Salam.
It’s been a really long hiatus for the past two months. I haven’t got the chance to update my blog like I used to. I’m really sorry to all my readers. Too many things happen in my life, besides being occupied with work and heaps of projects.
So to cut it short, I’m going to share our recent trip to Melbourne.
We went to Melbourne on 30th January 2012, the same week we moved into our new home.
Table of Contents / Kandungan
DAY 1 – Off to Melbourne!
We took the early Sunday morning flight from Newcastle Airport, Williamtown. We arrived safely at Tullamarine Airport in Melbourne at about half past seven.
During our trip to Melbourne, we stayed at our friend’s apartment at Lygon St. Since it was summer break, the house was not occupied at that moment.
Camberwell Sunday Market
Here in Melbourne there is a popular Sunday market, the Camberwell market which I can say is like a garage/carboot sale all in one place. Heaps of used and old items were for sale and you never know what you’ll find there. My wife really enjoyed browsing through the stalls eventhough it was scorching hot that day!
IKEA Store
Next stop we went to IKEA in Richmond. I haven’t been to any IKEA stores since I got married in 2010, let alone in Australia so this is my first one. I guess the main reason why I wanted to go to IKEA so badly is because I needed fresh ideas and inspiration as well as the free catalogue. Our new house is a little bit smaller than the previous one. I really wanted to look into the great ideas in organizing stuff in the compact space that IKEA always offer.
Es Teler Restaurant
I noticed that Melbourne is quite popular with the variety of food and there are plenty of eateries everywhere, plus many halal restaurants which is a bonus. Our friend, Tasnim brought us to Es Teler, one of the famous Indonesian restaurants in Melbourne.
Before we called it a day, we needed to stock up our food. This is after all a budget trip, so we grabbed some groceries from Woolworth and cooked dinner ourselves. Too many dining out can hurt the wallet.
DAY 2 – Visit to Geelong and Deakin University
My wife and I have friends who study architecture at Deakin University in Geelong. As our main reason to visit Melbourne was to visit our friends as well as go for sightseeing, we went to Geelong to pay them a visit. Thanks to Tasnim and Kak Maf for driving us there.
Geelong is located about an hour drive from Melbourne CBD. It is a small and lively town where to me, everything is located within walking distance.
Our first stop was Rais & Mira’s residence, with other friends joining as well. We had a great lunch while catching up with our old friends.
Then, we headed to Deakin for a campus tour. We visited the architecture studio and the main building of the campus.
Geelong is also famous for their beautiful waterfront. We had a brisk walk along the waterfront, enjoying the view. We even had fresh mussels which were sold on a boat!
One of the to do list in Geelong is to have their Panache crepes. We ordered the famous Death by Chocolate crepes. They were really delicious and the price was affordable.
We then continued our walk along the waterfront up to the ocean bath area. The deck surrounding the Promenade was donated by people where each of the timber plank had a name of the donor on it.
By dusk, we paid a visit to another friends’ house. My friend who’s going back to Malaysia soon wanted to let go a few of his items. I got his 22″ monitor and A3 printer for quite a bargain!
We called it a day and returned to Melbourne.