Melbourne Day 4

Today was the day of shopping.

But first, some decent brunch!

I went out with roomies RA and MM for a nice brunch at The Hardware Societe which was only a few minutes walk from our place.

It was so good. By far the best brunch I had in Melbourne. Ironically enough, I don't remember exactly what we ordered, but it was good.

Pork belly, or something?

Also a mushroom dish, and some ice-tea.

It was a good meal, and also didn't end up being too expensive between the three of us. For a brunch/lunch, it was decently priced (maybe not for breakfast).

With recommendations of Chapel Street shopping swirling in our minds, the trio of us headed off to South Yarra, narrowly missing a pigeon-poo incident (thanks to MM's quick reflexes whilst I just stood there with a gaping mouth, watching the incident unfold in slow-motion). We went for a quick stop at Luxbite, a desert store that we'd been highly anticipating for a while now.

I entered, and I was quickly rendered senseless.

Look at their macaron selection!

It looked gorgeous in there, and the cakes!

We shared two cakes between the three of us, and although they were expensive, they tasted amazing. They weren't too heavy (about medium-light), and so it meant we didn't feel like bloated blueberries at the end.

The aesthetics of the cafe were also nice on the eye, and all the cakes looked so cute and devourable. It took a while to decide on which two we would have the pleasure of tasting.

In the end, we settled for two nice looking ones.

Blue Calpis -- reminiscent of cheesecake

Endless Love -- a giant macaron

Personally I liked the Blue Calpis one more than Endless Love (though, both were good!), mostly because I'm a huge fan of cheesecake. Either way, both were definitely worth the try and if you're in Melbourne and have the time, please check it out! (Especially if you have a sweet tooth, or like nice aesthetics. Though seriously, who doesn't?)

And then, the shopping and city exploring began.

After a meet-up with JH along Chapel Street, we wasted the entire afternoon (or perhaps, wasted money more so than anything else) browsing shops.

T2, the traditional shot.

With bags all over our forearms, we decided it was probably a wise idea to head on home, so we stumbled our way to the train station and headed back to the CBD.

After scoring a free bottle of Lipton Lemon Ice-Tea (they just give out free stuff in Melbourne!), we arrived back at the hotel, and JH and I went for (another) book run.

I snagged four books home, and then started to feel slightly anxious and guilty about the added weight onto the shared luggage. I hoped and hoped that it wouldn't weight out to be over. (Spoiler alert, it didn't. Should have bought more books.)

The time came to head off to Gill's Diner, a restaurant we had been planning for a long time. It was one of the (most) pricey food locations we had put on our schedule, and actually, we booked a while ahead in time to ensure a table for all ten of us.

The steak that MM, JH, and I shared was quite decent. Would definitely eat it again. The pork belly (I seem to have had a lot of pork belly on this trip) was alright, but it wasn't the top of its game. None-the-less, the bill came out to top the food-price for this trip, and I slowly watched the money seep out of my wallet, with figurative tears streaming down my face.

But, it was good food.

The night was young, and so were we, so we headed off to The Rice Workshop in Chinatown for soft serves (because we were too full the first time we went there for dinner).

Unfortunately, low lighting and laughing (mostly the laughing) meant I didn't take a good photo of the matcha soft serves (Only $2!), but they tasted really great.

Refusing to head on home just yet, we took another last-stop at the local Mini Mart (yes, again). I bagged some Mogu Mogu drinks which I had been waiting to purchase for a while now (with the recommendations of two friends. TWO.)

I really liked the lychee and strawberry flavour ones.

However, though they were cheap (3 for $5!) and tasty, (and also the perk of them being packaged in cute little bottles), they were somewhat artificial, and essentially filled with sugar and flavouring, so I'm not sure I'd recommend.

Anyway, it was the final night of Melbourne, and we stayed up long into the night playing card games, talking, and messing with Siri (and a lot of weird selfies). Ahh, these are the moments I love with my friends. At around 3AM I had the 'epiphany' moment that seems to always hit me when I'm with my friends for an extended period of time, and I started to think of how much I adore them all and love spending time with them. 

... But then I started speaking to Siri in Spanish and my mind wandered again.

It was a great final night.

We packed before we slept, and finally conked out before the sunrise.