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A Week in Melbourne - Part 1

A few months back, I got three of us promo tickets to Melbourne, Australia with Garuda Indonesia for Miss Kiki's school holiday. This time it is extra special because it will be the holiday before she enters primary school. The down side of these tickets are that the in-bound and out-bound flights have to be within 7 days. There is only 1 direct flight in a day from Jakarta to Melbourne with Garuda, so after travel time, we practically only have 5 days in Melbourne.

We took an overnight flight from Jakarta to Melbourne. It turned out to be a short 6 hour flight that we barely slept at all!

Miss Kiki the Jetsetter
 We arrived at the Tullamarine airport at 8 in the morning, and we were ready to start another day!

At Tullamarine Airport
Right by the exit doors there was an Optus store, so we bought ourselves SIM cards with data without any delay. The other well known operators are Vodafone and Telstra, but Vodafone apparently did not have coverage at Mt. Baw Baw where we had planned to go on the third day.

I pre-purchased a family ticket for the Skybus to get us from the airport to the Southern Cross Station, and use their complimentary hotel transfer service from the Southern Cross Station to our hotel.  DH had enough points to book 3 nights at the Radisson on Flagstaff for free, so that's what we did.

On the Skybus... notice the photo bombers?

The photobombers :)

The hotel transfer bus
The Radisson on Flagstaff is situated on a very good location, within walking distance to the Victoria Market. The building itself seems older, and if I compare their service to the hotel service in Bali hotels, well...., it kinda sucks. Labour is expensive in Australia, I know.... Our room was decent, but unlike other radissons we've stayed at.

After we dropped off our luggages, we headed out to get coffee passing through the Flagstaff Garden and to the Victoria Market. It was a rather gloomy day with clouds in the sky. It was also cold... I was glad I didn't listen to my sister who said Australia was not THAT cold!

In front of the Radisson

Flagstaff Garden

Flagstaff Garden

Flagstaff Garden

We got our coffee at the Market Lane coffee. They brew good coffee, but lack seating area. So far Melbourne lived up to it's fame for good coffee shops. 

Market Lane Cafe

At Market Lane Cafe

We continued on to meet my friend and his family for lunch. He was my friend from Winnipeg, but moved to Melbourne many years ago. It was very exciting, and so good to see an old friend and meet his wife and cute boy. We had this yummy burger at the food court in Emporium building, and also tried this crispy pork belly sandwich. Each burger/sandwich cost about AU$ 15 (expensive!!) but their portions were also big. Between the three of us, we only managed to finish the burger and a few bites of the sandwich.






We needed some warm gears for Miss Kiki to go to Mt. Baw Baw on the third day, so based on their recommendation, we walked down Hardware Lane and visited Auski. We found a pair of pink snow boots for her for AU$ 29.99 which was decent. And of course we tried another coffee shop called Brother Baba Budan. I'm not sure if it is because it was already our second cup of coffee that day, but we did not like it as much as the one from Market Lane.

Hardware Ln.

Hardware Ln.

Bubba Budan


We then went to the Eureka 88 Skydeck. It is Miss Kiki and DH's thing to go up the tower of the city that we went to. I decided to stay and waited for them at the bottom.


















Another friend of mine met us at the Skydeck and we went for dinner. I can't believe we had forgotten to take a picture together! We first went to an italian restaurant nearby but I felt more like something casual and warm... So we went to Mekong Vietnamese restaurant and we shared Pho and a grilled pork chop. Miss Kiki got so tired she fell asleep on the dining table and DH had to carry her from the restaurant. We took the tram towards our hotel but then the stop was 4 blocks away. In the end we took a taxi for 4 blocks and paid about AU$ 7. 



And that was the end of our first day in Melbourne!
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