Australia for the Holidays - Melbourne

I had been looking forward to the Melbourne part of our trip so much. It was the first time in what seems like forever that we would be able to have a bunch of couple time and date nights! H and my Christmas present to each other was a night at the Park Hyatt in Melbourne. After we dropped G with his dad, we headed to the hotel and got ready for our date night dinner at one of our favourite restaurants, Moon Under Water. If people are looking for a romantic dinner, this is the place. They have four courses for $75 and their vegetarian menu is just as good as the meat version, which is why we have been there at least 3 times now. Dinner was great, as was the amazing Shiraz we had that was recommended by the waitress!

Moon Under Water - clockwise from top left - baby vegetables, amazingly delicious shiraz, aged duck, snapper

The next day we checked out of the hotel and in to our next one, Punt Hill Apartments on Little Bourke and headed to one of our favourite breakfast places, DOC Espresso on Lygon St. I LOVE their caprese focaccia, which is full of amazing mozzarella. Yum! After breakfast we went into their deli next door, where they have heaps of food samples to taste. I ate some cheese as well as the most delicious salami i've ever tried!

Breakfast at DOC - Caprese focaccia and soy flat white

DOC

All the cheese in the DOC deli

More deli goods at DOC

After some shopping on the north side we went into the city to emporium and had pho for lunch as well as shopping up a storm and buying clothes that actually fit (try shopping for pants in Japan as a normal sized non-Japanese person! Impossible!).

Pho (top one vegetarian, bottom one beef)

After a rest in our hotel we headed out for dinner and drinks (many many drinks) with some friends. We went to Lucy Liu for dinner, which was lots of tasty asian food, then went to Madame Brussels for some jugs of cocktails. After that we went to the Supper Club for more drinks. All of this lead to an atrocious hangover for me the next day. Ugh. Still, it was a fun night.

Lucy Liu with friends

Madame Brussels

Cocktails!

Out of the two hotels we stayed at (The Park Hyatt and the Punt Hill Apartments), i've got to say that I really loved the Punt Hill choice for us. The Park Hyatt was lovely for a splurge, but for the price, I was expecting perfection, which it wasn't really. The Punt Hill Apartments that we stayed in the following 2 nights was fantastic. No as fancy, but HUGE room, HUGE spa, comfy beds and a great location. I would definitely stay there again and recommend it to anyone wanting a good affordable place to stay in Melbourne.