Coffee at Brother Baba Budan
Our first order of business was to check out the Coffee in Melbourne, we had heard great things about the coffee culture here so we wanted to try as much coffee as we could. Our first stop was at Brother Baba Budan which was a well recommended coffee shop. A shot of espresso and I was ready to go!
Hillsong
We had a full day planned however since it was Sunday we wanted to attend a church service. Hillsongs is a popular church in Australia and fairly well known around the world. We had wanted to go to their main campus near Sydney, but due to some scheduling we were unable to make it work. Instead we attended their melbourne location. It was so awesome to take a small break from travelling and reconnect with a church congregation. There really is something to be said about the global body of Christ.
Hosier lane
We wandered a few blocks away to an alley that Photos had looked up in our planning. One of the cool things about Melbourne was that they encourage street art and its all over the city. One such place was Hosier Lane. Obviously a lot of other tourists also knew about it as it was pretty crowded, but both Photos and I enjoyed the art immensely! This was such a cool thing to explore!
Roule Galette
It was lunch time and we had looked up this french Crepe place called Roule Galette that we wanted to try. It was on the way between Hosier Lane and Queen Victoria Market so we stopped by! I ordered the “Roule Galette Complete which had ham, egg, cheese, mushrooms and truffle oil. So Good!!
Queen Victoria Market
Our next stop was the Queen Victoria Market. We had read a lot about how this was this huge weekend market with tons of vendors and performers. It was super lively with all manner of food, nick nacks and groceries to buy. There were street performers everywhere and even some that roam the halls of the market.
Victoria State Library
After the market we made our way to the Victoria State Library. This was another place that photos had looked as a great place to take photos. Inside the library is a pretty impressive place for study! Its quite well laid out and had the feel of an art gallery and institute for education! We spent some time admiring the architecture trying not to disturb the actual students trying to concentrate!
Exploring Melbourne
Throughout our time between landmarks we passed by a great deal of Melbourne awesomeness! From a stylistic point of view, there was a myriad of awesome architecture that I thought was amazingly unique!
From a cultural point of view, I really enjoyed Melbourne’s “Vibe” there were many cool little alleys full of places to eat and shop. There were also buskers everywhere giving the city a lot more character and “feeling”
In addition there were even some random bits and things we stumbled on, including Chinatown, McDonald’s (which oddly enough is called “Macca’s” and even Rhino’s on skateboards.
Da Rin fried chicken
It had already been a busy day of exploring and both Photo’s and I were starting to get hungry, we walked by a Korean fried Chicken place called Da Rin and decided to give it a shot! It was very tasty and we were glad we tried! We ended up ordering some fried chicken along with wings! There was some deep fried goodness to be had!
Eureka Sky Deck
It was late afternoon by the time we had finished our chicken snack and we planned to visit the Eureka Sky Deck today in hopes of catching a sunset from high above Melbourne. The Sky deck is a tall sky scrapper with an observation deck at the top, 88 floors high. We had a little time to kill before we went up so we explored the riverfront area around the sky deck and enjoyed some great atmosphere.
It was then time to head up the Sky Deck. The observation area is quite modern with lots of space to take photos. There are these cool lights that point in the direction of prominent Melbourne landmarks. It was a great way to orientate yourself with the layout of Melbourne.
Sadly most of the sunset was covered by clouds. We were a bit disappointed but still enjoyed the experience nonetheless. On a great day I imagine the views would have been that much more spectacular!
Hosier Lane at Night
After the Sky Deck, we had one more thing we wanted to do before we called it a day. We returned to Hosier Lane in hopes that it would be less crowded so we could take a few more photos of the art unobstructed. Thankfully it was nearly empty and we were able to get some great shots, especially with the lighting the way it was! It helped to create some cool “moods” to the photos!
There was one prominent piece of artwork that we had noted the first time we visited in the morning. When we visited in the evening there was a couple standing by it talking amongst themselves. Photos and I overheard them, and started chatting them up! Because of this, it lead to a really cool adventure that deserves a blog post all on its own!
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