Hi... remember me? I'm that girl who moved to Australia and started a blog about it... but hasn't blogged in almost 2 months. I could write an essay apologizing and telling you how busy I've been but let's face it, we're all busy we all have a lot on our plates and nobody wants to read about anyone else's busy life. So I'm just going to say hi, please forgive me, and let's get started on this new post.

In all of the vacations I've taken to Australia throughout my life I've done a little bit of travelling to see family, but somewhere that I had never been before was Melbourne. Everyone has told me how much I would love Melbourne so naturally, my friend Jackie and I booked a trip. I finished exams on the 13th of November and on the 22nd I was off to Melbourne for 3 and a half days. Hopefully these next few posts about Melbourne can give you some ideas about what to do or see if you ever visit, or if you don't plan on it, you can just sit back, relax and enjoy.

I can tell you this: everyone was right. I fell in love with Melbourne in a matter of minutes. The 14 degree temperature (in celsius btw) that met us upon arrival wasn't exactly ideal, but the culture of the city was enough to let that pass. Melbourne isn't just a city, it has its own personality. I didn't feel like I was in a big city where people were rushing to get where they had to go. It was a lot more laid back, like everyone was taking their time to enjoy the city surrounding them. When we first got there we were starving so we thought it would be easy to find a cafe to have brunch at. Unfortunately, Melbourne falls under the classic Australian ideal of nothing being open on Sundays. After walking through the CBD for a while we finally came across The Grain Store, a busy cafe on Flinders Lane. I guess when you're one of the only cafe's open on a Sunday you're bound to be busy. I got the toasted carrot falafel with quinoa tabouleh - it was the only vegan option on the menu, but I was not disappointed. It was a bit on the pricier side but it was a delicious meal and I would definitely recommend.

The carrots were dehydrated which was so cool it was like chips on a salad. Amazing.

We then headed off to the Queen Victoria Market. I think we would have enjoyed it more if we didn't have to carry our luggage around with us. Unfortunately we couldn't check into our Airbnb until 3pm, so we were wandering around with luggage, and we were not in the best mind set. The QVM reminded me a lot of the St Lawrence Market in Toronto. It was a great place to get local produce, old books and records, or some souvenirs to bring back home with you. I would definitely want to go back to check it out again, but without my luggage this time. Finally we gave up and just headed to our Airbnb in hopes that we would be able to get in a few minutes early. Fortunately on our way there we got a message from the host telling us we could check in.


Our Airbnb was probably one of the best parts of the trip. It was located in Fitzroy which can be compared to Newtown in Sydney or West Queen West in Toronto. If you have never been to either of those places then let's just say it's the alternate part of the city with different types of cafes and boutiques. If I still used the word hipster I would say it was the "hipster" part of town. Also if you're looking for somewhere with tons of vegan options - Brunswick street in Fitzroy is the place for you. But, more about that in the next post. The apartment itself was super cute, had GREAT lighting (perfect for selfies), and was in a perfect location for our trip. If you read my NYC post a few months ago you would know how much I loved my experience with Airbnb then, and I still love it now. If you want to sign up for Airbnb and get a discount off of your first trip, use this link! It's honestly much cooler experience than staying in a hotel, and can be a lot cheaper too.

Excuse the mess I made within seconds of checking in but how cute is this place?!

After dropping off our luggage, charging our phones and refreshing ourselves after a day of travelling and walking, we headed back into the city to check out Bourke St Mall. The road is closed off to traffic, only the trams can get through, so it's easy to walk through and go to all of the different shops. We went to stores like Zara, Glue, and the biggest H&M I have ever seen. H&M has just recently ventured over to Australia so it is a big deal here. The second one literally just opened a few weeks ago in Sydney. I grew up living 5 minutes from an H&M so it was funny for me to see how hectic people were over the store.

Everyone was shopping madly while I was taking pictures of the entire store

After shopping for a couple of hours we met up with one of my old family friends, Blake, who lives in Melbourne. His girlfriend suggested we go to the Night Noodle Markets as they had come to Melbourne for a few days. Unfortunately she wasn't feeling well and couldn't make it but we still met up with him. The Noodle Markets were in Birrarung Marr Park, just a few minutes walk from Flinders St Station. There were tons of people, and tons of noodles. I found a vegan friendly stall and got a noodle dosa which is basically noodles in a crepe. It was super delicious. If you live in Australia and the noodle markets come to your city I definitely recommend going. There are also tons of lanterns and dangly lights which are one of my top 10 favourite things in the world.



Finally, Blake took us to one of the many rooftop bars in Melbourne, Goldilocks, which he heard about from a friend. Something cool about Melbourne is that a lot of the bars and cafes are hidden and you have to be told about them ahead of time to know that they exist. To get to this bar we had to walk through a Chinese restaurant, get on an elevator and go to the top floor. The rooftop had some good views of the city, and was the perfect place to be as the sun set on our first day in Melbourne.

Stay tuned for day 2 coming at you soon! And for more pictures you can check out my Instagram: @tessbald