Melbourne : The City

Stay amazed !

That’s right Melbourne. Stay Amazed. Naysayers might try to convince you that the toilet doors of squalid public bathrooms are not the place to get valuable life messages from, but they just haven’t seen the light of grimey self discovery that waits on the other side of cubicle door.

So this post is a little update while the other updates prepare themselves. The morning we arrived in Melbourne, we picked up the car kindly borrowed from Sharon’s friend Michelle and proceeded to drive it into oncoming traffic. Of course I didn’t think I was driving into oncoming traffic, but the inner road that runs down the middle of St Kilda road is confusing. We pulled up alongside a tram facing the wrong direction, and then made a quick u-turn to get the hell out of there. Melbourne roads (1) – Matt (0).

We eventually made it to St Ali without further injury, and then when we were sufficiently sated there, ventured our way into the city. Of course driving into the city is not the best or most efficient way to get there. Unless of course paying $45 for a couple of hours parking is your idea of efficient. At the time though I figured that wasn’t much to pay for the convenience of being able to get where we wanted to go quickly… albeit risking being killed by a horde of screaming taxi drivers.

So we park on Flinders Lane, and begin to wander up and down streets and laneways. Sharon stopping at more clothes shops than I can name, while I trundled slowly from cafe to cafe, stopping to check out the ones that looked interesting, and pondering how many coffees would constitute too many.

Now I just realised I said this would be a short post, so I’ll wrap up with a few impressions of the places I did stop at.

Journal

Journal
253 Flinders La, Melbourne

Great looking place, very cool concrete bar and dark lighting, even in the day time. I ordered an espresso and a portugese tart. The espresso was not so hot, the tart was cold but tasty. I’d go back for drinks sometime, or food upstairs at the Journal Canteen, which looks good.

13th Apostle

San Churro at QV building
Shop LTL 255, QV Centre, Swanston St

Why do people rave about San Churro ? I guess the same people also rave about Max Brenner or Koko Black. I’m perhaps one of those few people who does not turn into a raving lunatic when describing or thinking about chocolate. I wasn’t in the mood for a mountain of deep fried stuff, so I ordered the kids meal… which was surprisingly rewarding if only for the look on the girls face. It came with two churros and a bowl of dark chocolate and hundred and thousands. The churros were quite hard and dry, and the chocolate didn’t transport me to a mystical place, the sprinkled made me feel like I was 5 years old at a birthday party… which was nice :)

The rest of the city is hard to describe, and a little overwhelming at times. So many lane way and alleys to go down, so many places holding so much potential. If we had another few weeks I’m sure I’d be able to cover most of it, but a few days will not do it justice.

On the way out I did manage to perform not one, but two (!) successful hook turns, and not get hit by a taxi or a tram. Melbourne roads (1) – Matt (2) !!

6 thoughts on “Melbourne : The City”

  1. Matt Matt Matt,

    You of all people should know by now that the quickest way between two points is a straight line, so ploughing through traffic at breakneck speeds with a Glock in one hand and a bourbon in the other is definitely the way to go.

    Hang on a sec, we are talking about driving in GTAIV aren’t we? Maybe not…

    Anyway, I can see from some of your photos that you ventured far and wide, but catching my eye was your photo of Degraves St. Looking forward to hearing about the rest of the trip.

  2. Nice ideas Brad. Also pretending not to speak english can be effective – although in Melbourne even a pretend native language may be met with a reply in kind.

  3. It’s impoosible not to agree about the churro and chocolate thing. We went to a place in Acland Street that left us feeling underwhelmed, probably not helped by the churros being cooked too fast, too brown on the outside and undercooked in the centre and the chocolate much too sweet and cloying. Better are the churros from the van at the Queen Vic market, just dusted with icing sugar. Can’t wait to see how the drink with Ed & others went, bet you needed some stamina for that!

  4. Brad: Spoken like a true gamer. I did like Degraves though, there’s some more laneway shots coming as soon as i can get it together.

    Grendel: I was actually really impressed with the taxis in Melbourne. Walking out onto a moderately busy road anywhere in the vicinity of the city yielded a taxi within minutes, most of whom were really good, and I didn’t get stabbed once, or feel the need to stab anyone. So i guess thats good :)

    Neil: I guess chocolate franchise stores and I just don’t mix. I do love churros when made well though. Didn’t make it Queen Vic this time, as we’d been there last time to have some tasty Borek. And Ed has a thirst for gin that would sink an armada… but yes, more on that later too :)

  5. Hi Matt,

    Very proud that you managed the hook turns and glad you found your way around.

    I agree with Neil, you definitely should have got churros at Queen Vic market. At only $1 each caked in icing sugar, you can’t go wrong. Next time!

    I also agree with your stance on chocolate places. I worked at Max for 2.5 years and the amount of people who oooohh’d and aaahhh’d was ridiculous. My usual thoughts with customers: “It’s chocolate, yes. There’s lots of it, yes. Now get over it, hurry up and bloody order!” :)

    Look forward to reading the upcoming Melbourne posts.

  6. I’m seriously gonna have to read this, but your blog just gets better.

    I would have loved to have seen the chicks face when you ordered the kids meal. Haha.

    It was great to spend time with you and your lovely lady. We would love to show you around again. Thanks!

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