Melbourne... The culture capital of Australia (kinda)

Ah Melbourne… The culture capital of Australia. Don’t believe me? Just ask anyone from Melbourne..

Much like most of our time in Australia, Melbourne too was a stopover mostly to catch up with friends, a catch up that was much overdue with Marci Katz. I know she’ll be stoked to get mention in the OOO blog – and how can you blame her really.

1 week of getting a true taste of Melbourne via Marci Katz + Buts (Marci’s man) + Kink (Marci and Buts step-dog). The bonus……We get to do it through the lens of Marci herself, so you know there will never be a dull moment. And a dull moment is just about the only thing missing from the week – which lines up great with our trip motto “sleep tomorrow”.

For those of you that know Marci, if you’re wondering if her schedule has become any less busy since taking to Aussie life, you can rest assured that an action packed personal and social life is still the case. Luckily, she worked us in where she could and when she couldn’t, she just dropped the other stuff to fit us in anyway.

After arriving in Melbourne late Saturday afternoon via a quick Jetstar flight, we settled in at Marci’s hipster home in Abbotsford, an epic little hood west of the CBD (central business district as aussies like to call downtown). Basically Queen West in Toronto.

Upon arrival, it felt like we had nothing but time. A feeling that quickly vanished as we started to plan out our action packed itinerary. I thought I would summarize to shorten up this post and let your imaginations kick in a bit to fill in the blanks.

Night 1

An epic evening at a local hotel (pub) getting a first class lesson in footy (Aussie rules football) from no other than Kristian Butler – a local footy all-star himself. Can you think of a better way to learn the rules than watching the game, smashing pitchers (or jugs as Buts likes to put them), all packaged together with a little belligerency? I think NOT!

Day 2

We slept in a bit.... sue us. Can you think of a better way to celebrate sleeping in than with an afternoon of lawn bowling in St. Kilda? No you can’t think of a better way. Because that is the best way. Spring/Summer 2013 lookout, we are putting in a lawn bowling team…… And it will be LEGENDARY!

The bowls greens

The Balls.... that we bowled

Dont' step on my balls

The ball......rack or is it a sac?

St. Kilda champs

Day 3

Out of necessity we have packed pretty light for this trip… BUT when the opportunity for $40 custom jeans presents itself, all rational thinking went out the window. WE NEEDED 2 pairs of jeans each… WE NEEDED THEM. So we got them. 2 pairs of Burgundy and black skinnies later, our ride was pimped……By Xzibit, I really mean creepy Asian dude that felt me up a little too high in the inner thigh for “measuring purposes”. I know we just met and all… That said, it was well worth the new denim. Hit up Dejour Jeans in Brunswick the next time you’re in Melbourne - just do it.

The threads

The threads in action

Even Cedric got a pair... extra TOT

After a morning of having our inner thighs felt up too much, we headed to the CBD (I wish you could hear me say it in the Aussie way they say it here, it’s ridiculous) to do some downtown touring. For those of you that don’t know, Melbourne has embraced the café culture. You literally can’t walk 10 feet without another café presenting itself. So we got coffee-wasted and took to the streets, touring the various “lanes” (alleys between buildings filled with cafes and restaurants and shops) and pretended like we lived there for a bit.

One of the many cafes

The evening was something out of the ordinary for this trip so far.

Tals and I love the movies and unfortunately, in saving for this trip and with Tals unfortunate work/travel schedule, they fell off the priority list prior to the trip. So when Marci came across a 2 for 1 coupon for the movies (which are usually MAD EXI …..which means expensive) we were in. I started reading The Hunger Games a few days prior and the seeing the movie presented itself as an option for Monday night. If you can’t tell yet, we went to THG. And it was sick. So sick in fact, it has been a week since and I haven’t read where I left off in the book since – if some of you are reacting to this the way I know you are (mostly my Mom).. TONE IT. I just haven’t had time to read…… Ill finish it.

Epic hipster theatre

 Day 4

The double date of all double dates. Me and Tals + Marci and Kink (sorry Buts). The 4 of us headed to Kilcunda, a beach town just to the east of Melbourne (Kilcunda means ocean by the farm. it doesn’t actually, but it should), To spend the night and next day at the epic Butler Ranch. A home cooked meal, wine, pints and the return of mad men = and epic cottage-like evening.

Head East to Kilcunda

Self Titled

Day 5

The next day we headed to the beach for a few hours of bronzing, smashed some leftovers for lunch and headed back into the city for Melbourne Comedy Festival. Caught a show, smashed all you can eat dumplings at Shanghai Dumpling (thanks for the reco Keith), and amazing dumpling house that allowed BYO and then called it a day.

Day 6

Me and tals love travelling off the beaten track, so we went to Flag-anistan (Flangston) – basically, a seedy beach town known for daro (Sussie for derelique) sightings and banter. After dodging some “dodgy” characters we picked up our rental car for the Great Ocean Road, headed back to Abbotsford. For the evening we headed to Fitzroy, another great hipster part of town, and smashed $4 pizzas and beer at Bimbos with Jedda (Marci and Buts roomie).

Definitely a successful week in Melbourne thanks to great friends, a great dog and a long overdue catch up session.

OOO_JZ