[Day 01] A short holiday to Melbourne

October 04, 2016

I'm back from my 6D5N vacation to Melbourne, Australia, and I can't wait to share on my latest travel experience with you guys! It was a short but a fruitful trip with my lovely Baby.

On Monday night, I rushed to the airport for my flight, straight after work! I took a 7-ish hour Emirates plane ride to Melbourne International Airport. I was pretty fatigued after rushing through all my work for the day, and during my flight, I tried to get as much sleep as possible. However, this flight was the second leg of the journey from Dubai, and it was still adhering to the time difference. The flight attendants served dinner at 1.30am and brekkie at 5.30am! OMG! I felt like a pig! (fatdieme)

We arrived at Melbourne International Airport at 930am local time. It is about 2 hours ahead in Melbourne from Singapore time. The weather was sunny but chilly at the same time, with the temperature being about 13-15C. It got colder at night, whereby temperatures were at a low of 9-10C.

In prior to our trip, we booked our car rental online, and the company had a policy to pick us up at the airport to their office for collection our car. In all, our Hyundai Accent cost us about AUD180 for 6 days. We were all set for our trip after collecting our car!

Our Airbnb location was splendid, just a 2-3 tram stops away from main Melbourne Town district, which was in a free tram zone! Baby drove us to our Airbnb after 20-25 minutes journey. The good thing was our car rental place was just a 5 minutes away from the airport, hence the convenience factor was fantastic.

We settled at our Airbnb (The Hallmark Apartment) at around 12noon and this lovely cosy place was my 'home' for the next 6 days in Melbourne. I now prefer to stay at Airbnb, when it comes to a long vacation/stay, as we can buy our own groceries from any nearby supermarkets to cook in the apartment as we deem fit! The neighbourhood seemed safe and the Wi-Fi was pretty stable too.

It was great news for Pokémon Go players , such as myself, as there was a Poke-stop located where we were staying! We were both looking out for the region Pokémon, Kangaskhan and happily enough, we caught a few!

Apart from being a good location, a plus point was that the tram station which was located directly opposite our apartment, which made it pretty very convenient for us to take the tram to town, instead of driving as car-park prices were hefty!

We took the tram to Queen Victoria Market and it is like a flea/food market to me, where one can find a wide selection of food and handmade products, such as jewellery, soaps and bags, as well as souvenirs. The prices were pretty pricey and I didn't get anything but Baby picked up a t-shirt for AUD8. I love the fresh juices at the market and we had our lunch there too.

We went to explore the Melbourne City Centre as well as hunt for Pokémon at the same time. We took many random photos, so beware of photos galore ahead!

I love cafe hopping so we went to Manchester Press which is located at Rankins Lane for our afternoon tea!

Before I end this post, I want to share my experience at the world of street art (graffiti). We walked down the famous Laneway, Hosier Lane and admired the street art that has made Melbourne urban art scene famous across the globe. This lane is located just a short walk from Federation Square.

Melbourne is the art capital of Australia, and this art culture of graffiti is often mistaken for vandalism. Melbourne holds the reputation of having the street art in the world, thus it has been attracting both local and international artists to contribute to the growing scene.