A happy year is made of a thousand little happy moments. To help me be mindful of and remember the little things that will make 2015 great, I’m giving them some space and reflection time here on Wanderbug. Spending some time each Sunday processing the ups and downs of each week is a great way to stay present, grateful and dodge the dreaded Monday blues. l also love to share my favourite Melbourne finds to inspire your next adventure! 

I’m lucky enough to have most weeks in Melbourne filled with great food and even better company. This week was no exception. My mum & little brother visited for the first time and I had so much fun showing them around our new city.

Eating in Melbourne

Mamma’s Buoi

Melbourne’s best restaurants are tucked away where you’d least expect them. A narrow arcade running down the side of the old GPO building is crammed with restaurants, including modern Vietnamese Mamma’s Buoi. It’s earned a reputation for a great cocktail list, so we felt we had to start there –  I recommend A Day in Halong Bay for a refreshing mango & green apple cocktail. I had the duck curry, which was amazing! It was actually sweet, in a hearty, spicy way. Will definitely return on a date night.

Gradi Crown

After achieving fame at the World Pizza Championship in Parma, Italy, pizza chef Johnny di Francesco of 400 Gradi in Brunswick has expanded with a second restaurant in the Crown complex. My little brother loves Italian food, and I’ve been dying to try the “best margherita pizza in the world”, so we ate at Gradi Crown on Friday night. Di Francesco is the only Australian to have trained in Naples and follow the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana rules. Naples is the birthplace of pizza, and Johnny’s training shines in his pizzas. We tried the award winning margherita verace, the spicy diavola and a creamy pork calzone.

Queen Victoria Night Markets

Before meeting a big group of friends for drinks, a few of us visited the Queen Vic Night Markets, which is full of food stalls. We arrived early, at around 5:45, to beat the crowds so we could get a table. I had a Chinese pork bun (not to be confused with Korean BBQ pork buns, in the future. Damn) and a creme brûlée, but wish I’d had room to try Filipino food, oysters and waffles. And pretty much everything else.

Melbourne Bars

Arbory Bar & Eatery

A train line in Flinders St Station that runs along the Yarra River has been converted into an al fresco bar, Arbory. I visited with friends last Wednesday night for a few drinks on our way home and have already made plans to return for a chilled out Sunday Session. 

Melbourne Zoo

My mum & brother visited this weekend, so on Saturday we went to Melbourne Zoo with my uncles. I hadn’t been since I was seven years old, and loved having an excuse to return. My favourite animals were the colourful mandrills, the smaller monkeys and the elephants. Snow leopards are my favourite animal, but they were hiding when we went to their enclosure.

The park is enormous and we didn’t get to make it around all of it, but I want to return in a few months when the gorilla baby is born and old enough for the public to see.

Entry for children is free on weekends and holidays, and adult tickets are $30 each – pretty good value considering we were there for five hours and a movie ticket these days is around $18.

Sealife Aquarium

My boyfriend and I have been wanting to visit the aquarium for over a year, and with my mum and brother in town we had the perfect excuse. The multi-level aquarium is home to colourful fish, star fish and sting rays, sharks, turtles, reptiles, one of the biggest, scariest salt water crocodiles I’ve ever seen and gorgeous penguins. It also has the only sawtooth shark in captivity, in the entire world.

My favourite exhibit was easily the penguins, which kept us entertained with their antics, especially during feeding time.

Tip: Tickets are 20% cheaper when purchased online at the Sealife website!

Reading

Wild, Cheryl Strayed

I didn’t expect to be grabbed by Wild, but out of curiosity I downloaded the free sample from iBooks. I was instantly hooked. I’m tearing my way through the full book now, and can’t wait to read it each evening. The simplicity of her task on paper (walk from A to B) leaves so much room for her story to come alive with the tribulations and triumphs of her epic hike along the Pacific Crest Trail, which stretches 2650 miles from Mexico to Canada. She starts at the California/Mexican Border and works her way up the country, travelling through the Sierras and the Cascade Mountain Range.

I’m by no means a hiker – I love going for hikes, but I’ve never been more than 12km, or even a full day hike. That one woman, who is grossly underprepared for the trip ahead of her, can do this hike, really motivates me to try some more challenging hikes in my own area. I’m not even sure if I’ll be doing overnight hikes anytime soon (let alone anything as intense as the PCT), but it will be a start. The first hike I want to do is Mt Oberon, not far from Melbourne.

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