On our trip two years ago we stayed in Melbourne for 5 days, which with
working along with exploring it just wasn't enough. I knew there was
more to Melbourne than what we had managed to see, and I'm so glad we
chose to return this time around for over a month. Melbourne is so
different from the rest of what we've seen of Australia. I've read that
it is more European, but as I haven't been there it's hard for me to
compare. There's definitely more of a melting pot of cultures in
Melbourne, I think over 60% of Melbournians are from other countries.
And don't get me started, I'm not getting into the whole Sydney versus
Melbourne debate... it's annoying that is even a thing as both cities
are truly amazing depending on your personality. Though I am now forever
a Sydney girl at heart :)
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| The famous trams |
We stayed in the same building throughout the 5 weeks in Melbourne which
was located between the CBD and St Kilda. We absolutely loved the
building itself... there was a pool, hot tub, and sauna on the 1st floor
and a really nice gym. Overall it worked out well for our stay, just a
bit of an awkward location for groceries and being walking distance to the main stuff.
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| Our Melbourne home |
Speaking
of walking distance, we set out for a walk from our place the first day
and realized we were literally across the street from the Shrine of
Remembrance. The Shrine is a memorial to all Australians who have served
in war. Also nothing is allowed to obstruct the view so looking north
you can see straight down St Kilda Road to the CBD.
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| View from the balcony |
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| Can you see the face on the building in the distance? |
We then crossed the street and ended up
heading into the Royal Botanic Gardens. It was a gorgeous day, the type
of day where fall is just starting with no clouds and a cool breeze. The
gardens themselves were so beautiful, everything was laid out nicely and
a lot of the flowers were still in bloom.
We
kept walking through the gardens and hit the Yarra river on the north
side, which we then followed into downtown. Melbourne has lots of
walking and biking trails which makes it really easy to get around.
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| The Yarra River |
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| Crossing the Yarra to Federation Square |
Of
course once we made it to Federation Square it wasn't long before we
re-discovered our favorite alleyway from our last trip, Degraves St.
Degraves is where we tried kangaroo burgers and bought our favorite
koala, Kola :) We ended up buying something else from that same little
shop here and the burgers make another appearance during this stay too.
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| Our favorite alley |
Looking back on these pictures we did a
ton of walking in Melbourne! It was really convenient to hop on a tram
to the city and explore from there. Sometimes the best way to see a city
is to walk around, get lost, and stumble into stuff.
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| What do you think this sculpture is? We couldn't decide lol |
This
walk lead us into Carlton, the Italian mecca of Melbourne. Not pictured
is the gelato I ate too quickly to snap a picture :)
One
of the things that really stood out to us last time about Melbourne,
and even more so this time,
is all the modern architecture. Most of the skyscrapers are less
than 5 years old, lending the downtown area a very hip look on top of
the already cool vibe of the city. These photos are just a small
sample... and more are in construction as Melbourne just keeps growing!
After
our experience with the "I'm Free" walking tour in Sydney, we had to do
the one in Melbourne. It was another excellent tour, and something I
would recommend doing early on in a visit to a major city. Kind of helps
give you the lay of the land and tons of recommendations for what to
see afterwards. I love getting the local perspective as well.
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| The hook turn |
The
tour guide stopped us on a street corner to observe a signature
Melbournian move... the hook turn. Basically because of the tram if you
want to turn right, move to the left! Makes perfect sense. The lane for
the right turn is on the left of the intersection, and the cars wait for
a clearing to take a right and avoid blocking the tram in the center.
Thankfully I never had to perform this move when we rented a car! haha.
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| The Royal Exhibition Building (under renovation) |
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| Chinatown |
Another
signature of Melbourne is all the street art, there are some incredible
displays down random alleyways. This particular alley was my favorite,
love all the greenery... real and painted :)
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| Urban jungle on point |
The thing to do in Melbourne is to turn down any old
alleyway and see what you find! Apparently I found trash bins I like to
pose beside...
Our tour guide pointed out the this sign:
She
went on to say it's true, Melbournians are known for their love of the
color black. I started to notice it more after she said that, the
majority of people were wearing a lot of black. Think sleek, polished
black not emo. The guide dubbed us all "Sydney-siders" as we were all
too colorful on the tour. I packed primarily for the beaches so I
definitely stood out a lot of the time in Melbourne :-P Plus I am happy
to be called a "Sydney-sider" :)
It was such a great tour, ending with a beautiful view of the Yarra with the city in the background.
Melbourne Markets
It
wouldn't be a blog post without some mention of markets... Justin has
embraced my love of open air local markets and knows that we always have
to go :)
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| The Queen Victoria Markets |
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| Did quite a bit of this in Melbourne :) |
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| it's definitely popular! |
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| love this view... Melbourne has some awesome buildings! |
It
was all well and good until either Justin or I had the weird idea to do
a time lapse of walking through the Queen Victoria Market. Justin
suddenly became a lot more interested in being there and we literally
walked up and down every single aisle to show how big this market is!
I'm not going to say how long it took but the time lapse itself is just
over 2 minutes haha.
Another
market that was walking distance from our building was the Prahran
Market. We really enjoyed coming here for the delicious sushi ($8aud for
4 rolls!) or stocking up on local groceries.
A
bike ride away from us was the South Melbourne Market, which our airbnb
hosts highly recommended. They have a night market on Thursdays and we
happened to be there for the last one of the summer.
There were tons of choices for dinner, we settled on dumplings and bao burgers. Delicious!
Eureka Tower
Standing at 975ft, the second tallest building in
Australia, is the Eureka Tower in South Melbourne. It's named after the
Eureka Stockade, which was a rebellion during the Victorian gold rush.
The rebellion started to protest the expense of a miner's license,
taxation without representation, and other actions of the colonial
authority of the United Kingdom. At least 27 people died in the
rebellion. That is just a brief summary though, the rebellion was pretty
complicated and was interesting to learn about. The tower itself has a
section made out of gold representing the gold rush, and a red line down
the side to represent the blood spilled in the rebellion (the photo
below is from the other angle though).
The main attraction are the views from the 86th floor, and the "Edge Experience". More on that lol.
It was a beautiful, clear day so we could see out over all of Melbourne.
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| Melbourne Cricket Ground |
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| Albert Park and out towards St Kilda |
I
bought tickets from a discount site for this and definitely did not
read the details on the "Edge Experience". Turns out it's basically a
glass cube - all glass floor, walls, and ceiling. It sits flush with the
building while your group walks out into the cube (all wearing little
slippers to protect the floor). Once everyone is in the cube it starts
to move and protrude from the tower.
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| starting to protrude out... |
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| it's freaky! |
At
the start the glass is all opaque, then once the "ride" stops and is
completely outside the building... the glass clears and you can
literally look underneath your feet 86 floors down to the street. You
then have to stay in there looking around for 7 minutes... my palms were
so sweaty and I stayed very close to the door and yet very much still
on the glass 86 stories up. While my mind knew it was ok I just was not
prepared for this experience... It was a bit much for 11am in the
morning haha. Justin loved it though! I am glad we did it but was glad
to be back inside after :)
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| The little cube sticking out on the left is the "Edge" |
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| Justin is genuinely smiling, mine is more forced haha |
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| Goofing off with green screens... |
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| hehe |
The Elusive St Kilda Penguins
On our last trip to Melbourne we
tried to see the St Kilda fairy penguins, but somehow missed out. So we
knew with over a month here we had to go again! The little fairy
penguins head out around sunrise to hunt for food all day, and come home
around sunset or just after for the night. We went to the St Kilda Pier
for sunset one night...
It was COLD! Super windy on the pier, but worth it when we saw the first little penguin making his way home...
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| hey little guy! |
We
definitely weren't alone, haha, this is a whole thing with lots of
people coming to watch them. I felt a little bad for the penguins that
we may be crowding them... but no one goes on the little patch of sand
and they make their way to the rocks behind the boardwalk.
They were super cute and definitely worth seeing!
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| A St Kilda sunset |
The Mornington Peninsula
We rented a car one day to head south to
the Mornington Peninsula, known for breathtaking views and gorgeous
beaches... sounds like our kind of place!
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| We saw a koala! hahaha |
Mornington
itself is kind of the gateway to the peninsula, so we stopped there
first for lunch and saw some of the famous bathing boxes along the
shore.
From
Mornington we followed the bay to Arthur's Seat, a random mountain in
the middle of a very flat region. The views of Port Phillip Bay from
here were stunning!
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| Views all the way to back to Melbourne (squint a little bit haha) |
We continued to Blairgowrie where I had read there
was a cliff jump and rock pool. This was on the back side of the
peninsula, so overlooking the Bass Strait instead of Port Phillip Bay.
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| pathway to the rockpool |
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| Getting to the cliff jump was tricky! |
The
cliff jump was a popular spot! There was even someone watching the rock
and telling people when to jump since there were so many levels you
could jump off of on the rock. Kids and adults alike were enjoying the
pool. It was very organized for being a random platform in the middle of
nowhere really.
After watching for a bit Justin decided he had to do it! I opted out of the jump... was happier to watch :) He had a great time!
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| cliff jump!! |
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| success! |
Our
last stop on our little day trip was almost the very tip of the
peninsula, the London Bridge outlook in Portsea. From here the views
across the Bass Strait were just beautiful, the beach stretched as far
as the eye could see and had hardly anyone on it.
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| London Bridge is in the background |
Yarra Valley
Another fun day was our bus tour around the Yarra Valley
.
This was our first organized tour this trip in Australia, and it did
not disappoint. The Yarra Valley is wine country and only an hour away
from Melbourne. We did the Dancing Kangaroo Tour and were able to go to
three wineries, a chocolate factory, a cheese shop, and a brewery.
We
both really enjoyed the wine tastings... there was a lot of variety but
I especially enjoyed the rose wine and Justin liked the pinot noir.
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| who really knows? |
It
was a great tour, we met some really awesome couples that were fun to
spend the day with. However... ever since this tour our stomachs haven't
quite been wanting any wine :) Went a little too hard that day but it
was worth it haha.
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| Bus ride back was full on... |
Biking Around Melbourne
Halfway into our stay we were tired of taking the tram and decided to
try the bike share service we'd seen around the city. It was only $8aud
each for a week, and you can take the bikes out for 45 minutes at a
time. You can check in at a station before the 45 minutes is up and keep
riding too. Melbourne has a lot of bike friendly streets and even
dedicated bike "roads". I'm calling them bike roads because it was two
lane bike path separated from the road.
Although we learned carrying groceries back on bikes is difficult haha.
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| I dropped my phone for this pic :-/ |
We really got into the bikes... they were so fun and the
stations were everywhere. One day we biked out to Fitzroy to check out
that area, then hopped on the free tram, then got off and took the bikes
back across the river to South Melbourne. We ended up biking and
walking a total of 13 miles that day!
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| View from the bike path |
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| Journey complete... I was tired! |
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| Over 13 miles of biking + walking! |
Barista Course
One of my new years resolutions was to get myself
out of my comfort zone more... which usually involves doing something
by myself. Since Melbourne is known for it's coffee, I took a barista
course one Saturday morning - no better place to learn right? It was so,
so fun... I loved learning more about coffee and getting the hands on
experience with working the espresso machine. I learned to make an
espresso, long black, cappuccino, cafe latte, flat white, long
macchiato, and a short macchiato. The long black and flat white are
Australian espresso drinks... the long black being an espresso shot with
hot water (sort of similar to an Americano) and the flat white being
espresso with steamed milk but not as frothy as a latte. I usually order
a latte here.
As
well as learning to work the espresso machine, we learned how to
maintain it and the importance of the coffee grind itself. We then went
through three methods to steam milk to make a flat white, a cafe latte,
or a cappuccino. Each is a little different in how you maneuver the milk
pitcher.
Too
bad Justin doesn't drink coffee - I could make him some awesome
espresso drinks now! He is hoping my milk steaming skills will transfer
over to chai lattes and hot chocolates :)
Melbourne Date Night
For
our last week in Melbourne we decided we had to get those kangaroo
burgers again. We got one kangaroo burger and one emu burger, they were
pretty good! The emu was kind of more like a steak texture. It was tasty
but a little weird on a burger just because of the texture. The
kangaroo was as good as we remembered from last trip. So now we can say
we've tried both animals on the Australian Coast of Arms lol.
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| Emu on the left, Kangaroo on the right |
After
burgers we headed to Holey Moley, which is actually a bar I'd been
wanting to go to in Sydney. Turns out it's in Melbourne too! This one
was two stories with four different mini golf courses and a bar. The
courses themselves were pretty cool, but it was a lot smaller than I
pictured it being.
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| No ifs, just putts :) |
We especially enjoyed the Simpsons style one, and of course anything related to video games :)
It
was a fun night and a great way to cap off our stay in Melbourne. When
we were leaving Albert Park was being transformed into the course for
the Grand Prix. We didn't know about the Grand Prix otherwise we
might've stayed two more nights to see it! Whoops.
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| Part of the Grand Prix course |
Our
month in Melbourne went by so quickly, and we can definitely see why
this city tops the charts year after year for most liveable city. We got
into a groove here, it's funny how staying even for a month makes you
feel like you live there. Instead of hitting all the highlights and
moving on I think we were able to really see Melbourne through the eyes
of locals. We've barely scratched the surface though, in a city like
Melbourne you need years to see it all, if it's even possible. In the
end, fall was settling in and we were missing the beaches... so it was
time to move on.
💙
Sarah
"We travel because we need to, because distance and difference
are the secret tonic of creativity.
When we get home, home is still the same.
But something in our mind has been changed,
and that changes everything."
~ Jonah Lehrer
