Week One

It is just wonderful to have friends all over the world. When I worked in England in met a lovely girl called Ollie who I ended up traveling with. When she heard that we were coming to Melbourne she and her boyfriend graciously opened their home to us. They even picked us up and the airport. The Melbourne airport was under construction and it took us over an hour to get out. We were tired and smelly but so happy to have arrived. In order to fight the jetlag Ollie insisted that we were to stay up.  They made us a delicious fresh breakfast and after we wandered around the Botanical Gardens, had some Belgian beer, got movies and had a cozy night.

Botanical Gardens

On Sunday we went to the Queen Victoria Market. It was enormous and had everything that you could ever want: cheese, meat, tapas, bread, cheap and fresh fruit and veg, clothing and crap. I definitely want to go back there to spend hours wandering down the little alleyways.

Monday was our first day on our own adventuring in Melbourne. We walked down Chapel Street to see what kinds of shops we could find. And Ollie made a massive roast lamb. We don’t eat lamb very much at all. My sister tried to make it once but it turned out to be an exercise in choking it down. Turns out that it is delicious if you know how to cook it!

Art kills

Little laneway

Yarra River

Ollie organized a walking tour of central Melbourne. It was wonderful to learn a little more about the history of the city and what building was what. I always like to go on walking tours when I first get to a new city. It gives you a good place to start and you know that awesome places to come back to. For instance, when we first arrived they pointed out the Eureka tower. It’s the tallest building in Melbourne and rather stunning. We thought that it was just another skyscraper that happened to be designed by someone who liked interesting colours. We discovered on the tour that it actually relates to part of the history to do with the gold rush. There was a labour uprising and the blue and white stripes represent their flag. The gold top has to do with the gold rush and the red represents the blood that was shed. Who knew that this massive tower was actually a political statement?

We also walked down the little laneways and discovered graffiti artists and small little restaurants and bars. They are tucked away so you wouldn’t know that they were there but are actually fantastic.

Eureka Tower

Wednesday TJ and I thought that we’d be responsible for dinner for the 4 of us. We figured this would be a perfect time to wander around the market and buy beautiful fresh item. Sadly, markets are closed on Mondays and Wednesdays. Whoops! We wandered around down town with all our grocery bags. Our dinner turned out alright. We made steak, blue cheese and avocado sandwiches and sweet potatoes with leeks and blue cheese. I made peanut butter brownies to introduce some Canadian sugar to our Aussie friends. It’s tricky to bake in a different country. Everything is a little different from ingredients to temperatures.

Rooftop Bar

Since Melbourne is on a bay we thought we’d wander down to St Kilda beach. It’s really close by to where we are living, only 2 very short tram rides. It was like we stepped off the tram into a tropical paradise! Blue skies! Sandy beaches! Palm trees! We wandered down St Kilda Pier and onto the breakwater always on the lookout for penguins and water rats (eww!). It was a beautiful day to lie around reading. We finally picked ourselves up and brought ourselves back to Chapel St to go to this little restaurant we saw the other day. It was closed! Every time we want to go someplace it seems to be closed. 

St Kilda Beach