Melbourne

DAY 6 – 7

You can blame the internet and technology in general for the delay in this blog update! I had almost finished this post when it decided to disappear, cue my tears.

After an 11 hour flight, Meg and I landed in Melbourne, Australia on December 6th. The jet lag wasn’t bad because this city has a 21 hour time difference from Honolulu, but we lost an entire day because of it. When we made it back to the apartment, Madan was there to welcome us with pizza! Two “size large” pizzas which looked more like personal pizzas to me.

The next day we went to the South Melbourne Market and made our first stop at Padre coffee for a caffeine hit. By the way, Melbourne is obsessed with coffee, not coffee actually, ESPRESSO. The people in this city can’t get enough of it, there are cafes everywhere you turn. I’m pretty sure Melbournians have espresso instead of blood running through their veins. I’m not complaining about this, I feel like I have finally found my people! Fellow caffeine addicts unite!

The South Melbourne Market is huge and the few pictures I took don’t do it justice at all. It has entire produce sections (yes, that sign in the picture of arugula says “roquette” because Australians think they are French. They also say serviette instead of napkin. Weirdos.), entire sections for clothing and home shopping, gardening sections, and many many pastry shops. We picked up an apple pie and a couple croissants before making out way to the food court area. There was a stand with Turkish food and I ordered something that was supposed to have sweet potato in it, but they were all out so I got something with spinach instead. The woman kept emphasizing that I should get the spinach one because it is vegan, I’m not vegan but it was delicious.

We then walked to Flinders Street Station so that I could get a Myki card so that I could take the trams.

After purchasing my Myki we took a tram to meet some of Madan and Meghan’s friends at a brewery. This was my first experience at an Australian brewery, but it definitely has not been my last. Meghan and Madan are obsessed with “capturing Pokémon” which is what they call finding new beers to taste at breweries and uploading them on the Untapped app. This brewery was called Moon Dog and it was the most hipster looking place I have ever been in. Notice in one of the pictures the sign that says “espresso martini $15”, even at a beer brewery there is still access to caffeine.

This doggy daycare was next door to Moon Dog Brewery

After the brewery we went to a rooftop restaurant and bar called Naked for Satan where I had my first espresso martini! After the rooftop we went to the taco place next door. I think the name of this place was actually “Tacos” because that is all it said on the sign above the door. I ate a couple tacos as Freddie Mercury gazed at me lovingly from a plate on the wall.