Melbourne Adventure Day 3

SHOPPING DAY! I was meant to meet MTYP & Celeste at 10 am, but surprise surprise, Cel couldn't wake up (-.-') and MTYP was a little late, so I hung out at the State Library. It was really cool inside - I like how the tables are arranged to form a 'sun', and how there is a chess room, and also how there are balconies filled with shelves upon shelves of books that I don't think you can get to. (I know it sounds abit Duh! We are talking about a library after all.. - but take a look yourself, you'll see what I mean.)

Victoria State Library

See the sun arrangement? And check out those bookshelves behind the balconies!

The Chess Room!

Then I went to have Japanese lunch with MTYP at Chocolate Buddha, but it was closed, so we killed some time at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV). There was a book sale there, and a wonderful HEATED timber plank spot on the floor. Felt so good! :) We both had Gyu Ramen for lunch. (Miss Celeste Tan was still asleep at this point of time.)

Gyu Ramen

After lunch we made our way to the station, but stopped halfway to look at a basker. He was very entertaining, picking out random people in the crowd and pretending to be them or making fun of them. To a man who was carrying his little girl on his shoulders: "Wow there Sir, you must be very proud, what a beautiful daughter growing out of your spine!" and to a man pushing a pram: "See that man there pushing his pram? Yep yep, that's him, I bet he's now wishing he had a more expensive pram." It was good fun, but not if you were victimized =/ MTYP and I had to wait until he got distracted and then ran for it - we were so scared of him!! lol.

Headed down to one of the 3 DFOs (Direct Factory Outlet) located at South Wharf. It's like Harbour Town, but bigger and waaay more crowded. The line in Supre/Cotton On was unbelievable! I couldn't be bothered waiting, and the fact that I had 3-4 layers of clothing on that I had to take off and put back on after trying out clothes was too much of a hassle! Grr. >=/ I don't know how most girls can tolerate it..ended up buying myself only a jacket and couple of tanks. Cel could not believe I was even shopping and in her words, 'wearing accessories not given to me by a boyfriend'. But it's been 3 years man - there's gotta be some change! Lol. (And yes, Cel woke up just in time for shopping. :P)

DFO, South Wharf

Had tea at Lindt Cafe after, where Cel had macaroons, MTYP had choc cake, and I had Dipping Strawberries! *nyumnyum* There we had a really good time of catching up - Cel & MTYP haven't changed much at all, I feel. :) After tea it was dinner at Rose Garden - authentic Malaysian! OMG, spicy beans & minced chicken with rice never tasted SO GOOD. *mmmm* And that was only 1 dish out of their Top 10! Would've liked to go back again, but didn't have the time. But had time for Freddo's again though (I dunno how I managed that, I swear I must have grown an extra stomach for dessert or smth..=X), this time I tried chocolatey gelato - Nutella & Roche! Both awesome flavours. :)

Dipping Strawberries with Assorted Platters (Butterscotch, Candy & Nut, Dessicated Coconut)

Spicy beans & Minced chicken on rice. :D''' *slurp*

This was the night I travelled back to Tiff's by myself - it was cold, dark and scary! Plus my direction skills aren't that great, especially not in Melbourne! But I'm glad to say - I made it without any dramas(with the exception of getting off one stop early which meant I had to walk extra)! :)

Melbourne Adventure Day 2

Friday greeted us with cloudy grey skies and rainnnn. :'( But that didn't stop Tiff and I from continuing our tour of the University of Melbourne. We finished that off, stopped by to pose with the Newman College Chapel and went off to Victoria Markets.

Newman College Chapel

Victoria Markets - stepped in and was like, 'OMG LOOK AT ALL THAT MEAT & SEAFOOD!' It was bustling with people, and every now and then you'd hear the ang-mo version of 'Lelong lelong, lima ringgit satu kiloooo.' ('Fresh prawns, five dollars a kilooo.') Doesn't have quite the same oomph to it, I think.. :P

Look at all that meat!

And seafood!

We walked around, tasted some cheese, looked at some clothes, and experimented with jams & spreads on little bread nibbles. I bought a very tourist-y T-Shirt that says 'I love Melbourne' and a couple of bags that cost me AUD65, what a bargain! Brandless, of course. :) We shared a donut and had hotdogs for brunch.

Jams & Spreads

Hotdogs!

Later on we walked back to Federation Square to attend the Tim Burton Exhibition. I am so very happy I caught it, it was uber cool! It was a shame that no cameras were allowed, but what I saw in that exhibit will be forever etched in my mind. Yes, it was THAT good! What you see is what you get - eccentric, mind-boggling, pieces of art made into films, books and drawings, all with that same element of weirdness that characterises a Tim Burton production. I loved everything about it - from Edward Scissorhands' life-size suit and scissory gloves and the mannequin donning Alice's blue dress, to Stainboy's 6 miniclips and a 3D model of Oogie-Boogie. Absolutely brilliant, it was! :)

Tiff & I outside Federation Square

The Many-eyed Blue Man. Check the Batmobile out down below!

Excited me before entering the Exhibit.

That was as far as my camera got. The REAL fun began down those stairs. ;)

That was pretty much the highlight of the day - spent the rest of the day eating. Lol. Couldn't do much else too, as it was still raining. Managed to take a picture with The Press Club sign, lol. I didn't try it out because it was expensive - AUD40++ for a single dish, AUD18-20 for dessert. I would've loved to try it out, but my good ol' brain was telling me AUD40 could buy me at least 3 meals, and it was right. Oh well, save it for another day. :) Melbourne Trip Pt. II, perhaps?

...Yeah. Me & The Press Club Sign. :P

OH! This was the day Tiff & I ran under newspapers in the rain, across a bridge to Crown Casino/Hotel. This was also the day we stood under the rain in the dark, watching Crown's Fire Show. Even though the fire pillars were quite tall, we could feel the warmth of the flames everytime the pillars lit up. I imagine it would be a rather pretty sight, looking at the whole row of flaming pillars from somewhere opposite Crown. Sadly I have no pictures to show..my camera died. :(

The rain finally got the better of us, so we explored Crown and took a few pictures. Ended up in the Casino, where we watched...tennis. -_-" lol. yeah, I know. It was the Isner v Mahut match, at the time they were going 61-60. Got a bit boring after a while, so we walked around some more, only to stumble across this sign that said 'PORTUGAL vs. BRAZIL 12 AM TONIGHT' which raised alarms in both our heads, because that meant we had to get home to watch the match!!! But not before taking away some tiramisu from Cafe Greco. :P

Some homemade coffee and Greco's Tiramisu slice.

So there we were at home, sipping coffee and enjoying tiramisu, together with some yoghurt and apples, all ready for an exciting match...only to be disappointed later by a 0-0 game. Lame!

Melbourne Adventure Day 1

Touchdown! It was 6.45 am, Thursday morning. I only managed an hour's sleep on the plane, and I spent the rest of the flight playing 'Angry Bird' and listening to some music until I got a headache. But all traces of the headache were gone by the time I landed. My excitement level was mounting as I walked towards the baggage collection area. I was in Melbourne! My first ever real holiday since my family moved down to Perth. :) I couldn't wait to explore Melbourne and I especially couldn't wait to see my friends!

I took the Skybus down to Southern Cross Station in Melbourne City, and even though I willed myself to stay awake so I could catch a glimpse of Melbourne's Woop-Woop (apparently the airport is super woop-woop), I succumbed to a blissful 30 minute nap. :P

The SkyBus

I met Tiffany and her friend Christine at the station, and then we went for yummy crepes atRoule Galette down Scott Alley. I had a Forestière crepe filled with béchamel (French white sauce), bacon, mushroom and cheese. Perfect breakfast to start the day! :)

Roule Galette, Scott Alley

Then we headed down to one of my faaavourite places in Melbourne, MoVida Alley. Kudos to the street artists over east! I lost myself, standing in the midst of senseless drawings and vibrant colour splashes..I could stay there forever! (This was also where Marion Grasby beat Frank Camorra, chef of MoVida Restaurant, in MasterChef Australia 2010). Double thumbs up for me. I think Perth 'graffidiots' could do with taking a page out of their books, although..they wouldn't be called 'graffidiots' anymore if they could reproduce similar works of art.

Words? But not?

So cute!

The white cat, Tiff & I.

MoVida Alley & I. :)

I had to drag myself away from that alley..then off we went to Flinders Street Station. I recognized it straight away from Facebook photos - everyone I know who's been to Melbourne and back has got a snapshot of themselves with this landmark behind them. I am no different!

Flinders St Station

Headed to QV (Queen Victoria) after walking past a few streets (Collins, Little Collins, Bourke, Little Bourke - I find it cool how streets are named as such in Melbourne) just to have a quick look see. At this point of time I was still lugging my suitcase around - shopping just did not appeal to me. Then we crossed the road diagonally to get to Melbourne Central - not much I remember from there, except lots and lots of candy, and a ginormous clock with pigeons moving to the sound of 'Waltzing Matilda'.

A clockful of hidden pigeons

Melbourne Central

After half a day of walking around I could take it no longer, I was in need of a shower and a nap. So we went back home to Tiff's, where I managed to have 2 hours of shut-eye. All geared up and ready by the time I woke up, we made our way to the University of Melbourne. Melbourne Uni has a pretty cool Science library, it's decorated with wacky gizmos and artsy lights and furniture. The Uni's got its own trackfield too!

Melbourne Uni Trackfield

On campus grounds.

Science library. Wacky!

We didn't manage to finish touring the entire campus because we had to meet MTYP for dinner along Lygon St. We ate at Ying Thai 2 (yes, there is a Ying Thai 1 LOL!), where I decided to play safe and just order a Pad Thai. It was quite yummy.

Me and my Pad Thai.

Tiff and MTYP, with their beef noodly soup thingy.

Then we went to Il Dolce Freddo (my favourite place along Lygon St!), where I tried their really famous DURIAN GELATO. It was so frickin' awesome, the moment I tasted it I was like, 'OMG I'm defo coming back for 2nds! Or 3rds!' We froze in the cold after, but it was so worth it. I was so happy. :D

Love at first taste. *sigh*

The Great Paradox: The Freezing MelTings.

We ended my 1st day in Melbourne by walking MTYP back to the train station (Southern Cross, I think it was), and planned on going to Docklands but backtracked because it looked too dodgy and dark at night.

Southern Cross Train Station

MTYP, Tiff & I.

So, I've decided to create a blog exclusively for travel and holiday posts. :)

It is my sincere hope and wish that by the time I reach 50 this blog will have been substantially filled.