Melbourne

We decided a while ago to take a long weekend and head down to Melbourne with Ryan and Tanya. The time had come and we were up early to catch our flight at 8am. We got to Melbourne and met up with Ryan and Tan at the apartment. We'd booked into the Medina apartments on Flinders Street which turned out to be fantastic! The place was brand new with 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and plenty of space and in a great location.

Jo and Tanya getting ready for a night out

We kicked off as we intended with a trip to St Kilda for lunch. Ryan had been telling us about this place called 'Claypot' for ages and we decided that was the go. We ordered a tapas style entree with bread, dips and antipasto type dishes follwed by a whole flathead (cajun style) and a gumbo claypot. Mmmmm, the food was fantastic as was the service. We thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience and it set us up for the day.

The weather in Melbourne was beautiful and we had to head back to the apartment to get ready for the night. We arranged to meet some of Tanya's friends in the city around 4:30 who took us to the Marrakesh Bar. There was a $5 cover charge however they did $1 Corona's. Yes, $1 Corona's!!!! You can imagine how the afternoon went! After we poured ourselves out of the bar we walked to Fifteen (of Jamie Oliver type fame) for dinner where we also met up with Ryan and Tanya's sister Nalufa.

Jo and Ryan - cute couple!

We were surprised to find that all the wine on the menu was pricey as with nothing under $65!! However, lubricated by the $1 Corona (and probably averaging out the savings) we ordered 2 bottles to start. The service and food at Fifteen was excellent. I had the buffalo mozzarella salad to start and the slow cooked pork belly (4 hours to cook!) for main. We were all too full (of Corona most likely) for dessert which in hindsight was a shame.

The next morning started off fairly slow as you can imagine but we picked up pace and head to Prahan and Chapel Street for some shopping. We stumbled upon an Industrie sale where I picked up some shorts for $15 and a top for $5. Jo did the same buying 2 pairs of shorts and about 6 tops all for $5 each! In the evening on a recommendation from a Chef friend we tried a tapas place called Movida for dinner. It was conveniently very close to our apartment just of Flinders Street and the food was wonderful (well, mine was!). The dishes were very different and the flavours beautiful. Some of the dishes that Tanya and Ryan had were a bit hit and miss but overall if was a good experience. We finished off the night with a walk down Southbank, a drink watching a band and then a dip into Crowne Casino and the Roulette tables (no visit is complete without it!)