A Little Taste of Melbourne

In light of all the Facebook photos of university students gallivanting across Europe on Contiki tours (Hi Mik) and/or trekking it out across South-East Asia, this post might fall a little short in terms of the Grand Mid-Year Adventure. Unless you count an expanding waistline from all the Melbourne cafe food, I can't claim to have grown very much as a person. But then again, that wasn't the point of the trip was it? We flew down to Melbourne purely for the food and shopping - and that we certainly accomplished. Just ask my very cleared-out, newly empty, sad-looking wallet.

We left on a Wednesday morning and got to our hotel on Southbank at about midday. We spent most of the afternoon and evening wondering around the city just taking in the sights. It didn't seem to have changed much since I'd last been there....except for that colossal, two-storey H&M building on Elizabeth Street which took up an entire block.

As much as Melbourne is your typical Australian city, there is a totally different vibe from Sydney that you can only feel when walking around the streets. For one thing, the layout of the city is a lot more compact (you'll know what I mean if you've ever looked at a map of Melbourne). For another, the street art, tram lines and little alleyways practically scream HIPSTER TOWN. Not that that's a bad thing, mind you. After spending four days on a steady diet of Melbourne brunches and coffee, I can see why people rave about the restaurants here. And trams. Oh, how I love trams. Free Melbourne trams 4 lyf.

Waffles with rhubarb jam from the Victorian Night Markets

View from the Eureka Skydeck

On our second day in Melbourne, we met up with our high school friend, Annie, for brunch on Chapel Street. The cafe was called Journeyman and as Nancy cleverly punned in her instagram post, it was totally worth the journey man. I mean, look at this:

Charred greens with poached eggs and chorizo

We headed to Harbour Town at Docklands for a bit of shopping and I took this artsy fartsy photo of the ferris wheel. We then trammed it back to the city for more shopping. The tram driver was a cute little man who spoke Mandarin to us #ForeverAChineseTourist

Manchester Press Cafe - we almost wrote this place off. Turns out it's one of the more popular cafes in Melbourne

Perks of Being Asian #1: You can take these types of photos in public and no one bats an eye

We rested a bit at the hotel before heading out for another shopping trip at Melbourne Central. Then we walked to the Crown and lost $10 to gambling.

On our third day, we took a break from the city and joined a 1-day tour of the Great Ocean Road. It was good to be back in nature away from all sorts of material temptations. Nature doesn't max your credit card out, thank god.

The Twelve Apostles! Or as I like to call them, the Three & A Half Apostles

As you can see, it was a bit of a gloomy day. It felt like the rain clouds were chasing us everywhere we went. Sometimes, we would get a spot of sunshine (just enough to get out of the bus and walk to the photo location) but this was then quickly followed by drizzles and then a downpouring of rain.

I also lost my beanie whilst trying to take a photo in front of the Twelve Apostles. It landed somewhere on the other side of the fence dividing the path from the cliff and kind of just sat forlornly in the grass, waiting to be blown off the side.  

 

Surprisingly, my favourite location on this tour wasn't the Twelve Apostles but the hidden little cove/beach that came afterwards. Loch Ard Gorge is what the place was called and it looked like a pirate's secret hangout. None of my photos do it justice so you'll just have to trust Google to show you what you want.

We got back to the city at around 9pm and had Huxtaburger for dinner.

Day Four was spent, once again, in the city. We started off with brunch at Operator25 before embarking on a little bit of a cultural education tour. Also, it figures that only on our last day of the trip does the sun decide to come out and bless us with her presence.

Not much seems to have changed since the last time I came to the National Gallery of Victoria.

We then went for lunch in Chinatown (dumplings - fuck yeah) before having a bit of a poke around the State Library of Victoria. I suppose that was the last real "touristy" thing we did in the city.

We then headed back to the airport as it was getting dark and our flight was at 8 pm. Flew back with relatively little drama and got back at around 11 pm at night.

So that was my Melbourne trip in a series of half-hearted descriptions and gloriously embarrassing photos. Hope you enjoyed!