Melbourne: shopping (and eating)

Thursday was a beautiful day: warm and sunny, but a bit windy. It was nice enough to wear thongs (Juulia borrowed me her Havainas - the most popular thongs brand in Australia - so I wouldn´t have to suffer in my Scetchers anymore), a T-shirt and rolled up jeans. After having big breakfast at our hostel we took the tramp to Victoria Markets, which is huge sheltered outdoor market place with hundreds of tables! We spent quite a while just walking around and taking a look at the all the stuff: handicrafts, clothes, shoes, accessories, souvenirs, delicates, veggies & fruit... I bought a black belt and a scarf. We also bought delicious fruit smoothies and ate them while walking to the tramp stop to go to St.Kilda, which is the beach part of the city. Melbourne isn´t so well known for its beach life, which makes sense since the beach is pretty small compared to for example Bondi Beach in Sydney. Instead Melbourne is more known for its European like athmosphere with lots of restaurants, cafes and clubs, as well as interesting architechture and different forms of arts.

Anyways, we began our St.Kilda tour at a rather small park with lots of tall palm trees. We found swings, and I had to go swinging :) Then we walked along the beach. The street was under renovations and the fences were a bit distracting. We sat there for a while anyways just enjoying the bright sunshine. We would´ve wanted to go to an amusement park but unfortunately it was closed so we just walked past it. Then we took a look at all the little shops and cafes around there. They had some cute little clothes stores, and I bought my own pair of Havainas. There were so many cake shops selling tons of different delicious looking cakes :P We spent quite a while comparing all the cakes in different shops before deciding to split a cheese twist and a chocolate mud cake slice in one of them.

Park in St.Kilda

Lots of cakes :P

When we got back to the city centre we started wandering around to check out different malls and clothes stores. There´re so many cool malls there; either nice old buildings or posh modern centres. I took so many photos of the malls! We both bought skirts from this little no-chain shop. Unfortunately it was getting pretty late and most of the shops were closing, so we walked back to the hostel to get ready for dinner. We had decided to go to the Japanese restaurant we had spotted out the previous day, and crossed the river to get there. The view was beautiful with all the lights besides the water, plus a lighted ferries wheel. On our way to the restaurant we saw Experimental Playground, which was an exhibition of some sort. Because of being so hungry we decided not to go inside, but we rode these funny baby cars outside. Just like we had predicted the restaurant was furnished in Japanese style - they even had private rooms where customers sat on cushions on the floor - and the waitresses were wearing kimonos. I ate a dish with noodles, Miso soup and very fried veggies (so fried that I ended up peeling them).

Inside a cool mall

Another mall

Riding a baby car

In front of the Japanese restaurant

After dinner we took the tramp to Fitztroy, which is another partying area besides the city centre. Due to it being a Thursday night there weren´t a lot of people there, but we walked along the main street looking at different bars. We ended up going to Bar with No Name, which was a rather small and cosy bar with a few separate rooms. We had Bacardi Breezers and sat by the window. We returned back to the hostel already before midnight.