After escaping the arrival of the Geordie Shore crew we arrived in Melbourne for the Easter Break. What a different city it was...
Staying in the Fitzroy area near Brunswick street we embraced the cafe culture, laid back approach and super cool vibe in contrast to Sydney's fast-paced, image obsessed atmosphere.
Needless to say Melbourne was more our cup of tea, and that was good as it is the place to have one.
With only a few short days to explore the city we started straight away and headed to meet our friends Karen and Tim that we met at the start of our trip in Brazil.
They had recommended heading over to the Queen Victoria Night Market, the last one of the summer season to get some food and drinks.
It was a great choice, the market was fusion of food and entertainment and offered culinary choices from pretty much every corner of the world. The hard part choosing what to eat, oh and of course finding somewhere to sit and eat it.
In the end we settled on Indian and Kangaroo Burger, after first consuming a spicy Korean potato waffle (like a potato twister - very yummy) and caught up with Karen and Tim's news as last time we saw them they were heading back to Melbourne to set up home after moving from the UK.
After a thoroughly enjoyable evening we headed home relatively early as we planned to hit the RipCurl Pro Surf competition at Bells Beach on the Great Ocean Road the next morning.
Waking up to pouring rain, seriously it was like being in Wales again, we postponed the trip and headed to explore the city some more.
Hitching a lift on the city trams we went back to the Victoria Market to see it in the daytime and spent time wondering through the different stalls and delicatessen, my particular favourite as I got to try lots of samples. Now if you don't know this about me, and it appears my husband didn't, I love a freebie - especially when it comes to food, confectionery or booze. In my view it means you have spend less on lunch. Anyway Mike is now fully aware of this slight obsession of mine which has perhaps become intensified now we are travelling and the prospect of anything free is appealing.
Aside from the market we spent a lot of time walking amongst the lanes, admiring the public art and magnificent architecture of some of the cities buildings and researching the cafes.
Our third day we got up early and finally made it to Bells Beach. Even though it was chilly (a perfect excuse for me to buy a new hoodie) it was the highlight of our trip as we watched Kelly Slater and other pros strut their stuff in the early heats of the competition.
Our last day in Melbourne we celebrated Easter with a hot cross bun, Easter egg and sausage sizzle at our hostel. Honestly if anyone is travelling and visits Melbourne stay at The Nunnery hostel. The staff are excellent, facilities fab and more importantly they give you lots of free food (I told you I love a bargain.) The evening of our last night they held a 'sausage sizzle' and far from being the one sausage you normally get given at these things, we had all the sausages we could eat, plus free wine. It may have helped that I volunteered to cook the sausages which meant I got to hand them out to people. Yes ... Mike did well out of that dinner.
Melbourne certainly impressed us and reflects all the cool friends we have met along our trip who hail from there. Seriously guys - why have you all left.
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