Melbourne

I went to Melbourne for the weekend with two of my Irish friends - Ann & Orla. Funny story about Ann - we studied together at UCD in Dublin and I saw that she was living in Sydney on Facebook, so I messaged her.  We were planning to meet up in the city (both work in the CBD) but one Saturday as I was jogging around Pyrmont, we literally ran into each other. Turns out she just lives down the road from me!

Anyways, we decided to take a weekend and see Melbourne, which is in capital of the of Victoria.  It's an hour and 15 minute plane ride.  I had previously gone for the day for work - flew up in the morning, attended a seminar that I planned and then had drinks and dinner with some coworkers - so I didn't get to see that much.  It's kind of like San Francisco, whereas Sydney is like LA. It's a smaller, more slow paced kind of city.  There's a lot of character in Melbourne and it's known for it's food and shopping.

We flew into Melbourne on Friday night after work, checked into our hostel and then went out for a quick drink.  The next day, we went up to the Eureka Sky Deck which is on the 88th floor and you can basically see the whole city from there.

Then we had lunch at the famous Press Club which is home to Master Chef judge George Calombaris.  We got there at 1:30 and had some delicious and yummy courses plus two bottles of wine!

After we went to a few pubs and had a few more drinks, cause that's the way Aussies roll! (and the Irish and American!)  Of course the night wouldn't be complete without a stop off at "Lord of the Fries" for some "hot chips," something I've become accustomed to eating after a night of drinking!

The next day we went to the Melbourne Aquarium and saw some cool penguins, sharks and other aquatic creatures. 

After the aquarium, we sat out at a cafe and had some yummy coffee and headed back to home to Sydney.  Overall a great weekend away!