Day 3 – Melbourne
Today is our last day in Melbourne and we have to try and squeeze in everything we possibly can! first things first, we’re off to the Queen Victoria Market to collect the last of our souvenirs since the market is closed on Monday’s. Amongst some of the chotchkies was a shirt that I wanted to get for myself. Of course like any flea market type place, most of the vendors don’t return to the same spots each time. So we were scanning up and down the aisles for this particular vendor with the shirts. I finally spotted it, bought my shirt and noticed that Brian had wandered off. Oy vey!
At first I wanted to go up and down the aisle’s to look for him, but I heard a voice in the back of my head that said, “Stay right where you are and he’ll find you.” Unfortunately for both of us, we think alike way too often and he had the same thought at the same moment! So 45 minutes later, I decided to head back to the hotel thinking he might have headed that way. After visiting our room and leaving a note, I decided to head back to the market to finish my shopping and see about finding him. As I returned, he was standing there near the point where we entered and we reconnected! Yay!!
We headed off to eat because it was almost noon at this point and we hadn’t had any brekky. We had scoped out some sausages/dogs at the market a couple days earlier and were both craving them. We got the most amazing spicy dogs (mine with ‘kraut and onions) I have ever had. Fresh baked rolls, mustard, ketchup… YUM!!!! After purchasing a few gifts and things, we headed out to the city to catch some of the sites we wanted to see.
Our first stop was this cool fountain just outside the Melbourne Museum.
The fountain of babies
When we got to the museum, it turned out that among there regular exhibits, they had this recreational drug thing. Way cool. 
We decided to pay a visit.
This speaks for itself
I had to laugh because for most of the “samples” they had of various drugs behind the cases, they were clear to note that they were fake. I guess they didn’t want anyone to sample any of the display items out of desperation (or curiosity)
We cruised through the rest of the Mind and Body exhibits. They had a sexuality exhibit that was about as explicit as one could possibly imagine. Everything from wall sized naked photos of young teens to videos showing the up close and personal of child birth (god I’m sorry mom). I kept thinking to myself that there was no way an American museum could every show such a graphic depiction of sex and sexuality. Yet just the other day there was a news commentator debating the pros and cons of censoring Wikipedia because of the graphic content on there. Go figure…
After enjoying a nice glass of wine in the museum cafeteria, we headed off to check out the rest of the sites. Next stop was the Parliament building where we saw all the weddings the day before. But not before we saw Princess’ (Brian’s?) theatre across the street. Had to get a picture of that one!
Princess' theatre!
We ducked into a wine bar we saw the day before. They had an amazing selection of wines, and some rather tasty food as well. We got a little bit of a lecture from a rather opinionated Aussie about how he doesn’t like to “chew a mouth full of fat” (cheese) when drinking red wine. Hmmm… Ok. whatever. So we enjoyed our most excellent Shiraz blend with a helping of the spicy fish stew with mussles. Yum!!! It turned out that mother nature also intended for us to stop here because not long after we sat down outside underneath the awning, it started to rain for a brief period.
After the rain cleared, we walked up Bourke street towards some of the shops and the bar “Cookie” where we had grabbed a pint the day before. Brian and I stopped at Meyer (the Aussie’s Macy’s) and picked him up some most awesome black pointy shoes (you’ll love these when you see them). Then we stopped at another lounge I had seen just across the way and enjoyed a glass of beer and even a shot of good ol’ Sauza before heading back to change for dinner.
After getting some wedges and another pint at the hotel, we made our way down to the Yarra River front to head to The Meat and Wine Company for our booking. The concierge had recommended this place the day before but we couldn’t get a booking for that night, so we decided to give it a go since we could get in Sunday night instead. Yarra is a really happening place. Besides having the casino and many restaurants and shops, there’s also these big towers that shoot fire every hour on the hour.
Fire show along the Yarra River
So we headed to the Meat and Wine Co. Oh boy. We walked in and the first thing I thought was “How could this place have been busy the night before?” It was like a run down Outback. Naw… Outback is fine dining comparatively. The menu was very unimpressive, but we ordered just the same. We ordered some wine and we waited… And we waited.. Two more tables were seated. And we waited… And then we got wine glasses. And we waited… And then another table got their wine. And we waited… And finally I just snapped. “Let’s get the hell out of here.” Brian was a little more reticent so he asked the waitress about our wine and she told us that “oh the boys are getting it.” What boys?? We left.
So we went across the street to Rock Pool. The prices weren’t that much more expensive and they had a FAR superior selection of steaks (which we were totally set on at this point). We were warmly greeted and had a seat in the bar. We met this great girl, Ashley, who not only knew how to make a proper Cosmo (with some upscale flare I hadn’t seen before, complete with flaming orange zest), but also had some great suggestions for places to visit in Barossa and Adelaide (she grew up in Adelaide). Already starting to feel our humanity return, we had our drinks carried to our table (did I mention we LOVE being pampered?), we got a visit from a very helpful smellier. We enjoyed a fantastic tasting of cured meets, an amazing new twist on Ceasar salad, and two super amazing steaks. Wow!
Fine dining along the Yarra
Time to cab it home and make it to bed. It’s off to start our 3 day drive along the Great Ocean Road and then to the wine country!!!!
