The next part of our Melbourne adventure saw us move slightly further north from trendy well-dressed hipster haven, Fitzroy, to slightly less well-dressed hipster haven Brunswick.

This part of the city has a huge Italian and Lebanese population with loads of cafes and restaurants serving cheap (by Melbourne standards) and authentic cuisine. On our first day in Brunswick we found a little Italian café in a square just off the main road. Nobody was speaking English. Everyone was chattering away in Italian and there was a little band playing Italian folk songs. It was as though we had been transported to Verona! Incredible to think we were still in Melbourne!

For the most part, pizza is something that Australians haven’t quite got to grips with yet so as you can imagine, it was an absolute delight to be able to go out and get a proper pizza, right on our doorstep. We also regularly took a 15 minute walk after dinner to our local Gelateria for some of the finest gelato in town!

Neither of us had much experience with Lebanese food and despite the fact that our local Lebanese bakery (A1 Bakery) looked more like a Kwik-Fit garage from the outside, it was filled with lots of freshly baked delights. One of the highlights being spinach and cheese pie and we were introduced properly to baklava – incredibly sweet pastry bites – to go with our heart skipping, chatter-box fuelling coffee (which made Caroline go into turbo drive)!

Gluttonous feasts at A1 Bakery

From Brunswick, it takes a bit longer to get into the city on the tram but there are always interesting characters to keep you entertained, i.e. man with parrot, lady with moustache, hipsters with ghetto blasters. Most of the trams on that line are old and rattle along the tracks so it’s a bit like being transported back in time too.

Trying to immerse myself in the Melbourne social sports scene, I decided to try rowing one morning and went to Albert Park lake to join one of the beginner sessions I had heard about. Maybe if I liked it I could join a club and get super-fit! So, down to the rowing shed I skipped, bright and early…”that’s strange. Not many men about…”. I was getting a lot of strange looks until finally a lady with a skippers hat approached and told me that I had joined a women’s rowing club. That made sense as there were no guys. Despite this faux pas, they were all really nice and let me join them for an hour or two on the lake. It was fun but being slightly bigger and stronger than the rest of my crew, whenever I started rowing we would go round in circles. Eventually the cox told me just to take my oar out the water and to enjoy the cruise and so I was rowed around the lake a few times by a bunch of sniggering women! I didn’t go back.

After a few weeks in Brunswick, we decided we needed a break from the city and looked into ways we could see a bit of rural Victoria at the weekends. We caught a train out of the city to a place called Belgrave. It only took about an hour but when got off the train, it was like stepping into a different world. We immediately started feeling more relaxed and realised how much we had been missing the countryside.

We were there to do a walk on a bush trail called the Sherbrook Forest Loop. With a name like that we half-expected merry men in tights to come dancing out of the bushes.

Not enough is said about rural Victoria in guidebooks and you never really see it being promoted anywhere but it’s definitely worth a visit. We were surrounded by giant trees swaying softly in the wind, enormous Jurassic Park style ferns towering over our heads and birds darting around everywhere… little pairs of red tits and giant white Macaws with their yellow crests like crowns on their heads. We were even lucky enough to see an echidna scratching around in the dirt (for those of you who don’t know, an echidna is a big porcupine looking type thing with a little pointy snout that it uses to burrow for worms).

Giant ferns in Sherbrooke Forest Loop

Of course bushland and forest like this is teaming with other creatures with a nasty bite so we were cautious where we put our feet and our hands. We came to a secluded clearing in the middle of the forest that looked like something out of little house on the prairie and we stopped to eat our now extremely soggy tuna sandwiches. Sheer bliss! We couldn’t have been further away from the hustle and bustle of the big smoke.

Noisy Macaws

On Christmas Eve we were both feeling pretty far from home as we walked up Lygon Street. What better way to cure some homesickness than with more cheese than you can shake a stick at?! We found the most amazing fromagerie called ‘Milk the Cow’ and treated ourselves to a cheese flight matched with wine. Oh yes! Highlights were the double cream brie and Comte. After the fourth glass of wine, it was hard to remember what else we had!

Christmas Eve cheese

We spent Christmas Day with our friends Duncan and Paola who had flown in from Singapore, and some of their friends (who became our friends) from all over Europe. So there we were, two Scotsmen, an Irish girl, a Spanish girl, a Portuguese guy, two Dutch girls and a token Australian all enjoying a fantastic BBQ and an enormous array of international cuisine for Christmas dinner, followed by a jaunt to the beach. Strange being at the seaside at Christmas and in 30 degree heat but a very enjoyable experience and we’re so grateful we got to spend it with old and new friends. It would have been a lonely affair if it had just been the two of us.

Christmas at the beach with old and new friends

Boxing Day and yet another new experience… Cricket! Apparently the Boxing Day test is a big deal so we got some tickets and headed to the enormous Melbourne cricket ground, or MCG… or ‘The G’ as most Aussies refer to it as. India Vs Australia… That’s about all I can tell you. It was very confusing and we were so high up in the stadium, it was hard to know exactly what was going on. Occasionally we would get up and shout and Caroline would stand up and wave her arms around frantically whenever the Mexican wave came around. A great atmosphere although we’re not sure who won (if anyone!).

Boxing Day test at the G

Of course we all know that 27th December is a very special day too. It’s the day that Caroline graced us with her presence on this earth. The poor lamb had only ever really experienced winter birthdays and all she had ever really wanted was a birthday picnic in the sun. First of all we headed down to St Kilda for a spot of paddle boarding. Of course I was an expert after my ordeal attempting paddle boarding in Queensland! However, I have to admit that Caroline was much better at it than me. She just glided across the water effortlessly and I splashed along behind. It was a lot of fun manoeuvring around and sometimes straight into the beautiful yachts moored in the bay.

Paddle boarding in St Kilda harbour

Next, we hopped in a tram and made our way to the Melbourne botanical gardens. I’m sorry to say it but they put Glasgow botanics to shame. We found a lovely spot and set up for our picnic. Prosecco, cheese, tapenade, grapes, chocolate…the works! Finally Caroline got the lovely birthday picnic in the sun she always wanted.

Birthday picnic in the Botanic Gardens

Birthday stroll in the Botanics