Welcome! The Wanderbug is an AI-free zone, written for humans, by a human (Genevieve!).  I write all content myself, based on my own, real, travel experiences.

Today I’m feeling lucky for such a happy January and excited for beautiful February.

We moved to Melbourne on Wednesday, which was exciting and a little teary all at once. Since then we’ve been slowly exploring our new neighbourhood and I’ve been delighting in Melbourne’s flatness, easy public transport and simple grid system which makes it very walkable for even the most navigationally-challenged, like me.

Summer in Melbourne

“Wow, the trees are so green and leafy for winter!”

Oh wait, it’s summer.

All week I’ve been constantly confused about the seasons because it feels like a Brisbane winter, but in fact is an unusually cold Melbourne summer. February is predicted to be warmer, fingers crossed!

Even the trees have the right idea and have rugged up.

To be honest, I don’t mind the cool change at the moment – Brisbane was pretty steamy when I left!

My favourite thing about Melbourne so far is the beautiful architecture, old and new. Everywhere you look, there is something beautiful or strange to gawk at.

Eating in Melbourne

Easily the best meal I had this week was a Middle Eastern feast at my uncles’ dinner party on Sunday night. I’ve been hearing about their dinner parties for years and it was great to finally be in town for one!

Kettle Black

It may be too soon to be calling my new favourite café, but I’m doing it. I’ve been totally won over by Kettle Black’s creative, delicious and well-priced brunch. I had the blueberry & ricotta hotcakes, which are covered in double cream, edible flower petals, fresh fruit, nuts & seeds and a dash of purple sugar. I’m normally a savoury brunch-er, but I’m going to struggle to order anything else from now on!

The perfect baguette

I can’t remember the exact name of this waffles & baguette joint in Degreaves Pl, but around lunch time on a week day you can follow the huge queue to this tasty slice of France.

The French man behind the counter serves up the perfect baguettes, the best I’ve had outside of France. It makes me dangerously nostalgic for lunchtime in Paris, but the risk of spontaneously buying expensive plane tickets is worth it for such yummy sandwiches.

Pressed Juices

Delicious, fresh cold-pressed smoothies and juices on Collins St. They’re a little pricey at $9 a pop, but are a nice fresh pick me up and they have some really interesting flavours that I definitely couldn’t be bothered making myself. I make green smoothies and carrot/beetroot juice, but I think juicing greens is too expensive, so I don’t mind buying a proper green juice every now and then.

South Melbourne Market

Finding the nearest farmers markets was one of my top priorities this week and we are lucky enough to live close to the South Melbourne Markets. We were in a bit of a rush this time, but next weekend I want to go a bit slower and stock up on more fruit & veg. It’s so much cheaper (and tastier) than at supermarkets, which is handy for juicing on a budget – I saw a big bag of beetroots for just $2.50!

John Rendell’s Paris

We popped into a free photography exhibition at the Sofitel celebrating Australian artist John Rendell’s photos of Paris in the 1980s. It was a short & sweet exhibition, which made me desperately nostalgic for Paris for the second time that day and kept D happy because we could enjoy the whole collection in 15-20 minutes.

Cooking

My uncles’ came over for drinks to see our new place, so I made some really easy open sandwiches. They’re foolproof, they look pretty & they are delicious – even if I do say so myself.

Words

“Whatever you think you can do or believe you can do, begin it. Action has magic, grace and power in it”

Goethe
What did you get up to this week?

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