I have been wanting to get to Australia for years, and I’ve finally been! My good friend, Gill, was traveling back to Melbourne for a professional conference and to visit her family at the end of August , so I tagged along for a week and fell in love. Originally, the plan was for Gill, me, and our friend Joyce to travel together, but unfortunately Joyce became sick with dengue fever and had to stay in Singapore. We missed her dearly on this trip, and I’m already excited to go back with them for a redo.
We took a redeye from Singapore, and landed Thursday morning. After visiting Gill’s family home, we spent the remainder of the day getting our nails done and eating with Gill’s mom. That evening we met up with Gill’s best friend, Em, and Em’s husband, Dan, walked around finding stationery stores, and ended up at Bincho Boss for dinner. The meal was delicious and I realized how I’ve missed high quality food that doesn’t take all of my money (ahem, looking at you, Singapore).
While Gill was at her conference the next day, Em and I spent the morning at South Melbourne Market. It is an incredible, indoor market with tons of stalls selling everything — food, drinks, party supplies (we bought a pinata because why not), clothing, not to mention there were cafes and restaurants inside. If I lived in Melbourne, I would come here every weekend, and probably most weekdays if I’m being honest.
We met Gill at the DFO stores once her conference ended and headed back to the Airbnb for dinner that we picked up from the market. The rest of the night was spent trying to break the pinata (much harder than you would think), drinking wine, and eating Tim Tams.
Feeling well rested after a night of laughing, the next day I had to myself while Gill attended the last day of her conference. I headed over to a stationery store I had my eyes on, Kami Paper in Fitzroy. It was filled with the most stunning Japanese paper products, and if I could, I would have bought every single piece in there. They also carry other fine papers from around the world, but I couldn’t get over the journals, photo albums, and notebooks covered in the Japanese artisan paper. Store owners, Yupin and Jean are such lovely people, and it was a highlight of my trip to visit their store and get my hands on a few items. I will absolutely be back to buy from them and attend one of their papercraft workshops!
Along that same street, I stepped into a few other beautiful stores walking towards Smith Street.
I continued down Smith Street, which had the cutest vibe. People were out eating lunch, relaxing, taking in the wonderfully cool weather. It was definitely my kind of pace.
Eventually, I made my way back downtown to meet up with Gill for the most deliciously rich hot chocolate at Koko Black.
Dinner that night was at one of Gill’s favorites, Mamasita, and it did not disappoint. One of the main foods I miss since living in Singapore is authentic Mexican food. It was nice to get a little taste of that while in Melbourne.
Sunday morning we left our Airbnb, and drove far out to Geelong to visit Gill’s cousin and experience a different side of Australia. The fish n’ chips were to die for, and we stumbled upon the cutest local market at the Steampacket Gardens while walking around.
We managed to buy some honey and some local crafts before running back to the car when the rain and hail started.
We drove back to Melbourne to stay at Gill’s parent’s place for the remainder of our trip, opting for a lazy rest of our Sunday due to the rain.
Monday morning we were right back at it with the activities though! Our morning started with thrift shopping, and then yum cha before visiting the National Gallery of Victoria.
The main exhibit we all wanted to see were the terracotta warriors. As an added bonus, the exhibit also featured contemporary artist, Cai Guo-Qiang’s work, whose work was truly impressive.
We weren’t able to see the rest of the museum in depth, but did go into a couple more galleries before they closed. I’m usually hit or miss on art museums, and The National Gallery really captured my attention in the best way. The art was visually interesting and aesthetically pleasing, which I much prefer to not-very-fun-to-look-at-and-also-confusing modern art.
Since Melbourne was just entering Spring, there was still a winter village set up with insulated igloos we wanted to check out. While other people were having romantic dates, or family nights in theirs, the three of us just drank and took ridiculous photos in our personal igloo. Money well spent.
Our night was capped off with massages at a thai place where they basically broke my back because I cannot handle asian massages.
Tuesday was my last day in Melbourne, so we decided to visit wine country – Yarra Valley. Meletos lunch was just as good as everything else we ate (starting to see a pattern of eating a lot and Melbourne have great food?), and the countryside felt relaxing, like wine country in California.
Last stop was Healesville Sanctuary because there was no way I was leaving Australia without seeing some koalas and kangaroos! Koalas are such peaceful, adorable animals, I’m glad I was able to visit them. Kangaroos are strange and the way they lounge is a little unsettling to me. Something to do with their long legs and their human-like proportions don’t sit well with me. Anyone else feel the same?
On the other hand, the parrots were incredible! I’ve never heard a parrot mimic sounds and voices in person, and it is one of the most uncanny things I’ve ever experienced.
The other little birds we encountered after were not so well behaved. They jumped all over us, and there now exist many videos of me low key panicking.
Looking back, we packed a lot into 1 week in Melbourne! Visiting Australia came at the perfect time for me — let me get my cold weather fix, and all of my western comforts. Don’t get me wrong, Singapore is quite western, but obviously with an asian feel to everything. Melbourne felt like a city in the US that I could comfortably fit into with no effort, and I had such a fun week. Next time I go, I’ll definitely be visiting Sydney!
Leave a Reply