Melbourne, Part II

I love walking through China town in Melbourne, especially because there's no such thing here in Munich. So, on our holiday, K and I had lots of Asian food - we really miss it here. There are Asian restaurants in Munich, some good (there's a lovely Thai place near our house, but it's quite pricey), but most of them are tacky take-away places.

Anyways, Melbourne - China town. It's a cool place to be, there's always something to discover like the bar next to the Asian dumpling place where there used to be a parking lot, and there was a game of bingo going on when we stopped by. (One guy had called out a false bingo and then was presented 3 options: 1. buy drinks for everyone, 2. strip naked in front of everyone, or 3. have a glass of ice cubes put in his underpants for 10 seconds. He chose the ice, in case you wondered.) On the way to the car, we walked past this place:

MaoTheRestaurant, originally uploaded by d.knit.

Mao Please!

Federation Square wasn't fully finished when I left almost 5 years ago, so it was really interesting to be there and see how it had changed. There's a bar there, Transport, where we met up with friends a couple of nights.

DowntownMelbourne, originally uploaded by d.knit.

I love the view of Flinders Street Station, the old building tucked in between well, not really skyscrapers, but tall, modern buildings is just the mix of times and cultures that represents Melbourne to me.

One day K and I hit the road to Torquay, to go to the surf shops (this is where pretty much all the big companies come from) and to go to Bells Beach, where there's a surf competition every year. This year, it was on the Easter weekend, so we missed it. When we were at Bells Beach, there was only one surfer in the water, and he didn't surf much. Tough luck.

BellsBeach1, originally uploaded by d.knit.

I like this beach anyway, there's always a chance to see some good surfing action and even though I'm not much of a beach person, I like coming here.

On the way home, we saw this:

HomeOfVegemite, originally uploaded by d.knit.

Did you ever try Vegemite? (Or Marmite if you're in Britain) It is very typical for Australia; my theory is that you have to grow up with it in order to like it.

The coffee K had at Macro:

Coffee!, originally uploaded by d.knit.

I once read that Melbourne had the best coffee outside Italy, a coffee loving nation par excellence. I have to agree - I never had a coffee in Melbourne that I didn't like (and I'm fussy about my coffee!).

Last but not least, some knitting content. Before the holiday I started knitting Stefanie Japel's Orangina with Rowan 4ply cotton.

OranginaPattern, originally uploaded by d.knit.

I like the yarn, I've made the Victoria Tank with it before and the pattern repeat is actually exactly the same. Because the Victoria Tank is a bit tight (especially under the arms) I really want Orangina to fit but I have a very hard time measuring the gauge. Actually, the measuring part is the easy part, I just can't seem to count the stitches. I started knitting with the recommended needles but it looked like I didn't have enough stitches. So, I ripped it and went up a needle size, but I'm already dreading the moment when I have to count the stitches again. Is there a trick to count stitches in a lace pattern? How do you do that? Oh well... I'm not looking forward to that one.