It certainly stood out as a great day for a number of reasons, but if I had to break my day into three parts it would be:
1. Getting up
2. Witnessing a bar falling silent for 5 minutes
3. Playing "Two Up"
1. Getting up insanely early--
ANZAC Day is a day of remembrance-- it commemorates the first major military action for Australia and has grown to be a day of remembrance for all Australian and New Zealand troops who have died in various battles. One of the ways people show their support is by attending a "dawn service" -- or in my instance, a pre-dawn service.
My alarm went off at 3:30 (mind you, on a day off from work this is probably about the last thing I want to have happen) and I sleepily dragged on some comfy pants and a sweatshirt and was out the door by 3:50. I live downhill from a popular party area in Sydney and forgot that I'd be traipsing through a few streets of people still going strong. Not sure how much remembering they were doing.
The service itself started at 4:30 and it was PACKED. It's pretty incredible to see all of the people, young and old, who were willing to leave their warm beds to come out for a service. The service itself was fairly basic- some prayers, a reminder for why people gather, and laying wreaths to commemorate the troops. The coolest part of the service, though, was when the organizers shut all of the lights off for a moment of silence. Before the lights came back on a trumpeter played Reveille. Equal parts creepy and cool!
In my head I thought the service would be concluding as the sun came up, but as it turns out this service ended at 5:30 and I was back in bed by sunrise. I did see friends' pictures of a service on the beach where the sun DID come up at the end of the service and I think I'll give that a go next year.
2. Witnessing a bar fall silent for 5 minutes--
The other part of ANZAC day is, not surprisingly, drinking. The Australians will use any excuse to put a beverage in hand and most bars open at 8 am on ANZAC day. My friend Ryan and I started a bit later than that, opting for an average beverage instead of an early morning one.
While we were at the bar we suddenly noticed that we were the only ones talking. Wide-eyed, we looked around at the people throwing dirty glances our way and quickly shut our mouths. Well, mine remained open in shock because you could hear a pin drop in the place.
Why? There's a huge AFL game played on each ANZAC day, and before the game starts they do a quick remembrance ceremony/singing of the national anthem- and the entire bar was quiet for the full five minutes that it took. I'm not sure I'll ever witness anything else having the power to shut down an entire bar, and honestly felt more goosebumps after that experience than at the dawn service!
3. Playing Two Up--
The only day of the year that Two Up is legal is on ANZAC Day. No one has been able to tell me why it's the only day you can legally play the game, but I'm guessing it may be because the government hasn't been able to find a way to monetize the game?
It's really quite simple-- it's just a coin flipping game, where two coins have to land on either heads or tails to produce a winner.
Before the "spinner" gets to work, the betting takes place. This was REALLY fun-- if you want to play heads, you take your money and thump your head screaming "heads" until someone screaming "tails" in the bar takes you up on your offer. The person going for heads holds the money, the coins get flipped and either the money gets pocketed or handed back to the tails person.
I ended up in a pretty big bar at Bondi, and the Two Up scene was pretty intense-- imagine the same atmosphere as a heated playground fight, with everyone jockeying to see the action and you'll have a pretty good idea of what it's like. My friends and I managed to shimmy our way up to the side of the ring so we could see all of the action, and it was super easy to get sucked in.
Before I went I told myself I'd play a couple of times, with a $5 bill, just to see what it was like. I quickly figured out that no one was playing with anything less than a $20, which made me nervous. Even though Two Up is a game of chance, it's also the only gambling game where you've got just as much chance as winning as you do losing.
I picked heads for the duration and held on for the ride-- eventually I was up $160. Unfortunately that's when I got cocky and decided to push my luck and promptly lost two games in a row. I called it a day after that, and it's the first time (and probably the last!) that I can say I've left the bar with more than I came in with.
Two Up is only legal from about midday to 6 pm, and because this was a big bar the cops showed up promptly at 6 to make sure everyone had finished playing!
What a great day!
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