Melbourne

The highlight of Melbourne was Nakeischea's arrival!

We started at Melbourne's Royal Botanical Gardens, which have a great view of the skyline and a huge selection of native plants and trees. The gardens were peaceful. Melbourne CBD was not. We stayed right in the middle of the CBD, with restaurants and shops and people people people everywhere you turn. In that respect it felt like NYC.
The architecture in Melbourne was really interesting, an unexpected mix of old and new; e.g.  victorian, 80s, and modern skyscrapers, sometimes on the same block. Between the main streets are laneways famous for their graffiti art.
Above all, we came to Melbourne to eat- it's known as the foodie capital of Australia. There was definitely plenty to choose from, and we tried our fair share. We even hit one of the most popular, Chin Chin, waiting in a queue out the door and around the block just to see the hostess. It was worth it though!

 

In the Southbank area we watched street performers 

Each bridge across the Yarra River is very different

Pedestrian traffic

State Library of Victoria

 We celebrated Easter Sunday in the beautiful St. Paul's Cathedral, an Anglican church.

 

We shopped till we dropped at the Queen Victoria Markets - largest of its kind in Australia.

We ran into the Easter Bunny there too!

Federation Square

Cool building

Cool cats

Very cool restaurant 😂