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Sunday, June 07, 2009

Kings and Queens Richmond Pub Crawl

With Bumble and Belinda down for the Queen's Birthday long weekend for the footy on Sunday, there was a whole day of drinking just crying out for a pub crawl! Meeting at Grandma Funks for a hearty brunch for the big day, the three of us joined Melissa, Greg, Nick, Lauren and Paul, comparing our crowns for the day of silliness.

Meggsy joined us as we finished our stable meal for the day, before we walked a block down Swan Street, Richmond, to our first pub, The Vaucluse. Meeting Daisy, Emma and Michael here, we started our account of one pot per pub. Wearing crowns and tiaras to mark the long weekend, our crawl was underway!

Next up was The Swan, which was quickly declared a skull pub, and thus a quick pot by all. The third pub, The Great Britain, on our Richmond route was closed till 4pm, and as we walked toward the fourth on our map, we spotted Wendy walking the other way; she informed us that the Prince Alfred was a shell of a building, and thus no longer a destination for a pot!

Feeling a little lost in the back streets of Richmond, and getting very thirsty, following the map down Balmain Street did not seem hopefully for a pub...but alas, The Cherry Tree emerged from the roadworks to restore our faith!

After our few misses, we all downed a pint here, in the spirit of catching up - especially with the discovery of Mountain Goat on tap.

Freshly renovated, this little find in the tucked away streets is certainly a pub with promise, and one to remember...if we could find it again! Moving on from here, we walked along behind the train tracks to reach the also renovated Precinct. The interior here is a far cry from the old dodgy Sunday sessions at the Depot days, with an unrecognisable layout. Certainly not the pub it used to be!

Being turned away from The Corner because we were all too old (an underage gig was in progress!), we found a substitute for the burnt out Richmond Club in the Post Office Hotel. Decked out is seemingly regal decor, it seemed a fitting place for a pot on this crawl.

Our next pub made it clear that they were nontooplussed at having a large group arrive on their doorstep in the middle of the day, stating they don't do pub crawls. We downed our London Tavern pot pretty quickly, before walking up to Punt Road, and entering the dodgy smelling Cricketer's Arms.

Michelle joined us here, and as we walked out, Springer had found us. Our next pub was a much anticipated stop for the boys, being the titty bar at the Royal. With just one bargirl with her girls out, the girls on the crawl downed a pot fairly quickly, not really appreciating what the fuss is all about!

Next up was the Mt View on Bridge Road, where we grabbed our pot and climbed the stairs to the upstairs deck, for a view of the city!

The next pub on the list, The East Melbourne appeared to not be an open pub anymore, thus our next stop was the Kingston. Here Flash and Cassie joined us, and Little Banksy found us too for this pot.

The All Nations was next, and our group seemed to be quite large with the addition of Wizden, and a host of other Flaggers.

The next pub on the map, the Eureka, is actually Hunchbax, and it was closed. Hearing this from the group ahead, I was with Melissa, Wendy and Springer, and we decided we would jump on the tram in front of us to get back down Church Street to the next one. Which promptly sailed us past the Earl Of Lincoln. Oops!

We made it to the next one, being the Prince Of Wales, and given we were a little ahead of the group, sat down to grab a quick pub meal. I remember vaguely having bangers and mash, over which I talked to Jessie in London on the phone....hmmmm.

The rest of the crawl found us, and we all walked into DT's...the friendliest pub on the crawl...of course, the gay stop! Cheap drinks and great service, this is actually the pub most talked about since from the crawl! Everyone loved it!

Our last offical stop on the map was The Vine, before the group deciding we would head back to The Swan for an after-crawl drink, or 5, and a dance. Loads of fun, rum, singing with the cover band, and some enthusiastic dancing followed. Meggsy was carried out and helped into a cab, in true tour form. A massive day, followed by a massive night. Such fun!

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