I went on a walking tour of street art in Melbourne that I found on Airbnb. Lukas took me and another guest around to see some cool street art, pointed out various different styles, and put it all into context and the culture around the street art scene here. BUT, the highlight is that we got to make our own street art. It was awesome! I was super nervous to start, but it came out way better than I had hoped.

I chose to paint Ignignokt, a mooninite from the tv show Aqua Teen Hunger Force (ATHF). Not only is ATHF made by [adult swim] in Atlanta, but the voice actor for Ignignokt is ATHF creator Dave Willis, who went to Wake Forest and while there was Station Manager at Wake Radio (two things I also did). Also, my late friend Trey Tims worked at Adult Swim and worked on the marketing campaign that put LED-based mooninites up in 10 different US cities, most notably Boston (sigh, lol).

Mooninite

Mooninite & me

The rest of these were found in Melbourne.

A tree created with several stencils

Kasper

Kasper

This afternoon and evening, I went to St Kilda Pier in the southern part of Melbourne. Every day at sunset, a colony of penguins swims back to the rocks to sleep. You can catch a couple of them inside the rocks during the day, but the real treat is right at sunset, when they swim up to the shore and waddle up to the rocks. PENGUINS!!!

St Kilda Pier

St Kilda Pier

Penguin

Penguin

Penguin

Melbourne city lights, as seen from St Kilda Pier

I tried the New York style pizza at Shawcross, which was pretty tasty, but the downside was you couldn’t hold it up properly (too flimsy on the bottom half).

After a lot of colder, rainy days, it was gorgeous in Melbourne today. I walked a couple of miles over to the zoo, where I saw some dope animals.

Elephant

Giraffe

Wild dogs

Lion

I met up with Taylor, Maki, Sheena, & Brenda at the South Melbourne Market, where we had coffee and pastries, walked around, did some shopping, and then had a paella lunch at Simply Spanish in the market.

We stopped by their house for a bit before Taylor & I went to dinner at Supernormal, which turned out to be my best meal in Melbourne (so far at least!). We started with cocktails and the raw Kingfish with mandarin dashi, arame. It was a good start to what would continue to be a great meal. We moved on to the Crisp pork jowl & watercress salad – that pork jowl was not only crisp, but so tender it was like liquid pork. The New England lobster roll was perhaps the perfect form of a lobster roll – a lobster salad ensconced in a brioche roll with a fantastic light crunch. For the main, we had the slow-cooked Szechuan lamb with sesame bread & coriander paste. The spice was subtle and never over-powering, but the lamb was so tender and flavorful!

South Melbourne Market

Taylor & Sheena

Supernormal

Negroni

Eight

Kingfish with mandarin dashi, arame

New England lobster roll

Slow-cooked Szechuan lamb with sesame bread & coriander paste

Downstairs

Chief Wiggum

I stopped by Charcoal Lane tonight for dinner, which not only has delicious food and drink, but is also a “social enterprise restaurant that provides guidance and opportunity to young Aboriginal people who are in need of a fresh start in life.” So you can feel good about where your money’s going while enjoying some kangaroo!

I started with a negroni: Native pepperberry infused gin, Antica Formula, Campari. I couldn’t quite detect any significant pepperberry flavor, but it was still delicious.

To start, I enjoyed the charred asparagus + legume medley, with desert lime preserve, white onion + eucalypt cream, basil + pepperberry oil, chia seed crumb.

For my main, I chowed down on the chargrilled kangaroo sirloin, with parsnip, carrot + beetroot timbale, seared bok choy, davidson plum sauce. It was my first taste of kangaroo, which was a leaner and slightly gamier than beef. They recommend not going past rare or medium rare as it’s so lean. Overall, I loved the meat with the plum sauce, though I added a bit of salt to it. The parsnip was delightful too! So delicate. I paired this dish with the Innocent Bystander Syrah 2017 from Yarra Valley, Victoria (closeby to Melbourne).

To finish my meal, for dessert I had the native citrus marmalade steamed pudding with smokey whiskey anglaise, apple textures. Quite yummy! A perfect end.

I spent the morning in Torquay with Rob. We had breakfast at Ginger Monkey, where I had a scrumptious mushroom and poached eggs on toast, and we took a tour of the Surf Museum. He went home to work, and I drove down to Anglesea to a golf club where kangaroos live. I then drove further down the Great Ocean Road, which was quite gorgeous. If it wasn’t raining, I would have stopped to take some photos. I did stop at Kennett River where koalas are known to live. I followed some tourists up a hill, and after staring up at a tree where others were staring, I finally spotted the koala!

Kangaroos at the Anglesea Golf Club

kangaroos hopping

Kangaroo hopping

A koala!

A bird

Surfboard art at the Surf Museum

A delicious bacon, egg, and cheese “brekky” sandwich at Cafe Moby in Torquay, before driving back to Melbourne

Me and the beach

I rented (or “hired”) a car via Oyo, which is like Zipcar, but is somehow related to Toyota (get it, “Toyota”), and I drove down to Torquay, a beautiful town on the beach about a 90 minute drive from Melbourne. I saw some lovely beaches, some gorgeous rolling hills, had some good food, and experienced some mediocre fast food. Plus I got to hang out with Rob and his family!

I rented a Toyota C-HR Koba AWD to drive down to Torquay. Here it is at a service station on the highway.

A rather disappointing chicken sandwich and fries.

My airbnb was dope!

The beach was just a few minutes walk from my airbnb.

I got to hang out with my old friend Rob, who moved from Atlanta to Melbourne several years ago with his family.

Taylor, Sheena, & I took a walk around the Royal Botanic Gardens in Victoria, which was gorgeous. We had a coffee at the tea room in the middle of the gardens, and later had a delightful lunch a short walk away at Denis the Menace (lol).

Taylor & Sheena

Gardens

Sheena & Taylor

Spaghetti

I had a lovely breakfast at Rustica in Fitzroy, followed by a late morning espresso at Aunty Peg’s. I walked around a bit in Fitzroy and had a mid-afternoon visit to the Victorian House of Parliament, which was pretty neat. I got to see where Queen Elizabeth sat to open Parliament back in 1954!

I had a delicious dinner of dumplings & chicken at Hutong Dumpling House and a couple of cocktails at Bar Americano and Over Board, which were dope.

Rustica

Aunty Peg’s SL-28 Espresso

Three heads

Sitting

Mailbox face

Eye

Dog

Dalek

Brush strokes

Victorian House of Parliament: only the Queen or her governor can sit here

Bar Americano: Stefan made me a negroni & a brooklyn

Hutong: Xiao long bao and dry chicken in hot chili

Crisp

Above Board: owner Hayden made me a martini

I traveled to Hawthorne via a tram and a train to Taylor’s house to visit him, Maki, their child Sheena, and Taylor’s mom Brenda. It’s been great to catch up, and I loved meeting the baby!

Taylor & Sheena

Sheena & I

Hawthorne views

Breakfast in Fitzroy