Visiting Melbourne – The City

Melbourne, one of the largest cities in Australia, and a place I have completely fallen in love with! Our first stop? Our hotel with a view! Apartments Melbourne Domain – CBD Paris End on 27 Little Collins Street.

Check-in was straightforward, no hassles whatsoever. Other amazing views were the St Patrick’s Cathedral & The Parliament Building.

Our goal for today and the day after was to just explore the city and see what’s it got to offer. As we walk down the streets, there are 2 things that stand out to me. Art in alleys, and a mix of modern and Victorian architecture within downtown.

 

Seeing how interesting the art was, we decided to check out Hosier Lane. To be honest, even though the art was beautiful, the lane itself seemed a bit dirty and some of the art/graffiti was covered by not-so-great graffiti. Even then, it was a decent stop to make, especially if you enjoy art.

 

Did you know: Melbourne is known as one of the world’s great street art capitals for its unique expressions of art displayed on approved outdoor locations throughout the city.​

Once we are done, the hunger kicked in. We heard good things about Degraves Street, and that’s where we were going to eat. A cute little street with a few options for food and shopping. Location is great, and you get to sit outside in the middle of the street.

Il Tempo Pizza was the spot. A beautiful area to sit outside and really great service. I’m still surprised by the tipping culture we have in the U.S., after seeing the service in Australia. No expectations of tips whatsoever (even receipts don’t have an area for tips), yet service is really good, if not better than most places in the U.S.

Moving on, everyone’s favorite, a library…The Victoria State Library. We see people playing chess at the entrance on large floor chessboards, and a decent crowd actually watching the game of chess. The inside of the Library has some amazing architecture (as does the outside) and lots of clean areas and restrooms — something I wasn’t used to seeing in San Francisco.

 

Next, crossing the Yarra river towards Southbank. We had 2 main things in mind: explore the Royal Botanic Gardens and visit Eureka Skydeck 88 for a nice night-time view of the city. Sadly, our gardens visit didn’t go past the Victoria Garden due to the rains as well as our misunderstanding of where in the park we were. In any case, the whole area was gorgeous. Here are some pictures to show what I cannot put into words.

 

Since we decide to go indoors, this leads us to the Southgate Melbourne mall. It was still bright outside so no point of going to the Skydeck early. The mall then leads us to try some delicious desserts @ Damon Bradley.

 

I had the “Layers of moist red velvet, double vanilla cream, smooth chocolate fudge, fresh strawberries and sweet strawberry sauce topped with whipped cream” with a simple, but tasty vanilla milkshake. After this treat, we just sat and waited. But of course, waited with a view.

 

And what we were waiting for this whole team. Finally the Skydeck…right as the thunderstorm started. Great. We take a detour and check out Crown Entertainment Complex, have a cup of coffee and just explore the mall. When the rain finally stopped, we head back to the Skydeck. Sadly their glass cage is no longer open due to lightning, but nevertheless, it was pretty.

What else is awesome at night other than the amazing nightlife? Relaxing and enjoy the different vibe to the hotel view had during the day.