Back home to Melbourne - Day 1

After some long flights and long layovers, i'm back home in Okinawa, on a recuperating day off and I can't wait to get started on the Melbourne re-cap! The reason I went to Melbourne, was for a conference, and it was doubly a perfect opportunity to meet up with all my favourite people and eat my favourite foods!

I flew back home with DragonAir/Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong and had a 6 hour layover in Hong Kong Airport, which was not too bad because I managed to get tasty food as well as find a comfy bar to while away the time. I was so surprised though by how crazy expensive everything was in the airport! I ended up spending the equivalent of about $50AUD on a neck pillow, but it was so so worth it. Can't believe how long i've lasted in my life flying internationally without one!

Australia is so red!

Taiwan noodle soup and tsingtao

Anyway, as soon as I got to Melbourne, I taxied to my hotel in Chinatown, had a quick shower and changed before racing out to meet up with my friend Aaron for a couple of beers. We used to teach English in Japan together 8-9 years ago, and have been the best of friends since then. We started at a new-ish bar called Ferdydurke, which is in a laneway in Chinatown. I was desperate for my favourite Australian beer, Stone and Wood Pacific Ale, which they didn't have so I randomly chose another beer called Easy Rider, which actually tasted quite similar, so I was really happy. We chatted, got some piroshkis, which are polish dumpling things and were delicious.

View from my hotel room balcony - Punt Hill Apartments Little Bourke

Chinatown

Trams

Ferdyduke bar

The bar was lovely and sunny

This beer was a delicious choice for my first one back in Australia

Looking down on the bar next door - Section 8

Catching up with Aaron

Delicious

After Ferdydurke, I still had a bit of time to kill before meeting other friends, so we went to a mexican place on Lonsdale street for some chips, guac and margaritas! I cannot for the life of me remember the name of it though. Mmm.

Blood orange margarita

After meeting with Aaron, I headed out to my old stomping ground, Brunswick East, to meet some friends as well as a puppy! We went to the B. East on Lygon street, which has amazing vegan and non-vegan food, but one of my friends is a vegan so it's perfect! We basically just picked a bunch of different things and shared them all. I was super tired by this stage though, so it wasn't a late night, and I had to be up early for the first day of conferencing the next day.

Wilco the puppy

Vegan foods - Poutine, popcorn "chicken", Mac and cheese bombs (not vegan), and two vegan burgers.