ANZAC Day

Anzac Day is a national day of remembrance in Australia and New Zealand, originally commemorated by both countries on 25 April every year to honour the members of the Australia & New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli in the Ottoman Empire during WW1. It now more broadly commemorates all those who served and died in military operations for their countries.

And too commemorate this day, there are early morning services followed by parades in the different cities around the country.  Then, doing what aussies do best, they get blindingly drunk, whilst playing 2-up.  Which is basically just heads or tails but with 2 coins.  There is literally thousands of people playing in every pub, and you just bet with people around you.  Usually, $5, $10 or $20 is the bet, but some people go higher.  I came out of the day $5 up - not much but I will take it. 

So I met with a few friends and we went to The Australian pub, in the rocks, one of sydneys most famous pubs.  We hung out there for the drinking and playing 2-up.  It was a grand day, the sun was out and the patter was great, we even got treated to a pipes and drums band walking intot he pub and playing.  We got the pub at 11:30 and it was already jumping and it just got busier and busier as the day went on, this was a picture of one part of it when I arrived:

There is also a traditional Aussie rules game which is played every year between traditional AFL rivals Collingwood and Essendon at the MCG. This annual blockbuster is often considered the biggest match of the AFL season outside of the finals, sometimes drawing bigger crowds than all but the Grand Final. This year Collingwood won by just a single point, 80 - 79.