DAys 132-135: 3 Days In Melbourne

We spent 3 days exploring the city of Melbourne, plus a day trip to drive the Great Ocean Road (the subject of future post).  Melbourne is considered the most European of all the cities in Australia, however I only found this to be true for a few alleys lined with cafes.  While there are lots of places to eat outdoors, most of the city is very modern and colorful.  Unlike Queensland (and most European cities for that matter) it has a very diverse population, which was a nice change of pace.   

We stayed in a great apartment building called City Tempo, which was only a few blocks from Melbourne's famous outdoor food market, Victoria Market.  We loved our little studio apartment because it had a well-equipped kitchen, a washer/dryer, and being on the 27th floor, we had a great view facing west.  Also, its proximity to Victoria Market was key since we really enjoyed shopping for fresh food there! 

We did a lot of exploring in Melbourne, visiting the following places:

• Victoria Market  (outdoor food market)
• South Bank (river walk, cafes, casinos, shopping)
• Crown Entertainment Complex (full of shops & casinos - a lot like Vegas)
• Royal Botanic Gardens
• St. Kilda (low-key beach town with lots of cafes)
• Downtown shops (there are lots!)
• Fitzroy (hipster boutiques, bars & cafes)
• Hardware Lane (a charming alley full of restaurants where every owner harasses you to choose theirs)

Here are some pictures from around Melbourne:

G'day from Melbourne!

Sitting on a bench surrounded by fabulous tile, people watching the people watchers at a South Bank cafe.

South Bank street art. Does that chick have a moustache?

Audrey

It was sunny, but so windy!

Typical Australian rowhouses

Victoria Market

Chris is in his element in Victoria Market.

Sea urchins (left) and massive lobster tails (right).

The botanic gardens have a great collection of Camellia trees. So pretty!

One of many modern buildings in Melbourne. This one was the most bizarre and reminded me of Slimer from Ghostbusters...after he was blasted by a proton pack.

Lucky us! One day we checked out the Mexican Festival which meant a free mariachi concert, people running around in sombreros and serapes, and lots of Mexican food (our favorite)!

St. Kilda
St. Kilda is a little beach town about a 20 minute tram ride from Melbourne central. While we were there, it was too cold to enjoy the beach, but I can see this neighborhood being really fun in the summer time. There is a main street filled with cafes, restaurants and shops. There is one stretch of this road that has about 4-5 cake shops in a row. We definitely indulged!

One of the many cake shops in St. Kilda. We shared a slice of a french vanilla cream cake. Delish!

A bit of Havana in St. Kilda. We stopped for lunch at Santa Ana Tapas Bar. While the decor reflected images of Cuba, the food was a latin fusion, skewing Mexican. We enjoyed our tacos.

Entrance to Melbourne's Luna Park in St. Kilda. Luna Park was a global chain of amusement parks which are mostly now defunct. These amusement parks existed on every single continent except Antarctica. The first was built as Coney Island's second major amusement park. I find the entrance really creepy, like something out of a horror flick.

Fitzroy & Naked for Satan
One evening we went out in the Fitzroy neighborhood to a restaurant called Naked for Satan. Fitzroy seems to be where a lot of the hipsters hang out and this place is a crowd favorite.  Its specialty is vodka, and they have an extensive menu of vodkas from around the world, infused vodkas and exotic vodka cocktails. On the ground level, they offer $2 tapas (the price drops to $1 later at night, which fortunately coincided with our arrival). Upstairs, there is a full service restaurant and a rooftop bar that was jammed packed. We opted to for downstairs and really enjoyed our drinks and the interesting tapas they served.  Chris tried a sampler of their infused vodka and they all tasted like cough medicine, so make sure you pass on those if you ever visit. 

I really liked the back story for the bar name, Naked for Satan: A guy named Satanovich moved to Australia from Russia after his family perished in the early 1900's. He settled in Fitzroy and worked as a sweeper in the building currently occupied by the bar. During the Great Depression, alcohol became very expensive. Satanovich knew how to make vodka because it was his father's profession back in Russia. So in the basement of this building, he started making vodka, allowing anyone with ingredients to use his facilities. As you can imagine, he became very popular! During the summer, the basement was sweltering while the vodka was brewing, so Satanovich would strip off his clothes until he was almost naked to stay cool. Those who joined him did the same. The Aussies, who tend to shorten words, called him Satan instead of Satanovich. So whenever someone wanted vodka they would go and get naked with Satan.  

Downstairs at Naked for Satan

Tapas at the bar

We had about three days to check out the city, and I'm sure we didn't even scratch the surface. One thing that we didn't check out was Phillip Island, where you can go at dusk to see a colony of penguins return from a day at sea.  Phillip Island is 1.5-2 hours outside of town, depending on your mode of transport, so we decided to skip it, however, we may have checked it out if we'd had an extra day.  Overall, we enjoyed Melbourne.  It was a smaller city, but it was full of energy and had a lot to do.  

Stay tuned for our next post on our trip along the Great Ocean Road, stretching west along the coast from Melbourne.