Melbourne winter weekend

Our last few days were spent in Melbourne. Or as the Aussies say it: Melb-uhn. We went last year and T loved the city, so we'd always planned to take a little weekend getaway there over the wintertime. Coincidentally, Toby was working with teams down in the Melbourne office, so we had a reason to go down on a Wednesday night. I worked from our airbnb on Thursday and Friday while T went to the office: just like real Melbourne life!

The view from our airbnb

The first two nights we stayed right in the heart of the city. Our airbnb was very much a city apartment: on the 11th floor and tiny, tiny, tiny! But we did have great views of the city and it was easy to get around, so it was perfect.

But on Friday night, we moved out to our weekend airbnb in the little suburb of Fitzroy. On our last trip to Melbourne, we discovered that Fitzroy is really the place to be: it's trendy, full of good restaurants, and there's always something fun to stumble into. So we were excited to check it out. Our airbnb really looked the hipster part.

The chairs faced the tv - comfy! =) 

Our time in Fitzroy involved a lot of eating. There are about 5 restaurants in the area that are completely vegan, and every place had big vegetarian and vegan menus. So we were set for food!!

T feeling very satisfied after stumbling across a whiskey bar

The salt & pepper shakers at our Mexican vegan dinner

Every vegan restaurant was absolutely packed all the time! 

Hanging out at a cider bar

Aside from eating, there was plenty to do in just exploring the streets of the neighbourhood. There were lots of cute little shops around, as well as positively unique things going on. Like this walk-up t-shirt bar, where you bring a design to the window, pick something you want it printed on while you wait there.

In a shop window

On Friday night, we came across a pop-up art space that was doing open mic shows for local youth. There was a youngish kid rapping when we were there, so we joined the crowd and listened. Pop up music - pretty cool idea!

And because it's Melbourne, there was plenty of street art to see. Pretty much every alley had something interesting to see. 

Melbourne is definitely a bit more trendy and gritty than Sydney, overall. Put that trendiness together with the Aussie humour, and you get an attitude that I find hilarious. It's hard to properly capture, but I saw some signs during our weekend there that points to it. 

Please visit our damned shop

Too darn cold to stay open late... 

Thongs (flip-flops) are frowned upon (but not explicitly against the rules)

We also took a walk out to Fitzroy Gardens during our afternoon on Saturday. Even though the weather was freezing, the sun was out for most of our walk, so it was fun to walk through some of the residential areas and then explore the park. 

Bionic Ear Lane

Entering Fitzroy Gardens

This guy was freezing

Our big event of the weekend was going to see Neil deGrasse Tyson speak at the convention center. T is a big fan of the NDG and I like him a lot too, so we were really excited to hear him talk. It was a great evening. 

Our Sunday plans were to go to the Queen Victoria Markets and hang out for a while before it was time to get our flight back to Sydney. The markets partly indoor but mostly outdoor, and they're the biggest open air markets in the Southern Hemisphere. Visiting the markets have been on my Melbourne To Do list for a while. 

T ruling up some enthusiasm for market-time

Lots of meats, cheeses, and veggies inside the old building

Aside from the food parts of the market, there were tons of stalls that just sold normal market type things: crafts, clothes, weird market junk. If you had the stamina, you could spend hours wandering it. 

Unfortunately, the downside of the markets being mostly outside was that it was absolutely FREEZING cold. The wind was really strong - even the Melbournites were complaining about the cold. I realized there was no way I could hang out for a long time at the markets and stay happy, so we headed outside the city to the Scienceworks museum where we knew we could stay inside. 

It seemed that lots of families had the same idea as us on that cold day. Luckily the museum was really built for kids to burn off energy. Like this exhibit where kids could race against an Olympic sprinter. 

Or where big kids could climb on the climbing wall. 

We had a good time hanging out at the museum, and then spend our remaining few hours in Melbourne at cafes/bars: anywhere that feel warm! It was really a great weekend, and we got to feel like we lived in the city foremost of it, which was a a really fun way to experience it. Yay for Melbourne weekends!

Until next time, Melbourne!