegnitz river.  To the right was a cool bldg over part of the river that was or is a mental hospital. Sweet!

I passed by the next Christmas market, moving super slow because it was freakin packed.  I made my way through the crowd and trudged my way up the cobblestone streets up to the Kaiserburg castle.  It's pretty impressive -- high on a hill, several towers, definitely old school.   Built in days of yore, 15th century.  There were a couple of spots to stand along a wall and look down and the city. And I did 

This is what I looked like while looking down at the city w a crooked bill on my hat

I was getting closer to the 3pm check in and I really wanted to get in and get showered. But it was only about 2 so I wandered around the back side of the castle. Here it is:

It's hard to see but down below me along the walking path are little shacks dressed up like houses. no clue what goes on down there.  Do people live there during the summer?  Confused!

I then walked down below the castle but not the same way i came up. I followed the wall of the city around to the west, here's what the wall looked like along with a tower on it

I wandered the city streets some more to kill time. To the river.   To a church. To another church.  More churches on my left. On  my right.   Seemingly all around you.  By the museum that was closed.  I finally made it to 3and checked in.  Cleaned up, went thru some emails and hit the street again by prob 4. By this time I guess it was time to go to church bc the town was awash in bells aringing.   And people everywhere, this time instead of drinking hot wine they are hurriedly dunking into he numerous churches around old town. I didn't go in one bc a guy was working the door, I assume to keep gringos out. 

I went back to the castle to check out the city after sunset, which happens at 420.  After an 820 sunrise.  8 hrs of sunshine.  Shoot me.   On my walk I saw this famous resident of the Christkindelsmarkt - Rauschgoldengel.   Legend has it that this golden angel, the Christtkind, gives kids presents at Christmas.  She must help Santa.  She is also very creepy, her she is chasing me down the back alleys of NurnbergL

Did some more wandering around but was starving again so I went to the one place where the lady from the front desk said would be serving food - the train station!  But she was wrong.  Nothing was open. So I went back to the area around the hotel to on of the kebab places.  There were several of these near the hotel and they were all open.  I got some noodles with doner meat (looked like chicken but was on a spit like you get gyro meat) and ate it in my hotel room. Nowhere to sit at this place, it was just open to the street. Classy!

After eating I watched some of the only channel in English -BBC World.  Terrible.  Same stories over and over.  Have something new!  So after muting that, watching some "usual suspects" on my computer, surfing the net, and emailing people, I crashed at 1030.  Couldn't even make it to midnight on Christmas eve. I was dozing off at 9. Oh well. Last year I was at notre dame when it turned Xmas, this year I was asleep in Nuremberg.  

See you tomorrow Nurenberg and Prague!

European Vacation 2011

European Vacation 2011 blog is complete, see below near bottom of first page, after the Aussie Open items.  For the pictures shown below and many more, visit my picture website - European Vacation 2011 link

2012 Australian Open - Day 5

Last day in Australia, it’s gone by so quickly.  I was back out along the river doing my daily run then back to the hotel for shower, breakfast, a little work on the computer, then off to tennis.  The day wasn’t too great, overcast and kind of cool.  The weather here is so weird.  It was 95+ on Wednesday and then just 70 or so on Friday.  This kind of huge swings in temperature doesn’t happen in Atlanta.  We go from upper 80s to 100 once summer hits, we never see a high of 70 here in July or August.  Here's me in front of Rod Laver Arena where I sat for 5 days straight.

So here is who I saw:

Rafael Nadal v Lukas Lacko – Lacko is a qualifier who beat some good people on the way to the third round, including the American Donald Young.  And Nadal has a lot of major titles.  Lacko looked good for the first few games but then Nadal took over and beat him up in less than two hours. 

Roger Federer v Ivo Karlovic – Karlovic is the tallest guy on tour at 6’10”.  That means he had a really good serve, but he didn’t have much else.  Bad backhand, bad forehand.  At the end of the first set Ivo had a set point and hit a really nice drop shot right in front of the net.  Roger ran up and flipped it straight up in the air, heading over Ivos’ head.  Ivo threw his racket up and it grazed the top of the racket but landed behind him.  Somehow Roger had gotten it over this huge dude on set point and came back to win that game and the set.  He then went on to win the match in three sets with Ivo hitting lots winners on his serve along with lots of bad ground strokes.

Alexandr Dogolpolov v Bernard Tomic – This was the match of the day.  People are going crazy for this 19 year old Tomic and the stands were packed.  Alexandr is the 13^th ranked guy at the tourney and Tomic is unranked.  Alexandr plays a crazy game – runs around, hits every shot hard, his serve is a quick toss and hit, and it seems like he is always trying to hit a winner.  This should be an interesting match with Tomic’s painfully boring strategy of hitting soft, low slices to the opponents backhand.  I call watching his tennis the worst thing since unsliced bread.  I want to poke my eyes out when I see him get in a long rally.  So the match starts and Tomic was doing his boring kiddie slices and AD was trying to hit winners off these dinks and dunks.  AD won the first set but then it was really evenly matched the next two sets with Tomic winning the next two in tiebreakers.  AD picked up his game in the fourth set and won it 6-2.  Tomic picked up his game in the fifth and won it with a break in the 8^th game.  The crowd went nuts and he was on to the next round to play Federer on Sunday night.  Craziness will ensue.

Anabel Medina Garrigues v Li Na – Since we had to leave the next day and had to get up at 4am we skipped this last match.  And it was good we got out of there.  AMG twisted her ankle in the 5^th game and couldn’t go on.  Match day 5 over. 

And that was it for Australia.  I went to sleep, got up at 415am and headed to the airport.  Got home 33 hours after I left the airport.  See you next time, land that has summer in January!

2012 Australian Open - Day 4

Morning - 4.5 mile run down the Yarra, breakfast with no celebreties nearby, and on to tennis.  We hoped to have a better set of tennis today after yesterdays string of blowouts.  I understand blowouts in the first round but if you make it to the second round I assume you should be good.  I shouldn't assume. 

Maria Sharapova v Jamie Hampton - Hampton is American, our future in tennis.  And if that is true we are in trouble.  Maria lost one game, her second straight 6-0, 6-1 victory.  Hampton was slow, didn't have any winners, and Maria killed her.  Maria did look good in her new Nike dress and she grunted every time she hit the ball.  Zzzzzz.  But here's what the match looked like!

Serena Willams v Barbora Zahlavova Strycova  - Serena is a giant, she could kick my ass.  And she did that to Barbora in the first set.  Then somehow Barbora got some winners in the second set while Serena was hitting balls all over the court.  She even had trouble serving on one side of the court because of the sun and was resigned to tossing the ball really low and hitting slice serves every time.  But quality shines through I guess and she made enough shots to win. 

Beer Break!  As I have tended to do this week, I left before the end of this match to grab a beer and spend some time out in the sun.  It was so beautiful this week and sitting in the tennis center in our covered seats didn't give me a great feel for the summertime weather.  I walked out of the arena, grabbed a beer at the Corporate snack booth (no wait!  unlike every other vending station on the grounds) and headed out to Court 13.  On the way I walked thru the lawn where they have a big screen tv, a fountain you can cool off in and tables everywhere.  Here's me and that lawn:

Court 13 is on the backside of the gounds with small crowds and a nice court with a good view of the sun and the city.  I stood there for ~30 minutes watching a doubles match with every guy's favorite Juliana Goerges, felt a little sunburn coming on and headed back inside. 

Novak Djokovic v Santiago Giraldo - I was still on my beer break for the first five games of this set but they were a competitive five games.  Then I got there and Novak made the right adjustments to only lose 6 games the rest of the set.  Giraldo could go toe to toe for a bit but as is common among the lower ranked players he was forced into errors or into hitting shots that Novak turned into winners. 

Marion Bartoli v Jelena Dokic - Dokic is a strange case.  She was born in Yugoslavia but moved to Australia to escape the civil war and started on the pro tour in 1998 as Australian.  Then in 2001 switched to Yugoslavian then when her life kind of fell apart she went back to being Australian again.  And she appears to be very angry all the time, she has a sour looking face.  We saw her here in 2009 when she made it to the quarterfinals but she was not very impressive then and was still not now.  Bartoli was consistent and could run balls down.  Dokic sprays the ball all over the place and gets down on herself at every oppotunity.  6-3, 6-2 and we were out of Australian women in the 2012 Open. 

Lleyton Hewitt v Andy Roddick - the last match of the night was between two old warriors.  That are past their prime.  Hewitt is annoying to watch - he plays to the crowd, says "C'Mon!!!" all the time when he wins a point and looks at his coaches box after every point.  Roddick is a tool but he doesn't make you hate him during points.  I like watching Andy play, hard serve, whipping forehand, and he's American.  The first set was pretty good, back and forth with good serves by Andy, Lleyton returning everything with a few errors into the net, but Andy broke him and won the first set 6-3.  Then early in the second Andy had to switch directions and appeared to hurt something.  I thought it was an ankle, turns out it was his hamstring.  That happens when you get old.  For the next two sets Andy was pretty hobbled, Lleyon was moving him around the court, and Andy was slapping at balls with no power to avoid tweaking his hamstring.  One good thing - Lleyton knew he was hurt so he completely stopped celebrating after points, including no more "C'mon!"s.  But after Lleyton won sets 2 and 3 Andy realized he couldn't go on and conceded.  Match over, only one more American left - John Isner. 

Walked back to the hotel and watched some replays of matches from earlier in the day and then went to sleep.  Only one day left to go.  Noooooooooo.

 

2012 Australian Open - Day 3

Today started off similar to the others -- up at 6:45, breakfast in the hotel, work until about 10:15, then head to tennis by 10:30.  But one thing was different about today -- this guy ate breakfast right next to me!

John Cleese is performing all around Australia the first three months of 2012 and was in Melbourne for some shows this week.  I am glad I didn't ask him to take a picture with me (which I wanted to do) because he was on tv later that day saying he hated it when people asked to get their picture taken with him. 

What matches did I see today?

Na Li v Olivia Rogowska - Na was a finalist here last year and won the French Open.  She is a hard hitter and moves around pretty well, two things Olivia did not do.  In under an hour Na won 6-2, 6-2 and it was on to the next match. 

Kim Clijsters v Stephanie Foretz Gacon - did you know Clijsters used to be engaged to Lleyton Hewitt and they still love her and call her Aussie Kim?  It's true.  And in the time you read that Kim won her match 6-0, 6-1.  The first two matches took around two hours to play.  Unless Rafa plays for five hours this day is going to be over way early. 

Rafael Nadal v Tommy Haas - Haas is about 50 years old, a wily veteran.  He played Rafa pretty well after falling behind 4-0 in the first set.  He almost pushed him to 5-5 but Nadal won 6-4 then won a hard fought next two sets to win in three.  Here's Rafa playing tennis!

It was nice to get one competitive match today after two stinkers.  With these three matches over we headed back to the hotel but had plenty of time to kill before heading back for the night session. 

Beer Break!  It was a beautiful day, sunny, no clouds, so I stopped at a bar on the river and had a brew.  It was nice and hot, the beer was cold, and there were lots of people to look at as they walked by.  Here is the view from my seat at the restaurant. 

Behind my beer is the Yarra River and downtown Melbourne.

Beer done, I headed back to the room to shower and change and headed back for the night session. 

Bernard Tomic v Sam Querrey - Tomic is an Aussie, Sam is an American.  I hate Tomic, he plays a boring game of rope-a-dope and is kind of a butt dart.  He has been good since he was really little so is really cocky.  Anywho, Querrey started off hot, hitting lots of aces and winner and won the first set.  Then Bernard changed tactics and Sam started missing his first serves and making a lot of errors.  The crowd was going crazy as Tomic chipped away winning sets and finally won.  Ugh, I am glad we are leaving and only have to watch him one more time on Friday night.

Victoria Azarenka v Casey Dellacqua - Azarenka is the #3 ranked player in the world.  Dellacqua is #181.  She won a few tournaments in 2011, winning five matches in doing so.  How much did she win for those victories?  $2,980.  For making it to the second round here she got $30,000.  What a tough life it is scuffling around on those low circuits making no money and hoping to get back on the main tour.  Know how much Djokovic made in 2011?  $12 million.  So Casey is really short and doesn't hit very hard and is bad on the run and makes a lot of errors.  This one was tough to watch.  Casey had no chance and only won one game off of Victoria.  The crowd cheered her on and when she left the court but she left, ready to go back to small Australian towns and small tournaments to beat small players for small purses. 

That was it for day 3.  Two competitive matches, three uncompetitive ones.  We walked back to the hotel and went to sleep, hoping for a better day 4. 

2012 Australian Open - Day 2

Guess how I started my morning?  With a run down the Yarra and breakfast at the hotel.  Then it was down the Yarra for the one mile walk to the tennis center.  You could tell it was going to be a hot one today, we were sweating like crazy on the walk over.  It ended up close to 100 degrees but the breeze made it not feel like a 100 degree day in Atlanta. 

Who did I see today?

Petra Kvitova v Vera Dushevina - Kvitova is the two seed and had little trouble in this match.   She won Wimbledon last year(?) and looks like she could overtake Wozniacki for the one seed this year.  She is powerful, can chase balls down, and has an arsenal of winners she can hit.  Which most women don't have.  The women's game consists mostly of girls who can get the ball back to the other side of the net.  This will win matches when you play girls that make errors but if your opponent can return the ball and hit winners, you are in trouble. 

Novak Djokovic v Paolo Lorenzi - Competitive start to this match ended with Djokovic winning the last 15 or so games to win 2, 0, and 0.  Kind of like what happens when I beat my brother on the court. 

Sorana Cirstea v Samantha Stosur - Stosur won the last major of 2011, the US Open, and is from Australia.  A crowd favorite, a hope to win the Aussie Open by a native.  And she played terribly.  Sam is built like a brick hithouse with muscles that would make Albert Pujols proud.  But she made ~300 unforced errors and Cirstea was hitting winners all over the court.  Sam lost in straight sets and the crowd was deflated. 

Lleyton Hewitt v Cedric-Marcel Stebe - Hewitt has played every one of his singles matches on Rod Laver Arena for years and it was no different this year despite being ranked #181 in the world.   Stebe put up a good fight and had a chance to take it to the fifth set when he got to 5-2 but he froze up and couldn't put Lleyton away.  And Lleyton put on his normal show of "C'mon!"s and fist pumps and looking at his hot wife in the player's box after every point.  And the crowd loved it.  I wish the US had an over the hill, annoying former champion that everyone loved.  Oh wait, hi Andy Roddick!

Serena Williams v Tamira Paszek - Serena was about 100 lbs heavier than Tamira and steamrolled her.  Serena was making errors but her powerful serve and ability to defend and hit winners was too much for Tamira. 

We actually left during the second set and caught the last game or two back in the hotel room sometime around 12:30am.  And then it was bedtime, the Yarra run is only a few hours away!