Monday, 26 February 2007

Melbourne, revisited

 

 

Haven't been to Melbourne in awhile, so this weekend myself and ingunn headed down to Australia’s 2nd best city. Great food, wine and ofcourse... shopping . However, I am writing this sitting in the domestic terminal of Melbourne airport as our flight has been delayed by 1 ½ hours which is unbelievebly annoying to put it mildly. Fortunately I’ve got a laptop handy, so bored with solitaire have decided to write about the last 48 hours.

The thing about Melbourne is that it is effortlessly cosmopolitan; bohemian coffee houses and debonair underground bars hidden down cobbled alleyways, with trams slicing through the inner city traffic. Compared to the brashness and daily turmoil of Sydney it feels refreshingly laid back. The main self-promoting feature seems to be its various shopping districts though, so on Saturday we decided take a trek out of the main city precinct and see what the fuss is all about.

Once you’ve passed Federation Square, wandered over the snotty-coloured South Yarra river, strolled through the memorial filled Royal Botanical gardens, you eventually come to Turoq street, which was recommended in the brochure I’d picked up at the tourist office as a good a place as any to “experience the quintessential Melbourne shopping adventure”. Turoq Street has a 1km strip of fashion shops, and I was led by Ingunn excitedly sniffing out deals on shoes and clothes and more shoes. The next few hours are a bit of blur, but basically consisted of Ingunn venturing into a shop and me waiting outside for the next 15 minutes wandering what it was about shopping that women enjoy so much. Retail therapy I guess, or the thrill of getting a perceived bargain. Or maybe some Freudian ego thing, who knows

Lane way concert

Bissecting Turoq Street, is the more widely known Chapel Street, which was pretty much identical but about 3 times as many shops and a few more coffee shops to refuel tiring shoppers. By 5pm I was knackered and bored to death of standing around outside shops, so we headed back on a tram. That was it for the quintessential shopping experience, I ended up with some red jumper, and ingunn about 6 tops, pair of shoes and someother items.

 The dining in Melbourne is arguably as famous as the shopping, on both Friday & Saturday we ate at on the pavement at some excellent restaurants down a cobbled hidden away alley, somewhere in between Little Collins St and Bourke Street. Dinner was then washed down with some drinks at Pugg Mahones then later La la land, and even later at L2 in the massive GPO building.

image

I do love Melbourne, and were it not for the lack of beaches i think i'd seriously consider moving there.  Will post some pics once i've found a Vista replacement for the handy image resizer powertoy.

Just finished reading this book: Cock and bull by Will Self.  Extremely weird, but very gripping and i enjoyed it immensely.

 

 

At peace in Botanical Gardens

Peacful botanical gardens

.. and a Ciabatta that didn't last long at all

Delicious melbourne sandwich

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