Melbourne
Dear Dayre,
I'm gonna list down some of the places I enjoyed a lot in Melbourne! It will be in chronological order 🤗
It was my first time in Melbourne and I was more fussed over relaxing and enjoying myself than to tick off all the touristy stuff that needed to be done. But there are some places I really liked and I shall share them!
#yinagoestomelbourne
I touched down at Tullamarine Airport and took the Skybus Shuttle to Southern Cross Station, where I took a 30 mins trek with my luggage to get to our accommodation at Little La Trope Street, which is right in the heart of Melbourne City.
PS. Could have taken the train to Melbourne Central Station but I felt like a walk hehe first time in the city 🤗
Accommodation – Brady Hotels on Little La Trope Street
Reached our accommodation at Brady Hotel, which we found on AirBnb! Nice place, cosy and comfortable.
It only cost around 560AUD for 5 nights, which worked out to be 56AUD a night per pax 👍🏻
Hello buddy 👋🏻👋🏻👋🏻
Oh i loved the toilet interior! Navy and white tiles with copper piping and fittings. So chio de. *marks down for future reference*
Only issue was the tiny tiny sink haha. Wash face = Water all over the toilet floor.
Cafe – Higher Ground
One of the cafes worth visiting in the city area is Higher Ground, opened by the famous people from Top Paddock.
It's located in a big brick building and is really quite gorgeous 😍
We went there early around 9 ish on Easter Monday and didn't have to wait too long, but the queue got much longer when we were leaving (around noon ish)
This is the interior. Tall ceiling and lovely industrial feel!
The confit lamb ribs were so good and so was the spiced heirloom cauliflower with scrambled eggs on flat bread!
Everyone orders the ricotta pancakes cos they are really very photogenic hahaha.
It's a huge portion tho, two of us didn't finish it!
Total bill came up to around 70AUD if I remember rightly.
Shopping: DFO Outlet Stores
One of the largest outlet malls in Melbourne is DFO at South Wharf!
This is just the basement level. We spent about five hours shopping haha.
I didn't buy much but got some really good deals like CK underwear, Peter Alexander sleepwear and etc!
Hugeeeeee Cotton On with some dirt cheap prices and also full-priced products, so you need to check the prices, not everything is on sale 😂
I did get a sports bra and exercise tights at full price though!
Peter Alexander is some popular Australian sleepwear label and they have cheap sleepwear for $15 a piece, some tops have built in shelf-support too, pretty comfy!
I got some of these for my sisters as well lol everyone could do with some cute sleepwear right.
Most stores close around 6pm so go earlier if you wanna shop til you drop!
Sightseeing/Food/Shopping – Queen Victoria Market
Fresh seafood anyone?
Go to Queen Victoria Market! We went straight for the fresh oysters sold by the dozen: you can eat them on the spot at the dining area by the food court!
We had three dozen oysters (in different varieties) for 50AUD which is dirt cheap as oysters go???
We had 36 oysters, just the two of us 😂😂😂
But the oysters were sooooo fresh that they didn't feel like too much at all 😍 Had them with a squeeze of lemon and tobasco sauce and they tasted so good!
There's also an outdoor market where you can find produce and another section where there's souvenirs, clothes, accessories and shoes etc!
I chanced upon a little stall selling dainty accessories and liked them very much so I bought some 😍
Earrings, and rings! ❤️
Located around the outdoor area are also food trucks selling all kinds of yummy stuff, like these jelly donuts that's filled with raspberry jam!
The donuts were so fluffy and fresh!
This food truck called The Mussel Pot is also awesomeballs!!!
Be prepared to wait during peak hours though cos the uncle and auntie quite slow one.
The chilli, coconut cream, tomato, parsley combi is SOOOOO yummy omg. $12 only!
Dinner – San Telmo (Argentinian grill)
This is one of the best meat places in Melbourne, legit 😍
A Melbourne friend brought me there for dinner and I was blown away!
Some fancy starter that looked like curry puffs but had beef/cheese fillings, so good!
We ordered these to start us off cos the meat takes at least 30 mins to be grilled and served.
THE BEEF 😍😍😍
And I've always felt lambo to be gamey, but the lamb was amaaaazing! Super tender and so well-grilled!
Super special desserts: Mascarpone cheese with figs and nuts! This was savoury and sweet, really good!
Lime sorbet ice cream with prosecco!
Our extravagant meal for two came up to $200AUD with a lot of drinks for us! Expensive but it was such a satisfying meal.
The grilled meat was excellent 😍 So nicely charred on the outside with tender juicy insides!
Sightseeing – Great Ocean Road (Bunyip Tour)
I made the impromptu decision to sign up for a Great Ocean Road tour by myself because Tammi had to fly back to Sydney for a couple of days.
Didn't regret the decision AT ALL because the scenery was absolutely beautiful!
The tour cost $130 for an entire day – It starter at 7.15am (pick up) and we got back to the city around 8.15pm.
😍😍😍
We went to the Cape Otway Lighthouse along the way, which was lovely ❤️
Climbed up the lighthouse to a picturesque view of the ocean.
It took me some time to decide but I finally went ahead to YOLO with a 15 mins heli ride at the 12 Apostles!
The heli ride costs $145 for 15 mins so it's not the cheapest but I think still quite worth-while because of the crazy view 🚁
And here's the 12 Apostles viewed from air!
Another lovely spot we visited was Razorback formation at Loch Ard Gorge!
Sightseeing/Chilling – State Library of Victoria
For architecture lovers, go check out the State Library of Victoria 😍
It was established in the year 1854 and has got 160 years of history!
Life-size chess sets that reminded me of Harry Potter!
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Take the lift up to the 6th story for an insane top down view of the library – It's stunning!
Natural day light streams into the library via the skylights as well 😍
There are also free exhibitions and galleries on the 4th and 5th floors so you can take a look at them at no cost at all! 👍🏻
Sweets: Aqua S
For a super instagrammable and also tasty treat, go to Aqua S (at QV right next to the library) for their famous cotton candy hued soft serve ice cream!
This is sea salt and biscotti flavour topped with popping candy and a toasted s'more!
Spent some time just sitting on this grass patch outside QV and chilling with my ice cream 😋
Except it melted too damn fast ☹️
While you're at QV, stop by the huge Woolsworth supermart to stash up on chips and timtams!
It's SO much cheaper at Woolies than anywhere else 😱 I think my big bags of chips cost $2 each! Cheap!!
Only junk food for me 😂
Cafe – Humble Rays
Humble Rays was a recommendation from Gaz, and it totally blew us away!
Gorgeous airy and bright interior space, marbled tables, deliciously sinful food at affordable prices 😍
We ordered the eggs ben that comes with braised pork belly, and a beef brisket burger.
Both were very rich and heavy but bursting with flavour and such a generous portion too!
I'd say their food is good for sharing cos of the intense flavours, it might get jelat towards the end. But I loved it la 😍
This Red Velvet S'ookie was a concoction of baked red velvet cookie cake topped with toasted marshmallows, raspberry ice cream and fairy floss.
Super sweet but also soooo addictive at the same time? I enjoyed the contrast in textures a lot, as well as the cold ice cream on warm cake. SO yum!
Everything cost less than 60AUD which I'd consider to be very affordable by Melbourne standards. 2 drinks, 2 mains and 1 dessert for less than $60!
Service was fab as well. Highly recommended!!
Shopping – Melbourne Central
One of the dresses I bought at Melbourne Central 😻
It's one of the most convenient places to shop at, right above Melbourne Central Station!
There's also a giant Coles supermarket below if you wanna do grocery or snack shopping 🙊
Can't believe I paid 100AUD for this knit cardigan but it was so comfortable that I YOLO-ed it 🤗
I got this gorgeous coat from Portmans (there's a outlet at Melbourne Central too!)
20% store-wide hahaha so it was 150AUD 😬
My luggage bursting with clothes HAHAHA
Cafe – Hardware Societe
On my last rainy morning in Melbourne!
Hardware Societe was recommended to me by at least three or four ppl so I had to try it~
We ordered some Trout thingy and the Lobster Benedict!
This is the lobster benedict.
I noticed that Australia does amazing poached eggs!
And this one came with yuzu hollandaise sauce which was so light and refreshing 😍
We finished off with this fried brioche – there's passionfruit curd and creme fraiche on it!
This was really good! The brioche was fried to perfection 😋 I'm not a huge fan of passionfruit but it balanced out the dish well!
Hardware Societe was our most expensive brunch yet at about 80AUD for two mains, one dessert and two drinks.
Cafe-hopping is not cheap eh! 😂
Personally I preferred Humble Rays cafe heh. But Hardware Societe was good too, just a bit expensive.