Shopping with the Queen

We had planned to relax in Melbourne. Sleep in, go to the gym, just live the day. Said and done. Just differently.

Two hits away from us is the Queen Victoria Market. A huge market hall area.

Starting with fruits and vegetables,

fish and meat, bread, wine, cheese,

to T-shirts, pants, phone cases, leather goods

(especially belts), soap, souvenirs, oh I don't know what else, ready-to-eat food is also available here.

All you have to do is shove it into your hungry mouth. The market opens at 6:00 am and Carsten would like to be there right away.

That was the plan yesterday after 3 beers. I have to say, it was Carsten's plan, not mine. As an alternative, I suggested to him to go to the gym from 6-8 am, then spend an hour in the sauna, and pick me up around 9:00. The suggestion, or maybe the beer, was apparently so exhausting that he slept until 8:00 today.

At around 10:00, we finally made it two body lengths. Walking through the halls, row by row. Very pleasant to stroll here. Rarely do people approach you when you stop to look at something. No "you want to buy something." It's really fun to immerse yourself in the market world. We didn't buy anything.

Well, you can't say nothing. We did get a ciabatta bread, feta cheese, goat gouda, and olives in the end.

After about 4 hours of strolling, my back slowly started to hurt. We're just not used to this slow pace anymore. Although today, the fast pace wasn't for me either, I tried that with the 2 body lengths. Carsten always says, "a day at a trade fair is worse than a day at work."

Are we getting old? I suspect it's more likely due to the beer. It makes your legs heavy. Tonight, we will attempt to test my theory. Maybe it's also the type of beer? We'll see.

In addition to carrying the shopping and my aching back, I needed to use the restroom and was thirsty. And there was a constant whispering in my ear. I think it was my bed secretly calling out to me, "come to me, I'm warm and soft."

Napping, along with the daily glass of red wine (we haven't had that today either), is said to increase life expectancy.

The rest of the day, we started the "Anti-Burn-Out-Anti-Action-Anti-Movement Program". Just doing nothing. It was great, but we won't repeat it tomorrow.