Melbourne/ Australia

Since last Friday, November 24th, we have been in Melbourne. We rented a room in a house through Airbnb. We had a tough time with jet lag for the first 2-3 days and unfortunately slept most of the day. Our first 'big trip' was on Sunday to the Queen Victoria Market. The market is relatively large and is divided into different sections. It offers everything from clothing to fresh fruits and vegetables. The stalls are mostly covered and suitable for a visit in bad weather (check opening hours: http://www.qvm.com.au). The fruits and vegetables there are fresher and cheaper than in the supermarket! We especially enjoyed the fresh mussels 😋.

Within the city center of Melbourne, everyone can ride the tram for free. One of them is the City Circle Tram/ 'Tourist Tram', No. 35. It bears a strong resemblance to the trams in San Francisco. You are informed about the surrounding sights via loudspeakers. However, we only rode a few stations because the tram was very crowded at that time.

For our trip to Australia, we brought the Lonely Planet travel guide. It offers a route to explore the center of Melbourne on foot (see photos). There are a few small alleyways and paths that are best reached this way. When strolling through the city, a walk through the Royal Arcade and the Block Arcade is definitely worth it. We also walked through Hosier Lane. This is a short alleyway with many graffiti on the walls. In our opinion, you can walk through it for taking photos, but there are some corners in Melbourne with nicer graffiti on the walls and fewer tourists.

If you go towards the South Wharf along the Yarra River, you will find the DFO Outlet Shopping Center almost at the end. On the way there, you can walk along the Yarra Promenade or South Wharf Promenade/ Dukes Walk. There are some restaurants and you have a nice view of the river from here.

St. Kilda:

We spent a day in the area of St. Kilda and at St. Kilda Beach. There are some cafes, shops, and restaurants. The beach is beautiful but quite crowded. In the evening, little penguins apparently come to the shore at dusk (unfortunately, we weren't there at that time).

Chadstone Shopping Center:

On Wednesday, we went to the largest shopping center in Australia named Chadstone (https://www.chadstone.com.au) to escape the around 36 degrees Celsius it had in bright sunlight. If you have enough time, you should definitely plan a trip there. You can either take the public bus or use the tourist shuttle bus, which departs for free from Federation Square (further information see the Chadstone website). The shopping center is very beautiful and bright, as the entire roof is made of glass. You can shop for everything your heart desires here, and there is something for every budget.

Melbourne Central Shopping Center:

On our last day in Melbourne, we spent most of the time at the shopping center near the Melbourne Central Station due to the very bad weather (around 14-17 degrees Celsius and rain). You go directly upstairs from the metro station and you are in the shopping street. We really liked it there. There are plenty of shops, including the KitKat Chocolatory. Here, you can create your own KitKat bars starting from around 7-10$. 

Our conclusion so far: We booked accommodation near Melbourne for 9 nights and it is about a 30-minute metro ride from the city center. Now that we are here, we can say that if you don't plan to stay here for a long time and only want to see the main sights in Melbourne, you don't need more than 3-4 days. The city is beautiful, but if you don't want to constantly go out for food or shopping, there isn't much else to do.