Australia Report- Melbourne

Jan 7, 2010 by Katelin

So this report has been a long time in the making…

Melbourne

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Where to stay: The Park Hyatt.

As you might know from previous posts or just happen to realize for me to rave about a hotel it must be pretty nice. Well the Park Hyatt Melbourne rates up there in terms of even the hotels I like. I don’t need a huge superior room, what I need is a clean, comfortable, quiet room with a nice view, a great bathroom and nice amenities.

We went to Australia in May, which is their fall, but it meant off season rates in Melbourne and Sydney, not a ton of tourists and nice crisp, but warm weather. We got a great deal at the Park Hyatt at less than $200 a night.

For that we got a really nice comfortable king size bed, valet attendants that helped us figure out how to work our GPS system, a hotel that was a close walk to most of the attractions in Melbourne, a huge bathroom with a shower that had a tv and speakers, a electric tea kettle with good tea and nice toiletries that I actually used.

Also the breakfast served here was wonderful. There was a really nice a la carte menu, but we normally went for the buffet with a huge selection of fruits, breads, cereals, juices, cheeses, charcuterie and hot items including the traditional English breakfast of course. We normally had long days of walking or exploring ahead of us so a nice big breakfast really hit the spot.

What to do: The very top of your to do list should be the Queen Victoria Market. This is a huge market. They have some little restaurants, fish market, meat market, a deli section with stalls selling breads, meats, cheeses, olives, dried goods, eggs, honey, teas and everything else you could imagine. Then outside they have fresh produce. They have a lot of produce that is hard to find here like Nooshi a fruit that is like a small juicy apple and very fresh ripe Passionfruit. Also outside are bins of flour and other grains and people selling wines and other homemade goods. Then in back of that is a huge flea market. My favorites were a cracked black pepper meat pie sold at a deli in the bottom left section. The crust was flaky, it was piping hot and fresh and the fresh cracked black pepper made it the best meat pie of the trip. Hubby and I also picked up some kangaroo salami, cheese, bread and fruits to take with us on our adventure out to the country that afternoon.

If you are adventurous- and you should be this is Australia for God’s sake- I highly suggest renting a car and driving down to Philips Island. Now I went mainly for my obsession with non-flying birds of the black and white variety, which you can see nightly. We got the “Ultimate Penguin Experience” which was really great. You were taken to a separate area for viewing and walked down the beach to a small break in the dunes where we sat for probably about an hour and fifteen minutes watching with night vision googles little penguins teetering all around you within feet. Then you hike back along the road spotting little Philips Island Penguins running and nesting all about you. We were unfortunate and fortunate enough to be able to touch a penguin that was rescued by our ranger when we saw him injured and floundering on the beach in front of us. I am sure they took good care of him.

Also on Philips Island is a koala sanctuary where you can view koalas a couple feet away doing there thing aka sleeping or eating, I think that’s all they do honestly. They are cute as can be! Also if you are lucky like us you will also see some wandering wallabies throughout the park grazing on grasses.

Philips Island also has an area called the nobbies that has beautiful rock outcropping. Sometimes they have seals, but we didn’t see any on our visit (apparently they sometimes have Great Whites too). And a working farm. What we enjoyed most was the beautiful scenery and quiet beaches.

For eclectic shopping and some really good casual restaurants check out Brunswick Street. This was my favorite area in all Melbourne. The cute store signs and shop fronts give way to cute fashions, home goods, amazing coffee and tea shops.

Where to eat:

Now we didn’t do a lot of fancy eating in Melbourne, there are so many great casual restaurants to check out and the market was just so tasty, but we had a really great dinner at Movida- Bar de Tapas. The atmosphere is laid back with nice low lighting. The croquettes were just like what you get in Madrid. We also sampled the San Jacobo de Cordonice a quail stuffed with cheese and ham, Pimientio de Piquuillo hickory smoked peppers with potato and salt cod and some other small plates while Hubby had a Bees Knees Beer and I drank some good Australian wine.

While exploring Brunswick we check out the Real Greek Souvlaki Bar where we had huge gyros and lamb platters filled with juicy and flavorful lamb, ripe tomatoes and tasty pita. Hubby laughed at the size of my gyro, it was a food as big as your head moment.

We also stopped on our way back from Philips Island at a co-op fish and chippery. I think getting some fresh fish and chips and a meat pie is kind of one of those quid essential things to do, just make sure you have lots of napkins.

In Sum: Melbourne we love you to death and really we do want more time with you. You are a dirty mistress to our love of Barcelona and Melbourne, and while we might not be able to work you into our regular rotation, you will be on our mind. So keep stylin.