Melbourne

Saturday: We arrived on the afternoon of Boxing Day and dropped our bags off at Kylie's aunt's house in Brunswick. We had a tour of the amazing house and then headed to get the tram in to the city. We started at Federation Square where we took photos of a Christmas tree made from 500k Lego blocks and then wandered around through Hosier Lane and a few Arcades, making our way to the Myer window displays. They told the story of "Little Dog" who begins lost... But not to worry, it has a happy ending. 

We had an early dinner at Chin Chin - we had a few roti and shared roast duck, pad seuw, and shredded chicken and prawn salad. I convinced the girls to get dessert because it sounded too weird to pass up. Coconut sago with sweet corn ice cream, praline and puffed wild rice. Good decision. After dinner, we headed home to Brunswick for some instructions on the things we would need to water in the garden. 

Sunday:  We were up early and picked up by one of Kylie's friends, Cameron, to have a little road trip to the Great Ocean Road. We stopped off at Naughty Boy for some pre-trip coffee and went through Geelong down toward Torquay to pop in to the outlets. 

Kylie came away the winner with bikini and board shorts for $35! We pressed on to Bells Beach (where Point Break was filmed) and watched the surfers for a bit before heading to Angelsea for a fish and chips lunch in a park. We stopped off at the beach to put our feet in the sand and then took some photos at the gate before driving along the Great Ocean Road to Lorne, where we had to cut back inland due to some Christmas Day bushfires that destroyed quite a few homes and caused a large portion of the road to be closed. 

We made our way back to the coast and stopped off at the Twelve Apostles (with seemingly the rest of the tourists in Australia) then went on to Loch Ard Gorge where we learned about the shipwreck of the Loch Ard and finally ended the sights at London Bridge (only half the bridge remains... London Bridge is falling down.. Har har). On the way back to Melbourne we stopped off for Chinese at a dodgy looking establishment and admired an amazingly huge moon. Sixteen hour road trip, done! Kilometers driven: 550.

Monday: We had a lazy morning the next day and made breakfast to eat al fresco on the veranda. Kylie dropped Jennifer and me off at Melbourne Cricket Ground to catch part of Day 3 of the Australia v West Indies test match and she headed to visit her Pa for lunch. Don't ask me what happened at the match, I was watching the entire time, but I have no idea what was going on. I worked out how they got 4. I'm happy with that. 

After a lovely afternoon at the cricket, we walked back to the city through the gardens. We walked by parliament and a few pretty churches and found our way into one of the lanes and had a drink and snack at La Citta. Afterward, we met back up with Kylie and headed out to Fitzroy for drinks and dinner. We went to the Black Pearl, a really small bar with a lot of character and met up with one of Kylie's friends from work, Simon, and his wife, Kelly. 

They took us to Vegie Bar, a vegetarian restaurant, where I wanted to order one of everything. We settled on dumplings and rice balls to start and then shared five dishes for dinner: mee goreng, vermicelli, mushroom pizza (with goat cheese!), vegan nachos, and a rustic salad. Definitely recommend this place, everything was delicious! 

We walked around Fitzroy a bit (very hipster... amazing) and ended up at Naked for Satan for a night cap before heading home.

Tuesday: We woke up early again and headed in to Queen Victoria Market to poke around a bit and then picked up Simon's car to head down to Phillip Island.  

Simon made a pit stop at The Premises so I could pick up a coffee (very delicious) before we dropped him back at his and hopped on the road. 

We drove down to the island, only hitting traffic at the very end. We made it to the koala sanctuary and had a stroll around where we saw many koalas and wallabies as well as a few echidnas. 

We then stopped off at the rental house where Kylie's aunt was staying and had a lovely dinner with Kylie's aunt and her partner before heading to the penguin parade! We bundled up for a chilly evening on the beach watching hundreds of penguins make their way up to their burrows. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed (it possibly makes the penguins throw up and then the chicks have nothing to eat and die. Life lessons, follow the rules or baby penguins die. This did make me less annoyed that I forgot my camera back in Melbourne. 

Wednesday: We started the morning at Temuku for brekkie. I had a cappuccino and  vegie brekkie of sourdough bread with tomato, avocado, poached eggs and rocket. 10/10 would recommend. Then we got back on the road and headed to Brighton beach to check out the beach huts. 

We drove through St Kilda and then stopped off at Melbourne's only Unesco world heritage site, The Royal Exhibition Building for a few photos. 

We got ready for dinner at Cumulus Inc and shared several dishes including the stand outs - lamb shoulder, ricotta dumplings and sweet and sour broccoli. We had dessert at Max Brenner's chocolate and then stopped in the Berlin bar - themed around, you guessed it... Berlin prior to the fall of the wall, featuring both East and West Berlin.

Tomorrow we head up to the Whitsunday islands to get on a catamaran for a few days. This was my first visit to Melbourne, but definitely will not be the last.