The Queen Victoria Market and Other New Discoveries

 Queen Victoria Market is one of the "must see" attractions of Melbourne. Officially opened in 1878, it's one of the older historic landmarks of the city and was built on the site of Melbourne's first cemetery. It has huge, decorative sheds and high-roofed halls which house nearly a thousand stalls selling fresh fruit, vegetables, meat, seafood, and other souvenirs as well as leather goods! The place is gigantic. Conveniently located 3 blocks south of where I'm living, I've probably been going to the market about 2 to 3 times a week. In short, I'm obsessed!

 The shops facing the streets are more upscale cafes, boutiques, and even a cooking school where you can watch classes being taught! Pretty cool. Inside the market there is soooo much produce and variety that it's really hard to choose what you want. But everything is ridiculously cheap. The best time to come is late afternoon around 3 or 4 when the market closes because the vendors will be selling bags of fruit for just $1! SUCH a bargain in this very expensive city.

 Green Zebras?! Fried green tomatoes anyone? This was in the "organic" section which is actually way pricier than the rest of the market yet the produce is pretty unique.

 The deli section is my absolute favorite part of the market. You can pretty much buy anything you want from cheese, chocolate, bread, any meat imaginable (including kangaroo and emu!), olives, stuffed peppers, grape leaves, fresh pasta, tea...and the list goes on and on.

 I couldn't resist and bought a custard stuffed chocolate croissant from this bakery. YUMMMMMM. On my shopping trip today I also picked up almond & apricot bagels, blueberry bagels (bagels are a rare find here but I am a fiend so it had to happen..currently on the hunt for cream cheese), a beef and mushroom pie (or "party pie" as they call them here), turkish bread, darjeeling green tea, parmesan cheese, applewood smoked cheddar cheese, FRESH pumpkin and poppyseed fettucini, dolmades aka stuffed grape leaves, and fresh produce such as limes, grapes, avocados, necatrines, and a huge bag of spinach (because you can never have enough spinach). I made a killing at the market today but it was totally worth it - we are feasting tonight!

A few days ago, Eileen and I stopped at Dolcetti. This bakery is a hidden gem in the laneways of Victoria Market. I had a sundried tomato and zucchini ricotta cheese pie and Eileen had a peach and blueberry tart. The perfect lunch, in my opinion.

 During the summer, every Wednesday night they hold a night market which has live music, delicious food, and popular clothing and other stores selling out of stalls. We've been twice so far since the night market ends this week (boooo).

 A pretty stand selling hanging lights

 Everyone lines up for these "Twistto" potatoes. Basically they take an entire potato and cut it into one big curl, fry it, sprinkle different flavors on it, and sell it for $5 a pop. I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. Also, not sure how authentic this really is because I'm pretty sure they have something very similar sold on the boardwalk at the Jersey Shore. Fail.

 This is Michael, Hilary, Eileen and I on our first trip to the Victoria market. Truly authentic Australians and not touristy at all!

 Besides stuffing my face and emptying my wallet at the Victoria Market I've also been around campus a lot. I'll take more pictures once classes start but this is the Old Arts building from the University of Melbourne. We had a campus tour this week and I really enjoyed it! The University is a mixture of old historical and modern architecture. There are beautiful courtyards tucked around everywhere that you either really need to look to find, or can easily stumble upon. There's a big lawn called "South Lawn" which many students frequent to lay out and tan, sit and eat lunch, or enjoy the occasional barbie (bbq) which the school will put on for free. There are also tons of cafes to sit and enjoy coffee in between classes, and a very extensive Student Union House which has an excellent food court. Our tour guide also told us of a hangout/relaxation/sleeping room with big comfy couches, dim lighting, and "whale" music playing. I think I can get used to this!

 I took this shot on top of a rooftop bar in Melbourne we went to one night. Although the drinks were extremely overpriced it was worth it to sit outside in the fresh air and have a fantastic view of the city. Since it was a "frigid" 60 degrees they had heating lamps out. Aussies would never survive in Boston!

A few friends and I about to go out last Thursday! (Mom: note the new satchel I found!) The nightlife here couldn't really be better. Any night of the week there's something going on and it's always such a great time. However, now reality sets in as classes start tomorrow! I have a smorgasbord of options for what I'm going to take and will be extremely busy attending different lectures and figuring out my final schedule. Since I haven't been to a class since mid December it's going to be an adjustment to be back on the daily grind! Until next time...