Sunday, January 07, 2007

Melbourne 2006 - Day 3 (241106)

Lesson from Day 3: Cabbage ain't my thing, baby.

Today we went to Queen Victoria Market. Actually, it's just a normal market. A lot cleaner than those markets we have in Singapore though. Mostly to get raw ingredients.


Would you like to have a market named after you? Look! Green skirt for the green billboard!


We were told to try the German sausages at the market. Queen Victoria market is located near the city and fairly walkable. When we ordered the sausage, we were asked whether we wanted cabbage to go with it. Why not? Turned out that the cabbage was pickled! Urgh! Eaten pickled cabbage before? It's sweet and sour! Not very me. A while back, S and I were talking about our experiences in Australia. She was telling me she feels that she has to be cautious when relating to others about her trips. Firstly, "relating" may be the wrong word because not everyone has been there and even fewer have spent an extended period there. Secondly, you might come across as trying to show off despite you being only excited at your trips and wanting to share with others. Anyway. I'm not trying to show off ok!


This I have to show off.


Fruits at Victoria Market can be a lot cheaper. Cherries were available at $5 per kilogram. But beware. Cheaper doesn't mean better. So look out for the quality. The 40 cents apples we bought were quite nice though.

We bought a kilogram of cherries (not bad), an apple each (unwaxed, cheap, and delicious), and one mango (oh.my.god!). Eat more fruits baby! With our load, we had to return to the hotel to put them down. Along the way, we spied a cafe with some good-looking people. Need to return there asap!


The iced coffee is good! And I think reasonably priced. Yum!


After the coffee, it was time for a trip to Smith Street. Smith Street is supposed to be filled with factory outlets. Imagine our surprise when we saw that Smith Street was largely filled with old shops selling dunowhats. So we popped into a convenience store to get daily tram tickets (again, we were told that daily tickets were not available on the tram. Wrong information!). As a by-the-way kind of thing, we asked the owners about the phantom factory outlets. Turned out that we were on the right street but the factory outlets were way way way down the other end of the street, further from the city. So if you go now, you know better than us and should take a tram!

It was quite interesting to see the shops on Smith Street. Because they were all the same as those in Harbourtown! Gah! At least I bought a bag, a skirt, and a pair of shorts. After a while, we realised we did not have lunch! We popped into a Thai eatery and was served the worst Thai food ever. I don't get sweet Tom Yam soup. BEWARE!

Tonight was going to be clubbing night. It was Friday after all! We asked the information counter at Melbourne Central for places to go and the guy recommended Chapel Street. Well, we don't. But more on that later.

We were also told that Lygon Street is the so-called Little Italy of Melbourne. Hmm.. It did serve the best green tea ice-cream. Oh. Green tea is from Japan. I guess we were there too late because no one bothered to come and grab us to go into their restaurant. The place was so much different from what I had expected. Go with no expectations is the best.


We thought olive bread would be more interesting than the normal garlic bread we eat. Well, it was. Interestingly salty!


I could not make up my mind about what to eat because I was fast getting a flu. I asked the waitress for recommendations. Something creamy I said. When her recommended pasta came, it was tomato-based. Something else I could not understand was why no meat! I'm a carnivore!


Gnocchi just ain't my thing baby. What was it stuffed with?!


So we could not finish our pasta. The one I had in Adelaide was so much better! Luckily, green tea ice-cream saved the day.

Oh. I was wearing this black butterfly sleeves top, right? I did not know the armholes are so big! Rather airy. Good for summer but awful when you're walking in the middle of the night, holding a green tea ice-cream at about 10 degrees with only that single layer of cotton on your back. Brrr!!!

We waited for more than half hour for a tram to go to Chapel Street. There were very few people on the street! We could not see any clubs!!! Where are they!! In the end, we walked, and walked. And walked into a toilet. There you have it. We took tram all the way to Chapel Street to use the toilet.

In the end, we decided a trip to the casino might be more fruitful. So we waited for the tram again. I think you need good company on trips. Otherwise in between waiting for transport, you will be bored out of your skull.


Finally, we saw Melbourne after the sun had set.


If you look up at some of the taller buildings, you will realise some fireflies-like things flying around the summit. Not sure if they were really fireflies but they were gorgeous. Too bad my camera could not take a good photo. Try to take one and send me ok!


On the other side of the Yarra river is the city. Where our hotel is to be exact.


I think we lost some money at the casino. But never mind! The 24 hour casino and shops meant that we could go see look. We popped into this bar with a live band. Very very good band. I wonder how people can sing so much and sound so good. Tomorrow I'm going k. Yay! But got quantity no quality of course. Haha.. The bar was very hip ok! A more matured crowd with most people around their fourties. But it was amazing!

We saw this aunty with midriff-bearing top, this male half of a couple making a fool of himself on the dance floor just to entertain his girlfriend (aww!), and this guy who danced fabulously with all the ladies around him! Good, good vibe! We just stood there and smiled a lot. Eye-opener!

In the end, we did not club but we did watch! I love the fun crowd! Everyone must have won a lot of money. :D

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