Around a month ago I went to Melbourne for a short four day trip.
The first day we arrived it was cold and raining. Funny how I was checking weather forecasts months in advance to pick a good time to go so it wasn’t overly hot or cold… BUT IT’S OK. It wasn’t as miserable as the weather in Wellington. After the initial first cold and rainy day followed warm but cloudy days. We took the airport bus (~$30 AUD for a return pass) to the city which took around 30+ minutes in the rain and morning traffic.
Yarra River. It was cloudy for the four days we were there…
After making it out of the airport and dropping our stuff off at the hotel we went and had brunch at Mister Close in Midtown Plaza on Bourke Street (Above: “GFF”. The crispy burnt bits of the hash browns were so nice). Mayo in Melbourne is heavenly. Every place that served it had delicious mayo. Never been so happy eating something made up of 50% oil in my life.
Flinders Station
One of the many smaller streets in Melbourne CBD.
Lots of street art in the alleyways. Tourists and tour groups also flock to these places to appreciate the art…
We spent an afternoon at Melbourne Zoo but 3 hours wasn’t enough /o\ It was so big we didn’t have time to look at everything and unfortunately couldn’t go see the cute red/lesser pandas (ﾉд-｡). Last year I went to Wellington Zoo so compared to that Melbourne Zoo had much more to look at.
Also saw the most tired looking wombat ever at Melbourne Zoo. It looks more like a pig and quite tired of life here.
After taking a train back to the CBD from the zoo we stopped by Federation Square and walked into the comedy festival featuring top acts from around the world (my dearest Melbourne friend told me) that was on at that time. At first we were just going to watch for a few minutes but those few minutes quickly turned into an hour and it was dark by the time we left… I was so busy laughing and enjoying myself I didn’t mind standing the entire time.
Caught up with a friend who moved over to Melbourne from Auckland for University. We queued outside Shanghai Street Dumpling for around half an hour for seats. The pastry for their xiao long bao (right) was perfect. Not too thin or thick and had a juicy pork mince (and crab) filling with soup inside… but… there was too much MSG in their food and it left us feeling extremely thirsty even though we didn’t really eat anything dry or spicy.
On our last day we went to Victoria Market. There’s a lot of cool food both cooked and raw there. If I ever end up staying in Melbourne with a place with a kitchen I’d definitely come here to try more things (*￣∇￣*)
Left: Hotdog with pepper pork sausage, onion, and sauerkraut
Right: Blue mussels
Preparing paellas.
Koko Black chocolate. A very nice chocolate store found in varies parts of Melbourne! We tried chocolates like Salted Caramel (not for me), Pistachio (not for me either) but their praline chocolates like Hazelnut Wafer and Almond Praline were the best.
I can’t wait to go back to Melbourne already (´艸｀) the next time will probably be Sydney though.
PS. Please eat at Gami Chicken to satisfy your fried chicken cravings.
Tags: Australia, Melbourne
