Marvellous Melbourne

We spent two weeks in Melbourne in total and true its reputation, it was pretty marvellous. The first in the cbd and then the second was in st kilda, a beachy suburb about 20 mins out of the centre. Trams all over Melbourne make it really easy to get around and they have a card called myki which is not unlike London's oyster. Markets and food aside, we met some great people and saw some great stuff here:

The State Library of Victoria
Fantastic exhibitions and we saw the armour and death mask of Ned Kelly here, not at the gaol as you might think. There is also a stunning round reading room which recently had its ceiling windows restored with snazzy glass and the light is beautiful.

The Shrine of Remembrance
A very moving memorial to Australia's armed forces and those who have lost their lives in various conflicts. An incredible building.

Royal Botanic Gardens
There are a few scattered around the city and I will never cease to be entertained by the way Tom marvels at trees. It's endearing. And the trees are pretty marvellous, it has to be said.

Luna Park
OK, so we didn't go on a ride but in our defence the weather didn't really allow for it. Some really strong winds when we were there. The park is a sight to behold though and a Melbourne institution and we will be making a return visit.

The AFL grand final
A big thanks to Jess who put us in touch with her friend Anita, a Londoner who has moved to Melbourne. Not only did Anita and her boyfriend Owen give us some great advice about Oz, they introduced us to two great Melbourne pubs, The Mitre and The Cricketers and for that we are eternally grateful. The Cricketers is where we met up to watch the AFL grand final. The game being Aussie rules football of course. Not only did the tallest man I've seen in a while get kicked out of the pub for causing trouble, but we also experienced a Parmy for the first time. It's an oversight that Tom's foodtastic post below didn't include this beauty. Breaded chicken breast, topped with ham, tomato sauce and melted cheese and served with chips. Epic. Parma's or parmys have become a source of intrigue to us, and I'm sure it's a topic we will return to. I can't claim to have totally understood the game myself so I won't embarrass myself by writing about it, but it was great fun to watch as a Melbourne team,  the Hawks triumphed over the Fremantle Dockers (from Western Australia).

Melbourne Museum
A fantastic and modern museum with an excellent interactive and multimedia gallery explaining all about the Aboriginal culture in the state of Victoria and of course the story of Melbourne itself.

John
Our driving instructor. Yes, we took Aussie driving lessons for a number of reasons including the fact that we put a deposit on a car that is an automatic and neither of us have driven an automatic before. Tom last drove about 8 years ago and I am a new driver having only had my license for ten months. So we took 5 hours of lessons and John was a true Aussie with a big personality and a comb over to match.

Shopping
In between pastries from bread talk, we went to numerous shops to stock up on camping gear for our trip securing some great bargains. At some point we managed to make a spectacle of ourselves on Bourke street playing the drums on a Japanese arcade game. Melbourne is also home to some great laneways and arcades and they are easy to miss so if you're ever in Melbourne, make sure you seek them out. The block arcade and the royal arcade are the most famous ones and Anita sent us a self guide walking tour which was invaluable in discovering more about them. In the royal arcade there are statues of Gog and Magog who strike on the hour which are great to see. In days gone by, the block arcade was so much the place to be seen that it gave rise to a phrase, 'doing the block'. Also on the agenda were visits to Melbourne's markets, seeking out bargains and deliciousness and numerous outdoorsy stores to gear up our car for camping.

Travellers Autobarn / Our Car
Where we bought our shiny red car from. They have been great and have really set us up on our way, making the whole buying process a lot easier. The nice thing is we have a buyback guarantee so if after 12 months we want to sell it but can't they will buy it back from us at a pretty agreed price. Some of you may remember we were planning on a van, however this changed fairly swiftly when we saw the amazing Aussie station wagon that is a holden commodore executive. They are faster and more fuel efficient than a van as well as way more comfy for long distance driving. Plus it's red and shiny, OK?

St Kilda
One of Melbourne's beach suburbs, home to aforementioned luna  park, where we spent our second week staying in a beautiful federation home hosted by Teena through air bnb. (Air bnb is an online facility where people can rent out spare rooms or even whole apartments.) In many cases it's the same price as a hostel and the benefit is you get to meet a local person who lives and works in the area who can really help you out with ideas for places to go and things to do. Teena also has a rather charming Labrador called Atticus who was always there to welcome us so it really felt like our home for a week. Teena was a wonderful host and the house is a beautiful old building with great features. St Kilda has a lot of great shops and a lovely creative, beachy atmosphere yet if you hop on a tram and you're in the heart of the city in no time at all. Best of all, there is a colony of penguins living on the breakwater so if you head down there shortly after sunset, you can watch them come out of the water. Very cute indeed.

Food roundup so far

Annie and I like food, as you probably already know. We like food enough that it dictates our behaviour at home most of the time, and it's the same when we're away. We've come across a lot of new things so far, and be it strange hostel breakfast combinations in Singapore, dubious market food, or recommendations of gastro delights at a local pub hidden away in an Oz suburb, we feel it's a duty to ourselves to check it out. A few things have been particularly great so far. In no particular order: 

 - Chilli crab, a Singapore speciality we were told was mandatory. We'd say the same, though we'd like to take a local with us next time; there's a knack to deconstructing a crab with chopsticks, but we don't have it. 

 - Pepper Lunch, a small (?) Japanese (kinda) chain in Australia that serves up raw food in a 260 C iron bowl. It doesn't stay raw for long! It's a relatively cheap and rather novel take on teppanyaki or sizzling kebabs, and I'm surprised it's not in somewhere like Wagamamas at home yet. We've been twice: Annie recommends the kimchee beef rice with an extra egg, though i'm tempted by the steak options if we go again.

 - Tomato chutney /curry sauce pots are everywhere, we keep being given them with pies. They do good pies here, with generic "pie" meaning steak pie, sometimes with cheese(?!) in shortcrust. It's a bit of a gamble though, they rarely state any details else on the menu. I ordered what turned out to be the best steak and ale pie I've ever eaten at The Local Tap House in St Kilda. The pie came with a pot of chutney/curry and broccoli with toasted hazelnuts, a combo I'm definitely adding to my collection. We stopped by on a recommendation and found a list of 30+ lagers and ales (and wine to boot). I drank a Carlisle Street garden ale, which was brewed on the same street! 

 - Dubious breakfast combinations can pop up in even the nicest hotels, and those at hangout@mt.emily in Singapore are up there with the strangest. So strange I decided to list and rank them: 

Best - day3:1-mee tong noodles, 2- pancakes (drop scones), 3- baked beans (pretty good eaten with the noodles), 4- quiche (not exactly quiche...) 

 Good, but not best, day 2: 1- Fried rice, 2- cheese tomato (huh? As it sounds), 3- bread and butter pudding (a bit scrambled), 4- chicken sausages 

 The strangest was on day 1: 1- Cheese on toast (epic win, though some pieces were soggy), 2- baked pasta (a.k.a. pasta omelette), 3- baked beans, 4- potato salad 

 I should say there was also bread to toast, cereals and (vile) coffee, but why be boring when there's such a selection of freshly cooked stuff? 

 - Excellent bakes from the Woodfrog Bakery in St Kilda. Paul and Mary would be impressed by the exemplary pains au chocolat, and my breakfasts were made great with their white loaves (not sourdough but made with poolish, a technique new to me, but one I'm sure to try when I get the chance!). The bread also went well with sautéed baby king mushrooms from the famous mushroom man in Prahran Market in Melbourne, apparently the oldest market in Victoria. He's so good with shrooms he's even received something like a CBE from the PM in Canberra. 

 - Kaya toast and kopi (local style of coffee) in Singapore - both are acquired tastes in that you'd might not be enamoured first time round, but they seem to cast a spell and demand to be eaten every time you need a snack. Dangerously good, just like the last item on this list, which is... 

 - Breadtalk (Singapore) / Breadtop (Australia). These are amazing cheap bakeries that are all over the centre of town. Think Greggs on acid. Current faves are the prawn laksa bun and the claypot chicken.