Melbourne 2016 Day 5: Queen Victoria Market, Docklands & State Library of Victoria

DAY 5: 4 DEC 2016

State Library of Victoria

It's Sunday!

We took tram no. 57 to Queen Victoria Market this morning.

This market is way bigger than South Melbourne Market.

We entered via the main entrance and we were brought to the Meat & Fish section.

We bought half a dozen oysters for AUD$1.50 each.

And they were gone in a minute (:

So awesome.

While exploring the indoor section of the market, we chanced upon Market Lane coffee.

This place is apparently very famous for their coffee,

We bought a cup of latte even though I don't like coffee, haha.

Baristas in action

There were many food stalls available.

Initially I wanted to try out a borek.

I saw what it looked like, but I have no idea what it was, haha.

But I wanted something new.

So my mind was fixed on getting a lamb borek until I found a bratwurst stall,

a few stalls away, booming with business.

And I was sold.

Spicy bratwurst and cheese bratwurst

We topped our bratwurst with German mustard, ketchup and mozzarella cheese.

The sausages were really good!

We moved on to spend a good 1.5 hours exploring the outdoor market and

we managed to buy some wine gums, souvenirs and accessories back home.

We then moved on to take the city circle tram to Docklands.

There was a Sunday market happening by the waterfront and we decided to

have a look at it.

The Sunday market had stalls selling honey, accessories and children's clothings.

Nothing fantastic but we were on the way to harbourtown shopping centre,

which is an outlet mall.

The mall was much smaller compared to DFO South Wharf.

So if you have limited time in Melbourne, I would recommend you to visit DFO instead.

The harbourtown shopping centre had shops like Levi's, Forever New and TEMT.

The sales were good too but it also depends on whether you can find your size.

Bigger sizes are often available so those which I fancied didn't have my size :(

But I managed to get a pair of Levi's jeans for AUD$20 only!!

Best steal ever!

After getting our shopping fix, we decided to head back to put our shopping loots

and visit the State Library of Victoria!

State Library of Victoria

Reading room

 
If only our libraries were this pretty!
I wouldn't mind doing my marking there (:

To get a nice aerial view of the reading room, you will need to visit the dome galleries
on level 5 and 6.
We were rather lucky as we had 5 minutes left before the galleries close at 5pm.
Do check the timings before you plan a visit to the library.

There were also some exhibitions happening in the library and since we
were there, we visited some of the galleries.

After visiting the library, we moved on to QV and Bourke Street Mall.
Finally, we decided to head back for a short rest before the 9pm Christmas
showcase at the Melbourne town hall.
On our way back, we decided to visit the Gingerbread Village by Epicure.
This was a Christmas event located at the town hall.

120kg of gingerbread was used to build the entire showcase.

Familiar places such as Etihad stadium, Luna Park and Melbourne Star Wheel

were spotted as one of the products.

The work was really intricate and it was a joy to explore regardless of your age.

Christmas show at Melbourne Town Hall

Like the gingerbread village event, there was a Christmas screen show happening

every night starting from 9pm, with the last show commencing at 10.20pm.

Each show lasts for about 5 minutes and it was similar to the moomin show I watched

during the Arts festival last year.

It was a really nice show which brought out the warmth of Christmas.

It was a good thing we came back late last night because we caught the last minute

of the show, which made us aware of the show's existence.

What a great end to our day (: