Melbourne Girls Weekend | Travel Journal

 

Neither my best friend or I are what you would call spontaneous. Everything we decide to do is preceded by copious amounts of planning and this trip was no exception. Our four day weekend was about a year and a half in the making, but the wait was well worth it.

Melbourne is probably one of my favourite places I'd visited in terms of two of my favourite activities: eating and shopping. Since these were the two main aims of our trip, I didn't get to indulge in many (or really, any!) touristy adventures, but these were my top three places to shop:

• Chapel Street is absolutely amazing for boutique shopping. Though there is a Target and Topshop, I fell in love with it for all the smaller stores you'd struggle to find anywhere else. I had to refrain from buying a whole new closet- the quality of most of the clothes I drooled over was amazing and though the prices weren't cheap, they were not unreasonable either. I'd recommend making a girls day out of this if you can- there's plenty of cafes and restaurants to grab a bite to eat and a tasty coffee.
  
  
• South Wharf DFO appealed to my inner bargain hunter. I know factory outlets tend to be pretty hit and miss as far as stock is concerned, but I struggled not to blow my shopping budget during this visit. Since I'm used to having only one, relatively small factory outlet centre near me, I was definitely spoiled for choice.
  
  
• H&M. Okay so this may seem a bit odd to people who live in Melbourne or who have regular access to the store, but we don't have it where I live. I think we made an obligatory H&M visit every day we were there- and I'm slightly sheepish to admit I bought new things every single time. I also spent an unhealthy amount of time browsing the home section, which was awesome. And completely freakout-worthy. 

 

I can't count the number of cafes and restaurants we stopped at during the trip, but I will say we did have a penchant for Italian food. There's nothing quite like being able to dine alfresco in the middle of winter and share a glass of wine with your best friend. Though Hardware Lane was one of my favourite dining experiences, dinner at Ca De Vin takes the cake. It was a beautiful, atmospheric dining area. And there are not enough adjectives to tell you how incredible the food was. If you do happen to stop by, I would 100% recommend the saganaki with honey and fig jam for entree. You can visit their website here. 

This city definitely stole my heart. When I went to put this post together, I realised I'd been having way too much fun and didn't take nearly enough photos. Though I'm sure my bank account would disagree, I cannot wait for the next time I have the opportunity to go. 

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