Another day, another fantastic bird on the balcony – this is a Galah.

Today we ventured into Melbourne to the Vic market (short for Victoria). It is an absolutely huge market full of stall after stall of everything from clothes, shoes, sunglasses, scarves, and even lingerie to boomerangs, didgeridoos, candle and wine bottle holders, and food (fresh fruit, bananas, potato chips, meat…) the variety of stuff seemed limitless. It poured rain for part of the morning but most of the marketplace is under a roof or awnings so it was a good time to wander and browse.

Here is a guy playing the didgeridoo:

I got some soft sheep wool-lined Ugg boots – just like every girl in Australia is wearing! Tyler found a watch he liked, and we also bought an adapter (we forgot that our North American plugs wouldn’t plug in here and we’d need a converter). We grabbed lunch at the market as well, and after a few hours of walking around and checking everything out, we drove down to St. Kilda’s, a town on the other side of Melbourne.

There was another, much smaller market called the St. Kilda’s market, featuring arty stuff, like jewelery, paintings, and carved mugs.

St. Kilda’s has a lovely pier that stretches out along a boardwalk, and it was full of people out enjoying the afternoon after the rain passed – fishing, ambling along the boardwalk with their kids, tossing pieces of bread to the squeaking, floating seagulls. There were boats everywhere, from dinghys to yachts, and the air was so breezy and fresh that it was just really pleasant to walk around and look across the water at downtown Melbourne.

Our last stop of the afternoon was Luna Park, a small amusement park that was built in 1912 based on a park built in Coney Island, NY. The outside features a creepy facade called Mr Moon, and we went in to take some photos of the old timey carnival rides. There was a carousel with horses, funny mirrors, a rickety looking roller coaster, and lots of popcorn, cotton candy and other treats.

Tomorrow Tyler and I will try to navigate Melbourne on our own. We have a few places on our list to check out, including the aquarium. Wish us luck!