A big change of pace in Melbourne

Before we arrived in Melbourne we were told that Melbourne and Sydney were very different cities.   As one person described it, “Melbourne is your wife and Sydney is your mistress.”

We were both a bit tired during our first full day in Melbourne after staying up late.  We had booked an airbnb since we had such a good experience in Surfers Paradise.   When we woke up in the morning we got a better look at the place and we really liked it.  It was an interesting split level apartment and had everything we needed and a great location.    You’d be surprised how happy an ensuite bathroom and a washer and dryer makes you feel when you’ve been on the road for a while!

Our location in the apartment was perfect and we were close to everything.  Ashley found an outdoor/indoor market that runs a few times a week so we decided to head that direction and check it out.  We were starving at this point and decided to grab some food at the indoor market.   We made our way around the market and it was pretty good size.   Since we had a place to cook, which is rare for us, we decided we would pick up some food for dinner.  We made our way through the meat market and settled on some lamb shanks and chicken for the next few days.   At the meat market there was a little bit of everything as you will see in the photos!   After that we made our way outside and found a market with a lot of fruits and vegetables.  Everything was reasonably priced so we picked up a few things there as well.   It was starting to rain a little so we decided to take our haul back to the apartment.

After we waited out the rain we decided to walk around the city.  We made our way outside and just started walking up and down the streets.   Sydney had been very fast paced with a lot going on and was a very modern city with new buildings and construction everywhere.   When we started walking around Melbourne we quickly noticed that it had a much different feel than Sydney did.  The city was older and had a lot more character than Sydney.  In addition, it had a very artistic feeling to it.    We stumbled across one alley when we noticed tons of people walking out of it.   There was a huge amount of graffiti all the way down the alley and most of it was actually pretty decent!

The way the city is set up there were a lot of random alleys to walk down.  Each alley had something a little different to offer.  Some were packed with restaurants and others had lots of shopping options.   We were entertained for the rest of the day just getting lost in the city!   That night we made the food we picked up at the market and it actually turned out pretty well!!