Hello Melbourne

I may have shopped.
This street art is just made with water - so awesome!

On the way there I had only a suitcase the size of carry on baggage allowed - 3 dresses, 1 extra pair of shoes and undies and togs. About 7kg! I was impressed with myself. (by the time we left I doubled my weight, both the suitcase and my own I suspect!!)
Course the suitcase I chose has a zip-out extension - just in case.

On Friday we started at the Queen Vic markets - I do love a good food market!

Then we wandered the central city in the morning and while The Atlas was filling our water bottle up at the cool filtered water station I may have popped in to look at a shoe shop and popped out 5 minutes later with 2 pairs of shoes. Ahem.

We checked out a wonderful chocolate shop in the Royal Arcade KoKo Black. In the morning I had stopped a girl in a pastry queue to tell her how great her outfit was and how cute she looked and then bumped into her serving us at the KoKo Black stall in the market.

In the afternoon we headed up Brunswick street which is just out of the CBD (we walked there though so it's not that far). The shops and area reminded me a lot of parts of Cuba St in Wellington. The Atlas picked up some awesome limited print run t-shirts. Meet Me At Mikes has obviously closed there but it was fun to get the the photo!

Then in the evening we headed into Chinatown for dinner which was great fun and good food.
On Saturday The Atlas surprised me with an op-shop tour he had booked me in to! I do love that man. Obviously he wasn't planning on a day rummaging - so he sorted my travel card, gave me cash and a large empty bag/case and walked me to the group meeting point. (He's such a catch right??)

The tour was lots of fun we went to about 6 op-shops, stopped for lunch and had fun rummaging. I met a lovely Melbourne Fashion/Op-Shop blogger and another new-to-blogging mummy blogger on the tour too - we are everywhere!

Many of the op-shops in Melbourne are really nice. Well styled windows, lovely shop assistants (young with great style) and the marketing  - particularly for the Salvation Army op-shops - is done so well. By the time you leave you feel like you have just made a major difference to the homeless by choosing to shop there.

In the evening we had an amazing Vietnamese meal with The Atlas' cousin and his  lovely wife.
We were so pleased to get home to our beautiful boys last night and we'd definitely be happy to visit
Melbourne again anytime. There is so much more to see and do there.

I even managed to do some crafting in the airport and on the plane.

Have you entered my giveaway?
(I think normal programming will resume tomorrow - it depends how much unpacking happens today!!)