Melbourne 2019

I have technically visited Melbourne twice over the past few years; one was for a work trip and the other was merely as the gateway to my Bendigo / Ballarat roadtrip.

Melbourne

I had 30 hours in Melbourne however that was enough time for me. This was my fourth visit to Melbourne and there wasn't anything that I really wanted to see in the CBD that I had not seen before.


I loved the borek from this store last time I visited Melbourne. As you can see in the photo from then and the one now, the dough is a lot thicker now. Since my trip to Turkey in 2015, I also tasted what a REAL borek should taste like and I think neither of them are very authentic. But definitely not the one I had that day, almost like a pide but not! 










This was my eleventh trip as part of #take12trips. To see previous trips please click here.

Melbourne

My second work trip was to Melbourne! Luckily, the hotel was in the CBD area which meant that I was able to do things at night after work. However, the work office is in Port Melbourne which is an industrial area. The area is the offspring of Alexandria and Port Botany. In fact, 500m down the road, there was a depot which filled cement mixers with .. well cement.

A random collection of photos.

1) Dinner by myself at an amazing Italian place, Il Solito Posto. I ordered a risotto and it was so incredible filling and delicious.





2) T by Luxbite was 50m away from my hotel and I bought the Emoji tart. It wasn't very nice. But I did also buy 8 macarons which I carefully took back to Sydney for my mate. The salted caramel was to die for.





3) Bagel from Five & Dime Bagel Co was also 50m away from my hotel. This was the bagel w/ pastrami for $11. Yikes






I also visited Little Africa which served Ethiopian food (not pictured). This was my first time having any sort of African cuisine and it was amazing. I would highly recommend the restaurant. Even thinking about it makes me happy.

This was my third visit to Melbourne (I visited last year) and this time round, I could see why a lot of people love Melbourne. But I'm still not convinced it is that amazing. I still love Adelaide.

Melbourne: Last Day

I seem to have a tendency to forget about concluding travel posts (case in point, my major travel trip in 2012).

12th July 2014
This was our last day in Melbourne however we had plenty of time before our 8pm flight. First stop was breakfast at the QVM which was a stone's throw away.

Potato borek. Mmmmm...

Bratwurst with a ridiculous amount of sauerkraut.

We headed to the Melbourne Museum because it was free for students!

This was a little creepy, I have to admit.

I don't know why, but the story of Phar Lap has always stuck with me. It is probably one of the few things - if not only thing- that I remember from Year 8 history. I think I also learnt something about mini skirts ... perhaps. Oh and watching the mini series Vietnam in class (Nicole Kidman looks nothing like that now. Quite funny).

Lunch at a random place in Chinatown. Plastic tasting dumplings.

We caught the airport bus from Southern Cross station and it reminded me an awful lot of the stations in Europe.





And that is the end of all my Melbourne posts. I guess I should put the standard two questions.

My Overall Thoughts
Now, the age old debate: Sydney or Melbourne. Truth be told, I don't have an opinion. To each their own. When it comes to major cities, I don't really understand the debate on which one is better because the way I see it, they are different in their own way and suburbs are almost always the same. I feel like Sydney feels busier, but is that a bad thing? Not necessarily. Personally, I'm not a big fan of big cities. A few people told me that they think that Melbourne is quite European, but I don't really see it. Melbourne feels like the love child of Philadelphia and Chicago.

Would I re-visit?
Not particularly. When I have a family - and granted that I am still in Sydney - I would probably visit as it is super close.

Melbourne Trip: Brighton Beach & St Kilda

11th July 2014
This was my day as I had done most of the planning. We headed to Brighton Beach to do the coastal walk to St Kilda.

Breakfast at Manchester Press.





On the train, it was quite overcast however when we got off the skies were starting to clear up. It was a pretty boring walk. Also a long easy walk at at around 10 km and it was so windy!











By the time we arrived at St Kilda we were starving and headed to Lentil as Anything. The place was packed so we ended up being seated at the very back next to their lentils....

Lentil as Anything is a series of pay what you can, not for profit vegetarian restaurants in Melbourne and Sydney, Australia. The restaurants wholly rely on the generosity of their patrons, volunteers and suppliers to operate, receiving no government or church funding. Patrons are asked to "pay what they feel" the meal, service and beverages are worth by contributing an amount of their choice into a box at the counter.

On our way to Luna Park, we passed by some very tasty cake and pastry stores. I picked up a cherry crumble which tasted very funny; it tasted like the artificial cherry flavour in cough medicines.






 
I wanted to stop by Luxbite before we headed back to the CBD. The desserts from Luxbite weren't that sweet! I really liked the Lolly Bag Cake. The green tea cheesecake bothered me since I am not a fan of buttercream (however it isn't stated in the description...) and I'm not a big fan of macarons, but Endless Love was too pretty to not get!






(L - R) Endless Love, Lollybag Cake, Green Tea Cheesecake

For the last night, we switched hotels to one further north in the CBD as it was quite a lot cheaper than staying at the Victoria Hotel. We also got upgraded! 

View from the room. Right next to the QVM.

Melbourne Trip: QVM & Eureka Tower

Image Heavy!

10th July 2014
 On our way to Queen Victoria Markets, we stopped at Larder Section for breakfast.


Chai Latte. I have yet to find a chai latter which is amazing.


Berlin Breakfast ... not sure why it is Berlin.

My old friend told me that I should avoid the Queen Victoria Markets as it is even tackier than Paddy's Market in Sydney. But I actually really enjoyed it! The souvenirs were meh but I was very interested in the food and their fresh produce. There was also a van making fresh jam filled donuts which was amazing.






More exploring of Melbourne.


La Trobe Reading Room

We had been eating a lot of crap during our trip so we decided to head to a juice bar; Tropicana Juice Bar.




South American Delight (juice). It tasted like a Calipo which was very odd.







We headed up to the Eureka Tower however it was quite overcast.
















I find that Melbourne is very flat.

For the day of our actual anniversary, A. treated me to dinner at San Telmo , an Argentinian restaurant.












The food was quite nice! Although the waiter wasn't very friendly. Sure, we didn't fit in with the demographic but the guy was a little short with us, and cold. Very impressed with my camera (I use a p&s) in the extremely dim lighting. Since we were still a little hungry (but we I didn't want to pay $20+ for a dessert), we headed to La Petite Creperie for our crepes!