Life as we don't know it

Melbourne Day 3 : Melbourne CBD & Suzuki Night Marlet

Friday, March 22, 2013 @ 10:47 AM PERMALINK

I promised you I would be back with more tales of the city and less tales about cooking and here I am to deliver.

Last year I didn't get the chance to get visit the Suzuki Night Market so this year it was definitely in the cards. The market takes place on Wednesday nights during the summer but you can check out the above link for the exact dates the market runs.

Before that Bong had to go to uni to get some stuff done so I went to Melbourne Central to kill some time.

Melbourne Central is built around Coop's Shot Tower, which used to produce lead shot until about 1961. There's a small museum in the Tower that I've yet to walk though - maybe next time.

Another interesting thing that Melbourne Central has is a Little Library. As the sign says, visitors are welcome to take books as long as they replace or return them.

Melbourne Central has a ton of shops and it's easy to spend some time wandering around. Probably not one of the most adventurous things to do but shops are always good. You'll be able to get your dose of high street Australian brands.

Once Bong was done with school we decided to go get some lunch at Degraves. On the way there we passed Mag Nation. I know this is pretty pathetic sounding (like I have no spirit of adventure) but this is one of my favourite shops in Melbourne (They also have stores in Sydney and NZ too).

This truly is a Magazine superstore with 2 levels chock full of magazines.There are refreshments available in store, comfy reading corners... THE WORKS. It is like a bookstore completely for magazines. I LOVE IT (Can you tell?)

After spending quite a bit of time, I only left with 3 magazines because I felt bad making Bong cart them around the whole day in his backpack.

Degraves is largely known as the place to go for brunch or coffee as the entire lane way is jammed full of cafes, little eateries and coffee shops. There are also great artisan shops that sell locally produced cooking ingredients & kitchenware, books, paper..etc

In the end we decided to takeaway some soup from the Soup Place at Flinders Lane. The Soup place does 9 different kinds of soup and we settled for potato, bacon and leek. They were possibly a little too heavy handed with the salt but it was still a good meal for a drizzly Melbourne day.

A smiley heart face on Bong's coffee.

After Degraves, we walked through Flinders and dropped by Cathedral Arcade for a visit. There are lots of arcades in Melbourne CBD but this is my absolute favourite.

Cathedral Arcade is also home to Retrostar Vintage Clothing and a lovely book store that prefers if customers keep their iPhones in their bags and appreciate the store for what it is - a celebration of the written word.

After lunch we couldn't really decide where to go and decided to squeeze a trip in to Habourtown for some outlet shopping. I know alot of people like to head to Southwharf to do their DFO shopping but I find that I get great deals at Harbour town and it certainly helps that the Temt,Valleygirl and Cotton On outlets are there. Come on, how can I say no to $5-$10 dresses?

There are no pictures of us in Harbour town cause I was too occupied with shopping at super speed.
But here is a picture of us in the City Circle Tram.

After spending too much money in too little a time frame, we headed back into the City to meet up with Pam and Leslie.

We had been warned that the night market gets really crowded but when we got there at about 6pm, it was still pretty empty. So we wandered around the shops a little before deciding we really ought to get a place to sit for dinner. That's when we realised how crowded it had gotten in just the span of an hour.

It was too crowded to get any good photos but it is great atmosphere. There is a huge selection of food, everything from Asian to Mexican is available. It was so hard to decide what to eat because everything looked and smelled so delicious.

I eventually settled on Chilli Con Carne on rice for dinner. Followed by dutch pancakes for dessert. I also made Bong located the Running Sangria stall with me. The Sangria is to die for and from the crowd surrounding the booth, it was pretty obvious that many people agree with me.

On the other side are where all the shops are. After dinner, it was back to the shops again!

I absolutely love to buy soap. I just can't resist the smell and pretty colours and to make things better, most of them are handmade and free from nasty chemicals found in many commercial soaps.

I went home with 6 bars of Olive Oil soap. I always say that I'm going to give these away as gifts but end up keeping all of them.

Rings from Greg Mann Jewelry. I've still got mine from last year and I still love it to bits.

Tiny little cacti that I was so tempted to buy but decided against. It was a good decision too, considering that I came back to Singapore and found out that one of my airplants died. A green thumb is definitely something I don't have.

My loot from the day!! That's like 1/4 of my budget on the floor there. Magazines, soap, cheap clothes, tea.

Take my word for it, if you are ever in the city for the night market, make the trip down and you won't regret it. You'll find some of the stalls in the Night market in the usual Victoria Market but it's almost like it is a whole different market. The atmosphere really makes the difference.

Be back with more soon! Love to all!