Day 7 - September 29

We had to get up for a viewing at 10:00am in Northcote. We got up at 9:00am and went downstairs of the hostel in time for free breakfast. It consisted of a choice of cereal, toast, and coffee or tea. The bread was super soft. My sister had 2 of them. We caught the bus toward our destination. The weather was super crappy. Cloudy and raining. Took about 30 mins to arrive. We got there and Nicholas, a German man with bubble eyeglasses, met us at the door. he looked about 35. We were hoping to get out of the cold, but when we walked in the house, it was no better. Have Melbourne people never heard of heaters? The room was fairly big. I would hope so since they were asking for $170/wk, not including utilities. The one floor house was pretty small, just 3 bedrooms, a fair size kitchen (with table) and medium living room. It looked very homely and old. Zeena, warrior princess (aye yiyiyiyiyiyi!!!), was the chick I had talked to earlier on the phone about the place, even said some of the cupboards don't open since it's so old. I asked who owned the house and she said an old chinese couple, whom couldn't speak english very well, so they had their daughter interpret between them and Zeena. The daughter was fed up with that so Zeena now only deals with the between them and Zeena. The daughter was fed up with that so Zeena now only deals with the realtor. There was only a washer, no dryer. The dryer was a clothes rack that was outside in the backyard, the typical round one that can turn 360 degrees. Zeena was good looking, I could tell that if she dressed up and had time to get ready, she would look super hot. She was super nice and currently work as a substitute teacher, though she called it a relief/emergency teacher. I laughed at her when she told me that. She taught drama and art. She also worked part time working gigs that an agency would give her. Nicholas had just arrived from Germany 3 days earlier and didn't have a job yet. The other roommate, Rahuul, was on vacation. He had a sweet gig where a school sponsored him from Spain to travel the world to learn about their cultures. Talking to the both of them, I connected very easily, more so with the warrior princess. After about 30 mins in the house, it was time to head back to the CBD. It was liveable, but the price was pretty high. We decided that an executive decision will be made after we saw all the places. We stopped at a Mcdonalds because they have free wifi. How sad is that? I bought a mocha just so that at least we were not loitering and were paying customers. I think we milked that mocha for about an hour.

They had a section where it looked like Starbucks.

A good selection of baked goods and many of the same drinks that Starbucks would serve.

After that, we stopped by a Pie Face shop for.....pie.

Each pie had a different face depending on the flavour. It's a neat concept.

The last time we were in Sydney, these shops were everywhere, it was no different in Melbourne (pronounced Mel-bun).

We ordered a chicken thai curry that has sleeping eyes and a wide open mouth. It tasted awesome. We headed to the Victoria Market finally. It was always too cold to go, but the sun finally came out.

Along the way, we cut through the mall and came across my sister's store (pop melissa, hard to see in the photo).

We also stopped at a cupcake store and they sold a giant cupcake, the size of your head, for $57!!

We went with the small date cupcake. It definitely wasn't a Melissa Lam cupcake, not even close. It was kinda hard. After we finished it, the girl that sold it to us said it would've tasted better if it was mircowaved for a couple of seconds. Stupid girl! Why didn't she tell us earlier? That's like saying telling my dead body, from jumping out of an airplane, it would've been safer if I had a parachute. Towards the market, we also stopped off at the bank to see if they had my debit/credit card ready. My eyes quickly looked at the office of where that hot chick would be and she was working today. Sweet, sweet eye candy. I went up to the teller for my card and it was finally ready (we were there yesterday to see if it was ready and it was not). Ray, the teller, was very friendly, in a non-gay way. His english was very good, for someone who came over from China 3 years ago. He said that people are only hired if the spoke english well. After speaking with Ray, I told my sister that I wanted a picture of the hot chick.

I stood in front of her open office, holding up my bank card and told my sister to take a picture of me, but obviously she knew to look past that and take a picture of the hot chick. Success!!

Though she took one, then waited about 30 seconds to take another (to make sure that she was looking in the camera's direction the second time) so I thought that might've been a bit suspicious. The pictures don't do her any justice, but trust me, she was hot. Now off to the market.

My sister loves mini doughnuts, and there was a mini doguhtnut looking truck that had 'American Dooughnut' on the side of its truck. They weren't mini, it was the size of a small fist and was filled with strawberry jelly rolled in sugar. It costed a $1 and wasn't that great.

We walked down a bunch of veggie and fruit stands. Apparently there was a shortage of bananas up in Queensland and boosted up the price of them. One stall was selling them at $13/kg!!! Guess the monkeys will be starving all over the world, unless they can afford $13/kg. Canada sells them at $0.69/lb in comparison. We headed into the cheese/bakery section of the market indoors. We looked for food as we were starving.

We ordered some borek. It looked like flat bread that was folded with filling inside.

We each got one. I got spicy lamb and my sister got potatoe.

They tasted really good and was worth the $2.50. We proceeded to walk and the meat and fish butchers were yelling out how fantastic their prices were. It was like listening to Hugh Jackmand and Micheal Cain having a screaming match. We then proceeded to walk down the market where they had miscellaneous things like luggage, socks, shoes, etc. Practically the same stuff that China would have in their street markets. Nothing fancy at all. I went into an eye glasses store. I asked if they had an optomotrist on site as I wanted to see if they could look for my contacts that I think was still stuck on my eyeball. He said to come back tomorrow and that it would cost $29. Somehow I don't think my insurance company will reimburse me if I go see an optomotrist from a farmers market. After the market, we went back to the library for free wifi. I used their computers on the second level where you can sign up for free to use the computer for an hour for porn, I mean research. They also had a room where you could play chess. About 5 tables were set up for that. Interesting that the pieces were all still there, given that there were a lot of asians around, just sayin'. After about 1.5 hours at the State library, we headed to scope out our second place of the day. This one was located in Ascot Vale, about a 20 min tram ride. It was super cold again. A guy from the farmers market said that Melbourne is famous for having 4 seasons in one day, he wasn't kidding!! It was super cold again and raining. We arrived at apartment before Jess, the other tenant. She came 10 mins later. The apartment was on the top floor. Once again, it was freezing in the apartment!! Seriously people, are you Eskimos?! Even an igloo would be warmer. It was much smaller than the other place we saw. A small kitchen, that can't even fit a table, a medium living room and 2 bedrooms. She was asian and spoke a FOB accent. My sister said she looked cute, but I thought otherwise. The rent was for only until December 7th as the land lord was thinking of selling. The rent would also cost me $170, but it included utilities. I wasn't sold on the place.

We left to go eat at the Curry House, a malaysian restaurant that was around the corner from our hostel.

At the restaurant, Melissa ordered a traditional Curry Laksa

and I ordered a Claypot Hawker Crispy Noodle. We also ordered a hot soy bean drink and a hot Tarik Teh drink. The meals were amazing!! The noodles were crispy throughout the bowl and the soup tasted delicious. My sister's spicy meal was just as good too. After we finished the meals, I knew something was brewing in my stomach and it wasn't going to be good. We both had a lot of soup mixed with the 2 drinks we ordered. It was all so good though!! It costed $22.80 in total, the best value we've spent so far. We went back to the hostel and that was the end of our night.