tourist in melbourne: shopping

 

i somewhat failed miserably when it came to getting snap happy in melbourne. i was too busy eating and shopping to take many photos and in the beautiful exhibitions sadly photos weren't permitted.

 these are my only shopping related photos despite hours spent exploring.  there is a photo of my lovely friend Jasmine in our favourite shopping area in melbourne, brunswick street, which is full of lots of cute shops and vintage finds. the start of brunswick street is super easy to find thanks to a lovely little park with large babushka dolls. 

other than brunswick street, i always love a trip to st kilda which has plenty of places to eat and lots of one off interesting kind of shops. just hop on the tram and get off when you see the big smiling face of luna park.

 and if all else fails there's always the swanson street mall which has just got Zara and is getting top shop soon. happy shopping :)

tourist in melbourne: food

living in a tiny country town means our local restaurant is mcdonalds. thus i get pretty excited to eat at new places. melbourne has an abundance of beautiful restaurants and cafes and cute cupcake shops. my favourite restaurant we ate at (above picture) was a darling greek restaurant called tsindos in the greek precinct. the food was amazingly good with tasty dips, salad, mixed grill and moussaka. but also the atmosphere was super sweet with lovely decor, staff and two greek men having a jam on their instruments at the table next to us. plus it was open on a sunday night when half of the restaurants seemed to be closed...don't melbourne people eat out on sundays??

but of course, who can go past my favourite place in melbourne... madame brussels. a gorgeous roof top dessert and drinks bar with fake lawn, garden furniture and everything in a shade of pink, pale green and white. the cocktails are super sweet and fruity and the fondue is amazing. but like most of melbourne, pretty quiet on a sunday night.

so if you ever visit these places make sure to wear some loose fitting clothes :)

tourist in melbourne: exhibitions

i love a good exhibition. and even more i love when i get to explore a new place at the same time. i went to melbourne for the weekend with friends and was mighty impressed by some of the exhibitions on offer.

 first we went to see Tutankhamun which was fantastic. i couldn't believe how many things existed over 3000 years ago, like hinges were on a jewelery box in Tutankhamun's burial room. we didn't get to see his actual mummy as it is still in egypt but it was definitely worth seeing some spectacular and well preserved 3000 year old egyptian objects. if you get the chance it's a really interesting exhibition and isn't in australia too much longer.

the  other exhibition we chose to see featured klimt who is my absolute favourite artist.  he painted my favourite painting, the kiss,  a copy of it hangs in our bedroom. so naturally i went to the Vienna art & design exhibition.  while the kiss wasn't there, i saw some amazing artwork and was pretty impressed with some of the design, especially by Otto Wagner. the Vienna exhibition closes soon but i'm sure will come to other capital cities.

other pictures are of a beautiful building near the museum and a parade of giant dragon babies, also known as the angels-demon parade.

in this tourists opinion, if you're off to melbourne, book an exhibition or two... or three:)