'Your bill's in the honey pot!'

Another beautiful weekend has passed in Melbourne. And this weekend started off with the brilliant news that we have an apartment! We managed to get a lovely little place that has added extras like a washer/dryer, a fridge, a balcony and a parking space! These are total bonuses especially the appliances as general it's byo here! Unfortunately we can't move in for another 2 and a half weeks which is a bummer but it'll be worth the wait! There will be photos I promise!

On Saturday, we though it was time to visit the Queen Victory market! This place was crazy. It's massive and filled with weird and wonderful bits and pieces. You have a massive fish and meat market which unfortunately made me run out of the place gagging. I've never smelt so much fish in my life! There's also a massive fruit and veg place where people scream their best offers. Then you have loads of beautiful fresh bread, sun-dried tomatoes, pestos and more. On the other side there is the retail section which has piles of clothes, hammocks, hats, shoes, animal hides, sunglasses etc. I purchased myself a very snazzy sun hat, some fresh figs and a beautiful purple throw made from yak wool. We also figured out that buying food is way cheaper if you buy at the Vic market. So that'll help on the economic front!

After the market we headed to Ishka, which is like the Australian and homeware version of Kem Bali in Galway, to buy some beautiful cushions  for our couch. Must actually buy a couch... After a quick stop in the beautiful carlton park (see below) we headed to Books for Cooks which is a shop dedicated to cook books and is stoked with over 250,000 cook books from all over the world! Needless to say Liam was in his element and came home with a nice few purchases which will hopefully result in some yummy dinners for me!

To finish off a lovely day, we headed to the local, a bar/restaurant that does a huge amount of beers, both on tap and by bottle. Also, every single thing on the menu, including the deserts has been cooked in some way with a beer of some kind! It's crazy but everything was delicious. We had an array of tapas and some Harvest ale. They're big on their ale here. I miss my weisse beer! You can get here but it's crazy expensive! A glass (or a pot as they call it here) is $10 is some places! The weirdest part of the evening was when we asked for the bill. The waitress brought over this pot and said 'the bill's in the honey pot' as if this was the normal way of doing things! We couldn't figure out what the point of it was. If it had been a beer glass or something maybe...

On Sunday we got up early to go to the market on the Esplanade which is made up of loads of little stalls selling paintings, clocks, t-shirts etc. It was pretty cool and we have out eye on a few things... After that we went to celebrate KLM dutch orange day in queensbridge square with Peter and Tina, my dutch relatives. It was epic. There was actual clog dancing! I got really excited about that! Liam thought I was crazy.
It was brilliant! We spent the day eating ourselves silly. We had friet met (chips and mayo) profetjies (tiny pancakes with toppings of your choice), and croquet (deep fried meat paste - I left that one to Liam). We also got the chance to buy some dutch food for home and some wooden tulips. It was a great day and a great opportunity to feel dutch for a day. Oh the giant clog! That has to be the best part.

Awesome!

Not much other news. Just enjoying the easy life for a bit but starting the job hunt tomorrow!

Until next time!