melbourne, part 1

Hugh had an interview in Melbourne, and since I've never been there and haven't really been out of Adelaide since arriving last July, we decided to take a few days to explore. After Hugh booked the hotel, I turned to him and said, "We're not staying at the Hilton, are we?"

Of course we are.

We didn't fly first class this time, but Qantas is pretty awesome so it was a nice flight. Also, it was only about 45min long, so not much room for complaints. We flew over Sunday night after Hugh got home from work.

Lobby of our hotel. Not complete without a sports car on display.

I awoke at dawn Monday morning, and this was the view that greeted me. Four hot air balloons had just taken off from somewhere in the city. I was entirely charmed.

The first thing that struck me was the thought that I was in a city. That's an odd thought to have, when you've already been living in a city. But it made Adelaide look like Grand Junction. Actually, I'm not entirely sure Adelaide is much different in size from Grand Junction. Anyway, it dwarfed Adelaide. Turns out, it's at least twice as big as Seattle, even! It was nice and clearly wealthy.

South Wharf and the Yarra River

While Hugh had his interview, I used my fancy new iPhone to video chat with Holly in London. We had a nice long chat and I caught up on all the gossip (there were some juicy bits!) Then I headed into town to meet Hugh and grab some breakfast. I discovered a cool-looking cafe called the Journal cafe, next to the city library. It was very industrial-chic, with bookshelves suspended over the long tables.

Then we went shopping. According to all of the Adelaideans I spoke to, this is the only real reason one goes to Melbourne. Apparently, shopping in Adelaide has traditionally been a pretty grim affair and big chains have only recently colonised the city. All's I know is that the shopping has been totally fine here for as long as I've been here. I don't really feel like I'm missing out on anything. They just opened a Kmart, for heaven's sake! And anyway, all the stores we went into in Melbourne were ones that exist in Adelaide. *shrug*

But that's not to say I didn't buy anything.

Yes, this is rather an awkward photo, but the dress was perdy, and I need something for Amy's wedding in October, so...it's MINE, all MINE! We also checked out a really nice yarn store that was smack dab in the middle of the city. Imagine that! A yarn store that you don't have to take two buses to get to, only to find that it closes at noon on Saturdays and isn't open at all on Sundays! Or like the one in the northern suburbs of Adelaide that is only open on Saturdays. Anyhoo...

For dinner, we went to a fun-looking restaurant on the riverfront near our hotel. It was called Merrywell, and they had some very exciting things on the menu. There were onion rings, loaded fries, burgers, shakes, macaroni bites (!), and other American classics.

On Tuesday, we had breakfast at The Pancake Parlour, a wonderfully cheesy pancake house with an 1890s theme. I had the cheese and potato pancake. I don't think I need to say anything more about that. Cheese. And potato.

Then we walked to the Queen Victoria Market, Melbourne's open-air food market. I liked the sort of art deco booths for the dairy vendors.

 I think I'll leave this post at that and write the rest in another one!