The first Australian stop on my two-month sabbatical was Melbourne. My friend and I gave ourselves four days in Melbourne. Overall we are very content with the amount of time we had.

Here's our four-day itinerary and the rough cost of everything we did or ate... (we ate a lot)

Art on Hosier Lane 


My friend and I arrived in Melbourne around 9am on Tuesday and we hit the ground running. The first thing we did was purchase an Aussie SIM card for $35. It gave us 12GB of data and unlimited calling within Australia. We also bought a Myki card for Melbourne's public transit system at a kiosk in the airport. The card itself costs $6 and you're able to load it with X amount. It costs $4.10 for one way on the tram. If you're riding the tram between Flinders Station and Queen Victoria Market it's free, anything past is when you have to pay. 

After we bought the cards, we went outside and purchased a one-way Sky Bus ticket for $19 to South Cross Station. There the Sky Bus offered a free shuttle to our Nomad Hostel.

Slight segway here to talk about our thoughts on the hostel. It was not the cleanest hostel, the wifi only worked in the lounge and was spotty at best. The few things we did enjoy were the free pancakes in the morning and the central location.

Check in wasn't until 2pm so we dropped off our luggage and headed to Queen Victoria Market. The hostel is less than a mile away. We ended up being obsessed with the market. It's a great place to purchase souvenirs with rows and rows of vendors. The best thing about the market was the FOOD. There was amazing food everywhere we turned, it was almost overwhelming 

On the far right side of the market, there is a stand that sells savory bureks (thin flaky pastries that are filled) for $3.50. We split a spicey potato and spinach/cheese. Seriously heavenly. Then two vendors down you can buy a sweet burek for $2. We split a cherry burek, drooling while I'm typing this. 

Spicey Potato Burek
We headed back to the hostel to recover from our food coma. After we recouped a bit we decided to wander the streets of Melbourne and ended up in China Town. I thought it was really cool, I've never been to a China Town before. We needed to eat dinner but a lot of the restaurants in that area were overpriced so we walked to a side street. We picked a random Chinese restaurant that I don't remember the name of but I wouldn't recommend eating there anyway. Two dishes ended up costing around $20. We saved leftovers for lunch the next day. We called it a day around 7pm and went to bed. 

In the morning we decided to go to Sydney Road Brunswick. We made the mistake of walking all the way to Flinders Station when we could have hopped on the 19 tram by Queen Victoria Station. After we figured out the tram we road it all the way to stop 23 Blyth Road. It may have taken us awhile to figure out how to get there but it was totally worth it.

Buildings on Sydney Road 


Our first stop was at Dejour Jeans. Dejour Jeans is a custom tailor shop. You are able to pick three pairs of jeans to bring into the dressing room with you and a worker will help decide what needs to be tailored. The tailoring process takes about a day and will cost around $50. To be honest it was quite an overwhelming experience. The store was crowded and flooded with jeans. I didn't have enough patience for it (what's new) and ended up not buying anything.

DeJour Jeans


Sydney Road is lined with vintage and local shops. I highly recommend carving out a half or full day just to walk the street and visit the shops. For a shopping snack, we stopped in Georgie's Fresh Bar and split a mini shepherd's pie for $5. Australia is famous for their savory pies so really there was no option but to eat one. After more shopping, we headed back to our hostel for lunch. 

Every Wednesday in winter, the Queen Victoria Market turns into the Winter Market at night. We were lucky and the market was extended until October 4th. The market venue was filled with countless food vendors, people, and music. We may have broken our food budget that night.

I'm almost ashamed to list everything we consumed...  Our appetizer was Arancini Di Riso ($15 for four Sicilian Rice Balls), the main course a $20 steak and eggs sandwich with chips, and dessert $6 for 5 hot jelly donuts. 

We need to take a moment to talk about these jelly donuts. They are out of this world, if you come to Melbourne,  I argue the most important thing to do is eat these donuts. They are sold out of a food truck on Queen St, right next to the market. I really need to figure how to make these at home.

Donut shop at the Winter Night Market


Once again we headed back to the hostel in a food coma and fell asleep early. The next morning we walked to Federation Square. On the square is an atrium filled with shops, restaurants, and an art museum. We looked at the free art for most of the morning. Right across the square is Hosier Lane. It's one of the most famous street art Laneways in Melbourne.  Next, we walked to Queen Victoria Garden right next to Federation Square. Melbourne has a lot of botanical gardens spread throughout the city. 



For lunch, we had to stop back at our favorite place, THE MARKET. This time we ordered two brats for $16. (stand located right next to the bureks.) These brats are arguably the best brats I've ever tasted.



Can you guess what we ate next? We couldn't resist going back to the hot jelly donut stand. Honestly, could eat those every day for the rest of my life. So thankful our hostel is right next to the market because we always walk back with our stomachs full. That night we made pasta for dinner and went to bed around 7pm.

The next morning we checked out and left our luggage with the hostel. We rode the 19 tram back to Sydney Road and stopped at Acustico Coffee. This is one of the few coffee shops we found that had free wifi. The environment was adorable, the staff was friendly, and the flat white was out of this world.

Acustico Coffee 


We walked to Federation Square after we were done and took advantage of their free wifi. The square closed around 5pm. We headed to Mandos where we split two chicken thighs and fries. After dinner, we walked around Melbourne wasting time until our 10pm overnight Greyhound to Sydney.

Melbourne is reminiscent of Chicago. It's cold, windy, and at times I had to remind myself that I wasn't back home in the States. With all the delicious food, unique shopping, and fun events it was easy to fall in love with this city.