Saturday, 9/13 - Melbourne

Day 4

Today I went to the Queen Victoria Market, a huge outdoor marketplace with lots of crappy merchandise but good food - local produce, meats, cheeses, baked goods, etc. The only gems I found amongst the tacky stuff were some little aboriginal paintings and a stuffed wombat keychain. The food was more appealing - I tried to look for Australian things specifically, whatever they may be. I went with a Tasmanian apple, a couple pears, some dried paw paw, and a couple kiwis, which the vendor ended up giving me for free since I wanted less than the 10 for a dollar deal. They got squished in my bag but I ate them anyway.

I got lunch in the prepared food section - some kind of long bread thing with potato and spicy veggies, and a Turkish delight. This was my first tasting of an authentic one, and I was pleasantly surprised. It reminded me of mochi, but sweeter. Finally my impression was redeemed after I mistakenly tried the disgusting Cadbury chocolate-covered version first.

After sitting and writing in Fitzroy Gardens for a while I took the old-timey City Circle tram to the Docklands, a commercial area by the piers. There wasn't much to do there unless you're eating out, but I got some decent pictures out of it.

After dark I went back to the house and Jeremy invited me to go hang out with his friends, but I decided to be a homebody, watch some more Flight of the Concords and get in some internet time.