Sunday, 20 July 2014

Melbourne Trip: QVM & Eureka Tower

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

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

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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.

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More exploring of Melbourne.

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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.

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

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

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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.

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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!

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Thursday, 17 July 2014

Melbourne Trip: Scienceworks and Wicked

9th July 2014
We knew that it would be a gloomy day today so we decided to head over to Scienceworks, similar to the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.

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Block Arcade

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But first, breakfast at Laurents.

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It was school holidays and when we arrived, there were around 80 people in line. There were so many kids and most were under the age of 10. Awkward. Finally we got in (for free since we could get concession tickets) and it was packed inside.

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One of the key reasons for visiting Scienceworks was for the Lightning Room which I thought would be amazing. In reality, it was average and not really worth the $5 ticket pp.

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We headed back to Melbourne CBD and had dinner at Kokoro Ramen which we had discovered the previous day.

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A. ordered extra ramen for $1 thinking that it would be a little bit more. Rather, the amount of ramen that I received was 3/4 of the amount that was in the bowl itself. Whoops. Ramen overload.

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I've been obsessed with Wicked ever since I went to Japan back in 2007 and there was a performance at Universal Studios by the cast of Wicked. I was delighted when it was running at Capitol Theatre back in 2009 however at around $100+ a ticket, it was a little expensive considering I earnt less than that a week from my job. Fast forward 5 years, I decided it was worth the money. Hence for our anniversary, I purchased tickets to see the musical. I was originally um-ing and ah-ing over the location of seats, however I was quite happy with what I picked in the end. We sat in the stalls in Row F and almost right in the middle of the row (two seats off)!

Wicked was amazing as I imagined it to be. However, I was a little disappointed with the performance of the actress who played Galinda/Glinda. Perhaps she was sick (as she played the same role back in the 2008/2009 run) but her voice was quite unstable and generally weak. Nonetheless it was still an amazing experience!

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It has been quite hard to write up my travel posts. On a personal note, I've been feeling quite down lately which is alleviated only when the sun is out. Post holiday blues? Mid year blues? Quarter life crisis? No idea which one it is.
Tuesday, 15 July 2014

Melbourne Trip: CBD

8th July 2014

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The room upgrade granted us with a gorgeous view of Geelong.

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Driving to Melbourne!

It was a very short drive (under an hour) to Melbourne CBD. After dropping off our bags at Victoria Hotel and returning the rental car, we headed on foot to explore the area.

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Who goes to Melbourne and doesn't take a photo of Flinders Station?

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First stop was breakfast at Café Andiamo. I ordered the andiamo b’fast.

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3 scrambled eggs, tomato, gluten free sausages, prosciutto & fried tomato w/ thick pesto toast

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Abbott is my local MP. Shhh.

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The prayer of Saint Francis of Assisi is my favourite.

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From the steps of Parliament.

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So cute!

For our last stop of the day, we headed to GPO which houses H&M. The store is ginormous however also crazily packed with people. I'm not a big fan of shopping and I especially hate crowded shops so we simply walked around before heading back to the hotel.

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This street performer was playing Comptine d'un Autre Été by Yann Tiersen which is one of my favourite pieces of all time!