Travel Diary, Melbourne Markets
March 09, 2013
As some of you may know I was on holiday in Australia last month and although the holiday was a bit brief I had an awesome time, one of the cool places I visited was the Queen Victoria Markets! They were pretty awesome to take a stroll round and every Thursday night they have live music which was nice to listen to whilst looking at all the stalls!
The summer is coming to an end in Australia and so the markets were pretty busy, there were thousands of people and it definitely added to the ambience of the whole evening! In the summer they also have heaps more food than usual so there was a whole row of stalls dedicated to food alone, which made it quite difficult to choose what to eat because everything looked so good, eventually we chose to have lemon and oregano infused chicken with some salad which I had never tried before, but was so delicious!
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The great thing about the food was that they prepared it right in front of you, the smell was so mouth watering and definitely attracted more customers. Also the service was super speedy, especially considering how good the food was. In other markets I've been to, such as Camden or Portobello, they usually just dish up the food and you often question how long it has been sitting there whereas at the Queen Victoria Market as soon as you ordered they would place the chicken (or beef or lamb) on to the hot stove and cook it while you watched so you knew your food had not been waiting for ages before you ordered it! The stall we went to was named 'U Fuculari' (lol interesting name) and focussed on traditional Sicilian barbecued food! So tasty, but maybe not an ideal option for any veggies!
Next it was time to visit some stalls and potentially by some items to take home!
The candle holders below were so pretty, personally I don't often light tea candles alone (instead I use a tea candle and then put a yankee tart on top) but I had to take a picture of them as they were all individually painted and looked so beautiful when the candle was lit inside. I asked if they did any candle holders similar to the ones that hold yankee tarts on the top but unfortunately they didn't so I had to go without.
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These skirts below were part of a hand made, vintage stall! All the skirts were so colourful and the prints on them were absolutely beautiful, my original thought was 'which one to choose' as I thumbed every single option. Eventually I found one with a white and blue china type print, it was beautiful so I decided to try it on. Sadly, being slightly taller than average (I'm 5ft 7) the skirt didn't fall in the right place, it was too long to be a mini skirt yet too short to be a midi skirt. I know some people can rock that look, however where it fell really didn't suit me so I didn't end up buying anything from the stall. Which was a major dissapointment! |
We then stumbled upon this store, full of ornaments, dream catchers, wooden boxes... a lot of which was focussed on buddhism and hinduism and trinkets associated with both faiths. As I am interested in different beliefs, faiths etc I thought I would look around the stall... it was the busiest one we had come across all evening! I eventually bought a silver Ganesha ornament, as well as a white and blue dream catcher! As my room is being decorated I thought both would go perfectly with my white, silver and blue theme and therefore I quickly snapped them up!
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I will post my two purchases from the market along with other bits and pieces I got from Australia in my next post which is going to be a haul! But for now, as the sun set the market had a change of atmosphere.
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As it got darker the market became increasingly lively, with guys playing music on didgeridoos, guitars and incredibly, sticks on the floor it was a performance not to miss and the entire crowd seemed to embrace it with cheering and roaring at the end of every song. Not only did the upbeat music add to the communal feel of the markets but the outside seating area was also a nice place to chill on a warm summers night with one of the many smoothies or cocktails the markets have to offer!
Overall I had an awesome time at the Queen Victoria Market, there was so much going on everywhere you turned. Next time I go to Australia I am going to visit again, but maybe allocate myself a bit more time to looking at all the stalls, as I was unaware of how many there were when we first arrived! To anyone thinking of visiting the markets... don't be fooled by how small the venue looks on the outside, once you go in there are endless rows of stalls to visit and there is sure to be something there for everyone!
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