G’day, Melbourne

I’m currently in Melbourne, another major city in Australia that I had not had the chance to experience until now. I’ve been to a couple of other countries, but I’d never travelled to this large city that was only an hour away by plane. Nick and I are staying here until Tuesday and we’ve had a couple of adventures while here.

The Australian Open tennis tournament is held in Melbourne, and we had tickets for yesterday. We watched three matches, I can’t remember the names of the players in the first match we watched, but it was a pretty fast women’s match. Then we watched Victoria Azarenka and Naomi Osaka (she’s only eighteen!) play. Azarenka won, though Osaka played really well and Azarenka commended her on that. The last match we watched was Stan Wawrinka and Lukas Rosol. Wawrinka had a neon orange and yellow shirt and shorts. His sweatbands and shoes and socks matched too. He won, and shortly before match point, some guy in the crowd yelled, ‘Go the fluoro guy!’ really loudly. He had a lot of supporters in the crowd, and there were some really good shots in the game. Tennis is the only sport I enjoy watching. Other sports don’t really grab me. I had a good time.

Rod Laver Arena during Azarenka and Osaka’s match
Azarenka vs Osaka

The transport in Melbourne is pretty good in the city area. Trams are free unless you’re going outside of the city, whereas in Sydney you have to pay, and the network certainly isn’t that big. Fares are expensive and slow and you can often walk faster than them. They only come every fifteen minutes, but they seem to come a lot more often in Melbourne.

We ate breakfast yesterday at a recommended place called The Hardware Societe (both Brandon and Fiona recommended it. It was very popular and they don’t take bookings, but we only had to wait fifteen minutes for a seat. I ordered some really delicious salmon millefeuille which had a really amazing range of flavours and textures in it. There was not only grilled salmon, but salmon flakes between thin sheets of pastry, which also had avocado and capers. It complemented the pickled zucchini and the salmon pearls, while the poached eggs were a great addition.

Salmon millefeuille at The Hardware Societe
Yum, lots of salmon. Such a hearty breakfast.

Although I generally hate shopping, it was enjoyable walking around the many stores, and there were a few things I needed to buy, such as a new pair of heels and a pair of shorts. I tried on some amazing comfortable weatherproof ankle boots made in Italy (I’m looking for a new pair of heeled ankle boots since all of mine are destroyed), but they were very dear at $515. ? I told Nick that they were so comfortable I swear they would be the last shoes I ever buy, and I could honestly have slept in them.

I thought about it and I know I could find something pretty decent at a much cheaper price, but I can’t stop thinking about those boots.

A graffiti alleyway off Bourke Street.
An alleyway with graffiti, there are quite a few of these in Melbourne.

I lost $10 at the casino on a lucky spinning wheel, I always think I’ll get lucky but this time I didn’t. I can see how people get addicted at the casino, I really wanted to spend more money to see if I could profit even just fifty dollars, but the odds were really not that great.

One thing people told me about before leaving for Melbourne was the weather, often described as ‘four seasons in one day’. It’s very true! At the same time I wasn’t surprised and didn’t feel too inconvenienced. It rained so heavily in the mornings, and at lunch time it was cloudy, then in the evening it was so blissfully warm, even hot.

Inside Melbourne Central
Look at all those circles and lines.

Today we’re going to Vue de Monde for lunch – it is a very fancy restaurant in the top ten restaurants in Australia. I’m not sure what to expect, but I know the experience is one to be had, not just the taste of good food. ?

Comments on this post

I love Melbourne! It’s the only part of Australia I’ve been to, but I love how it embraces art in the sense that it’s everywhere – the graffiti, street musicians, library, and all that. My school brought a number of us there to attend creative writing and media lectures in the University of Melbourne. Now, many of my friends pursued or thought of pursuing further education there.

It’s awesome to travel out to different cities nearby! It’s amazing to see the dexterity, speed, and stamina needed to play tennis! Watchings sports is always entertaining for me XD. It’s awesome that the trams are free there!

Your breakfast looks delicious and healthy! I am definitely digging the ikura on the plate~

I can’t believe how expensive shoes and clothes can be! But for a really comfortable shoes that costs $515, I would need a looooonnnnng thought before buying it ;~;.

Hope you enjoyed Melbourne!

Wow, I’m surprised you’ve never been to Melbourne. I guess Melbourne IS closer to Adelaide than it is to Sydney, and it’s the footy capital (Aussie rules, that is :P) so we have often gone over for family trips for a footy game. I’ve probably been to Melbourne more than ten times in my life. I went there FOUR times last year alone :/ (probably won’t happen again lol).

Glad to hear you enjoyed the tennis! Can’t say it’s my favourite sport…. I find it boring. I’d much rather play than watch! Same with cricket.

OMG I’ve been to The Hardware Societe!! When I was in Melbourne in July last year a friend I met up with took me there for lunch. All day breakfast and it was yummy :) Nice venue too. It was very popular but we only waited about 5 minutes for a seat. Your meal looked amazing.

What’s great about Melbourne is all the random alleyways and lanes. Some with brilliant graffiti art like you posted, some with hidden cafes and eateries, others with artsy/high-brow fashion. There is SO much to do there, it can be rather overwhelming.

And like you said, transport is very easy. Walking is fine as well because it’s in a giant grid so it’s not difficult to find where you want to go. In Sydney CBD I found it easier to walk everywhere than to try and get transport (unless of course we wanted to go to Taronga Zoo, which meant catching the ferry!).

Hehe, yep, I’ve experienced those four seasons as well. One minute, raining. Next minute, sunshine!

Hope you enjoy the rest of your stay, and I do wonder whether you will buy those amazing sounding boots… Hmmm!! :D

I liked playing cricket when I was younger, but I couldn’t watch any game on television for very long.

I love The Hardware Societe, that was the best breakfast I had in a while. I will definitely go back again. And I will go back to Melbourne! There is so much I feel I still have to explore. I don’t find it too overwhelming though, it is certainly more interesting than Sydney, by a long shot. I spend a lot of my time trying to find hidden gems in Sydney because they are actually hard to find. I really do like that Melbourne’s CBD is smaller than ours.

Wow! You exploring a new city! and that too during Australian Open! Tennis is my top favorite game, but since India vs Australia ODI matches were going on till Saturday I couldn’t follow tennis as such! I’m so envious that you got to watch Azarenka play!

$515 for a pair of shoes? That is roughly Rs 25k ! I am pretty sure I will get something comfortable at less than 1.5k bucks (branded that is)

I’m looking forward to hear more about Melbourne! It is one of the cities in my bucket list to visit in this life time!

Aw, I hope one day you get to see a real life tennis match!

Yes, $515 is a huge sum of money, and I could get a good pair for less than $150, but it does require shopping around. I did not want to spend that much on a pair of shoes so I decided not to get them. Believe me when I say they were amazing though!

Yay for travelling to new cities :D I need to try and do more of that in Korea! I still haven’t been to Busan, which is the only other major city in Korea I’ve yet to visit :D

That salmon dish sounds super interesting. I’m glad you were able to go there and try them out! Even better that you didn’t have a long wait!

That’s one expensive boots! But it sounds like it may actually be worth $515, but . . . yeah, I think for my own budget, I’d try to find something a bit cheaper!

And good on you for not getting sucked into gambling! I personally won’t do it, but like you I can see the appeal . . . but that’s if you’re lucky XD Otherwise you’ll certainly lose a lot!

I hope your lunch at Vue de Monde turned out lovely! I’m awfully curious about your experience there! This curious foodie wants to know :D

Never been to a tennis match, but it sounds and looks fantastic. I’m willing to give any sport a chance to entice me. But that’s fine. I haven’t visited some parts of Texas, let alone some parts of the US. Sometimes, it happens. But I am happy that you finally got to visit Melbourne :D

That’s cool that you got to watch the Australian Open! Tennis is pretty much the only sport I like to watch now too. I used to watch basketball, but at some point, I think I got tired of watching team sports. I like how tennis is mainly one-on-one.

Yum, that salmon dish looks delicious. Interesting that the salmon also comes between pastry sheets. I don’t think I’ve ever had it that way. And wow, those are some really expensive boots!

I love the last two photos, by the way. The composition and perspective in both are very eye-catching :)

That’s so awesome you got to watch a few matches of the Australia open! I’m so jealous! I usually follow on TV or just pull the scores up online – tennis is really the only sport that I watch besides baseball. But I think that’s just because I play it ;) And even then, I don’t follow them very close. It sounds like they were good, fun matches, too!

Oh my goodness, $515 for a pair of boots! I’m assuming that’s AUD (?) but still, that’s quite a chunk of money! I don’t think I could ever pay that much because I’d be so afraid of ruining them I would never wear them, haha!

It looks like you had a great day in Melbourne! There’s tons of places I’d love to visit in the states, but I’d love to visit Australia someday, too!

Well I’m glad we both like watching tennis! :D

Yeah it was $515 AUD, I dare say it is a lot of money for any item of clothing. I also feel terrible if I spend a significant amount of money on something and it gets ruined quickly. Shoes are terrible, I spend a lot on heels only to wear them a couple of times and get the heel stuck in the pavement or something. I bloody hate that!

Melbourne sounds like a fantastic city. I know some friends who migrated there and they do enjoy it a lot.

Watching tennis is okay but playing… what a challenge! hahaa

Oh I get what you mean about wanting to plant your feet in a pair of booths forever. It was like that when I bought the perfect pair in my last Hong Kong trip. It’s made in Japan and IDK how they do it but you don’t feel pain even walking a whole day with it. It’s amazing and such a great buy! Good thing Hong Kong was raining in discounts then.