Since Queen Victoria Market had started to shut down yesterday by the time we arrived, we decided to make that our first stop of the day. We got there and started looking for breakfast. Lesley decided to have some churros (Spanish doughnuts). Adam and I decided to have some "American" Doughnuts, which were not like American donuts at all - they were covered with granulated sugar, tasted doughier, and had fruit filling. Still, they were good, and I couldn't finish them all, so I saved some for later. We continued to explore the market. There was an indoor section with meats for sale and other stuff. Outside, the market had a pretty big produce section that we walked through, but we spent most of our time exploring the section with general merchandise. There were lots of clothes, some was typical souvenir apparel, but there were lots of other clothes as well, including some NFL jerseys. There were other booths, some with magnets or calendars or other things. Some booths sold electronics or watches or sunglasses. We picked up a few souvenirs while we were there as well as a green sherpa hat and purple plaid scarf for Lesley. I got to use my hardly-ever-used negotiating skills to get better deals on stuff that was already pretty cheap.

Queen Victoria Market on Vimeo.

Sofia had an appointment to tour an apartment so she had to leave as we were finishing our time at the market. Adam, Lesley, and I left to have lunch on Lygon Street, where there are lots of places to eat, especially Italian restaurants. I wish I lived near Lygon Street (or somewhere similar). We just walked along until we found a place that we felt like eating at. We sat outside and enjoyed a good meal together.

After lunch, we walked around the Carlton Gardens, which is where the Melbourne Museum and the Royal Exhibition Hall were. We didn't go into either one, but we spent some time relaxing in the park. At the park was one of the only public drinking fountains that we saw in Australia. Lesley and I were carrying a water bottle with us, which we had already emptied, so I tried to fill it there, but had a hard time because the water basically shot straight up instead of in an arc. We had started carrying water with us because after being out all day, we had always gotten very thirsty because restaurants never gave us enough water and we didn't want to spend $3-4 for a bottle of water every few hours every day.

Anyway, after the park, we headed back to Lygon Street to meet Sofia for some gelato. We then decided to go visit the neighborhood of Toorak, which we had passed through before. It's one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Melbourne. We took the trams there and looked out the windows at the upscale homes. We just stayed on the tram to ride back and got off for tea and coffee at Laurent, an upscale bakery.

Our next place to be was Etihad Stadium to see the soccer game that we had tickets to. Soccer isn't the most popular sport in Australia. In Melbourne, the most popular sport is Australian Rules Football (also called footy). Adam and Sofia say that it's really fun to go to a footy game, but the season had just ended when we arrived, so we weren't able to see a game. By contrast, in Sydney, the Australian Football League (AFL) isn't as popular and rugby is the biggest sport. Etihad Stadium was designed for the AFL, which uses a larger field than soccer and attracts more fans, so it was a little oversized for an optimal experience. The game featured the Melbourne Victory against the Brisbane Roar. At halftime, Lesley and I had Australia's unofficial national dish, the meat pie, along with a sausage roll. While they are both popular, we seemed like the only people getting food and not beer at the concession stand. They came with tomato sauce (ketchup) packages that, once you opened them, you could just squeeze them and the tomato sauce came out really easily without getting your fingers dirty - much better than the messy ones in the US. The sausage roll and meat pie were both pretty good, but I can live without them. The level of play of the soccer game was pretty similar to Major League Soccer in the US and overall the game was pretty entertaining. In the end, Melbourne won 2-1.

After the game, we stopped at a British pub downtown for a drink so that we wouldn't be on a crowded train with all the other soccer fans. When we got home, Adam made us his specialty, Chicago-style hot dogs, which were pretty good.