Before we arrived, all I knew about Australia was from TV. I knew there were snakes and spiders and crocodiles and people mad enough to live near them; I knew about miles and miles of nothing but red fields of dirt probably filled with kangaroos; I knew that people in skimpy bikinis run in slow motion to save swimmers from the sea and I knew that their border control was the toughest in the world. Thats why I was so surprised when we exited Melbourne airport without having talked to a single person, where were the angry border control agents wanting to grill me about my visa? Where was biosecurity making sure I wasn't smuggling in illicit fruit? So far, Australia really wasn't meeting any of my expectations.
So we made it out of the airport disappointed and unscathed, all that was left was to call an Uber to take us to our Airbnb. Much like any Uber we've ever ordered, this one drove around the carpark for fifteen minutes before coming to pick us up. We decided on an airbnb apartment over a hotel or a hostel for one main reason, it was cheaper and it meant we could opt to eat in if we wanted to. The apartment we'd chosen was nice enough but seemed to have been set up by someone who was entirely unfamiliar with how houses work - nothing was where we would expect to find it, but at least it was in a great neighbourhood.
We stayed in Windsor: a residential area know for its great atmosphere and convenient transport links, so of course, on our first day of exploring we decided to go on a long walk to another area of the city altogether.
We headed to St Kilda, a trendy suburb situated next to the sea, a sea that was grey and roiling under a dreary sky. Have I mentioned yet just how cold it was? Another thing that didn't meet up to my stereotypical expectations of Australia, it was freezing - typical right? We'd literally travelled all the way to the other side of the world and the weather was just the same as back home! After a good hour of wandering we headed to "Sister of Soul" for some brunch and the chance to warm up.
Brunch was great, but we were feeling pretty full so we decided to visit St Kilda's botanical gardens for a casual stroll to walk it off. It was shortly after this point, and still not much past midday when we realised that perhaps we'd overdone it with all this walking around. We couldn't head back to the flat already, there was still so much to do - if only there was another way! Luckily for us Melbourne has amazing public transport with frequent buses combined with an extensive tram network too - best of all a week's pass of unlimited travel was only $50 each.
Passes in hand we jumped on a tram to take us to the Royal Botanical Gardens and Shrine of Remembrance. Looking back, perhaps back to back botanical garden visits is a weird first day itinerary but I guess i was craving some time in nature after arriving in an suburban sprawl bigger than any i'd seen in over a year. Melbournes Royal Botanical Gardens were free to enter and well worth a wander round, I particularly enjoyed the arid garden filled with cacti and the views over the city beyond.
That evening, after a tiring day of walking we decided to head to a local pizzeria called "Small Print" for dinner. The restaurant was packed, the hum of conversations and mouth watering smells filled the air, we managed to time our arrival to snag some seats in the window just as they came available - lucky for us as it was steadily drizzling outside. As always we ordered way to much food, a pizza each and two sides, in our defence we didn't realise quite how big the portions would be! Once again, extremely full but this time armed with a box of leftovers we waddled our way home excited for what the next day would bring.
Our second day in Melbourne almost entirely consisted of eating and shopping. First we headed to Brick Lane Bagels where the bagels failed to live up to their namesake in London, before heading into Melbournes Central Business District to take in the architecture, a combination of heritage victorian buildings side by side with ultra modern skyscrapers. The city centre is also home to many large malls, (where we managed to get some much needed updates to our wardrobes) and Black Star Pastry, which, according to its own website is "home to the worlds most instagrammed cake." The small fancy cakes we brought certainly were picture perfect, but perhaps a tad overpriced in my personal opinion.
Feeling a bit overwhelmed from the hustle and bustle of the city, we headed to the park in front of the Royal Exhibition Center for a spot of sunbathing and a game of cards or two before heading towards Prahran. Prahran itself is a haven for vintage stores and upscale boutiques, however, we were there for the market. Prahrans market has been going for the last 160 years and is home to many independent sellers offering fresh food and international cuisine. We left with enough food to make ourselves a fancy breakfast the next day and only got ripped off by the vendor selling eggs - we weren't yet used to Australian grocery prices so we didn't realise until much later.
For our last stop of the day, we headed to "Thai food to go" an amazingly named restaurant five minutes from where we were staying. The decoration was retro; like it should have been hosting a speakeasy, not filled locals chowing down on Pad Thai but it surprisingly worked. The food was amazing, the service quick and friendly, plus the whole menu felt like it was underpriced - couldn't have been happier with this find.
After a well deserved lazy morning, eating breakfast at home, we headed over to Fitzroy to see what the fuss is about Lune Croissanterie, a place that the New York Times claims make the best Croissant in the world. When we arrived at midday the was a still queue and only two options left, the classic croissant and the almond. When we finally arrived at the counter, I found the service lacking - wait no, thats to polite; the service pretentious and rude, one step away from sneering. We ordered one of each croissant, and a coffee for Ben before getting out of there as fast as we could. To be fair, the croissants were pretty good, buttery, flakey, crunchy and not too sweet, was the almond croissant really worth $11.70? I really don't think so and to me it wasn't the best in the world, that award would go to Woosters bakery which in conveniently located near my parent-in-laws house in Suffolk - much better value too.
We spent the rest of our time in Fitzroy wandering around markets, first to a cute little arts market on Rose street (where i brought a tiny embroidered necklace) and then to the Saturday vintage market. As you could expect it was heaving, so after a hours worth of wandering around we headed somewhere a little more quiet.
The National Gallery of Victoria is located just on the edge of Melbournes CBD, is free to enter, and compared to the rest of the heaving city, a comparative ghost town. The Gallery itself is Australias oldest gallery and it's collection is 76,000 works strong. We didn't go round all of the gallery, but rather concentrated on the Japanese and European art sections; I feel that after a certain amount of time looking at art or exhibits in a museum, I tend to stop actually seeing them and start just vaguely scanning the rooms. It was nice to spend a couple hours in the quiet air conditioned rooms, but before we got too fatigued we headed back to our temporary home for a lazy night in with a take-away.
We didn't try a fit quite so much in on our last day, just a small train ride down to Brighton, another seaside suburb of Melbourne. I have a confession to make, when researching Brighton and things to do I failed to make the distinction about where Brighton was. We could find some of the things I saw online, the colourful beach huts and independent shops and cafes - but none of it looked like the pictures i'd seen... and it wouldn't, would it! Brighton UK and Brighton, VIC are two very different places, that'll teach me to be a bit more diligent in my googling.
Although it felt like we'd barely scratched the surface of what Melbourne had to offer it was time for us to move on, we had some job hunting to do and for that we'd have to look further a field.
Trip date : October 2023
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