Our wonderful trip to Melbourne

Fun & Love in Melbourne 

Oh Melbourne. You MINX.

There we were. Like every trip, riding to the airport like two excited kids on Christmas eve (ok well I certainly raise the excitement metre and carry it for us both). We were off to Melbourne for 5 days to hang out, shop, eat and drink and we had been hanging out for the trip for weeks.

Getting to Melbs with my handsome man also just happened to be number 7 on my 25 before 25 list but it was so so much more than that.

We wanted a time out. We wanted some Morgs & Anna time. Breakfast dates. Wine dates. Relaxing dates. Just to be in each others company & Melbourne delivered in spades.

I think it’s no secret that we love to travel, in fact, the comment was made sitting together beer & pie in hand (because it’s rude to not drink & eat a pie at the footy right?) that we really do just want to travel the world together forever. 

So the vow has been made. Travel will always be involved in our lives - even when we start having little Morgan & Anna's.

Here is what I challenge you to do though. BOOK THAT TRIP. You know, that trip you have been saying you really want to do, but still haven't organised. The road trip down south, the quick flight to Sydney, the week holiday in Bali. Just book it. One of the biggest lessons that I still relish in every single day is there is never any point in waiting, for the right time, or more money. It's not morbid to say, but you honestly, truly really don't know just when your time is up. Imagine putting off living because you were worried about submitting a leave form, or asking your boss, or spending a bit of money. I have never let time, annual leave or money get in the way of a good holiday and once I commit it always works out, always.

JUST BOOK IT.

In the true spirit of a travel post though, and after getting some amazing recommendations that truly made our trip, here is the roundup of where we ate & drank in case you want to give any of the spots a try.

P.s We stayed at an amazing hotel in between South Yarra & Melbourne CBD called 'The Blackman Hotel' .. highly, highly, highly recommend it. When we go back to Melbourne we will ab-so-lutley be staying there again.  

M&A's Food Guide to Melbourne 

Newmarket Hotel - St Kilda ... Fantastic hotel / restaurant with sexy atmosphere (& amaze wines). We went to visit some friends here & it was hard to leave to kick on for dinner. 

Naked for Satin - St Kilda ... THE most happenin' bar / restaurant that does Pintox for $2 a toothpick. We went, had some pintox, some wine, & chilled out with old friends on some comfy sofa's. Absolute MUST do in Melbourne. Groovy story behind the name and history behind the place so do make sure you grab the story off the bar when you're there.

China Town - Melbourne CBD ... You can't go to any city I believe without giving their China Town a red hot crack. We just stopped at the first restaurant we came across that was packed & settled down for lunch. Delish Asian cuisine and vibin' little area. 

Dukes Coffee Shop - Windsor ... This is where I had the world's yummiest muesli. Absolute must do for Breakfast & Coffee if you're in Melbourne. We kicked our morning off here with some delish food then shopped up a storm on Chapel Street (which is where this bad boy is located) Win freaking Win.

MerryWell Crown Casino - Melbourne CBD ... Because honestly, a trip to Melbourne isn't a trip to Melbourne without a visit to the Crowne. We opted for burgers and wine here & honestly, I'd go back to Melbourne for this burger alone. Amazing views over the Yarra river & skyline too.

Classico - South Yarra ... Morgs & I wanted to give a red hot crack at eating most cuisines whilst in Melbourne so this gorgeous little restaurant dished us up the Italian of the trip. Intimate setting, incredible wine list, great sized portions, friendly service & awesome food. 

St Ali - South Melbourne ... If you like coffee, get here. Just simply, get here. One of the best coffee's we had in Melbourne & I would go back again. Freaking happenin' little spot, awesome vibe and seriously good coffee. The food looked amazing too (but we had just gone for a taste of their coffee) 

Queen Victoria Markets - Melbourne CBD ... We went for some market breakfast & coffee and turns out it was some devilishly good tasting coffee and THE best pancakes I've ever eaten in my life (massive call but I just made it). The Melbourne Markets are a must do if you're in Melbourne regardless but don't give their food stalls a miss. 

T-Roy Browns - Melbourne CBD ... This is quite literally a whole in the wall but a hole in the wall that isn't to be missed.

Rose St Artist Market - Fitzroy ... We found this groovy little art market whilst wandering Brunswick street on the way to get some raw vegan goodness and stopped past to have a wander. It's small enough to not get lost for hours and has some really (really) cool handmade stuff in there. If you're going to shop or eat on Brunswick street then these markets deserve a visit.

Chez Dre - South Melbourne ... We popped in to this divine bakery'esque place whilst grabbing a coffee at St Ali & can I Just recommend you do the same. Fresh style home made pastries and cakes and so mouth wateringly delish I can't put in to words. Just GET there.

Slow Poke - Fitzroy ... This place is another little gem hidding in Melbourne like an unsuspecting hole in the wall. We hit it up for Breakfast and I almost died over their Chai Latte (THE best I've ever had) and the bonus of the whole meal was their home made relish's that accompany most dishes. This is a breakfast place you can't miss in Melbourne (I'm serious).

Meatball & Wine Bar - Melbourne CBD ... Almost every single retail staff member that was recommending us places to go in Melbourne told us we had to go here..so go here we went!! We popped past after the game of football we caught thinking we'd stay just to check it out before we kicked on somewhere else but ended up staying the whole night. It was SUCH an intimate awesome little bar and we loved the menu concept. Literally, pick your meatballs, pick a sauce, pick a side. SO yum - and we tasted the yummiest cocktail of our lives here also (their reds are imported from Italy as well so it made me get transported right back to our Europe travels). Don't go to Melbourne without paying this place a visit.

Yong Green Food - Fitzroy ... This place was reccommend by at least 4 people to us so even though we're not Raw Vegan foodies (Which is what this place delivers in spades) we knew we had to def check it out. We could only stop for a morning tea (we had big plans for lunch) and gorged ourselves on raw cheesecake and a big delicious smoothie. All the food around us (there is also hot vegan food available) looked like some of the yummiest, freshest food I'd ever soon. Whether you are a raw vegan or not, get here to try some healthy goodness.

Veggie Bar - Fitzroy ... Veggie Bar is literally down and across the road from Yong Green Food and we popped in a different day to give their own smoothies and raw desserts a try. It is a gorgeous place buzzing with people and the menu is drool worthy.

Gradi 400 - Brunswick ... If you like Pizza, and I mean real, Italian style pizza this is your restaurant. Morgs refused to leave Melbourne without trying it (after it coming highly recommended) and we are SO glad we ended up paying it a visit. Gorgeous interior, amazing service and absolutley delish pizzas. The name comes from the fact they cook the pizzas for only 90 seconds, at 400 degrees. Ah-mazing.

Cafe Vue at 401 - South Yarra ... We popped in to this unassuming cafe on our last morning as we walked in the general area of where we were staying and it was the most delicious breakfast we were so impressed. Their porridge (I was just so excited they did porridge) was amazing and Morgs said it was one of the best "big breakfasts" his ever had!

Our Complete Europe Itinerary

So here it is. Our holy grail. Our complete itinerary from our UK & Europe adventure which lists our cities, time spent in each place, and most importantly (and let's be honest, what I think most people really want!) .. the links to all the accommodation for the whole trip. I'll also be listing all the websites that we used to get all the information we needed to help you in your own scheming and planning. Hooray!

Our trip included visiting 48 cities in 20 countries. Wowee I had never counted that before until just then...god I miss being in each and every one of those 20 countries. 

An important disclosure before I share allll of our info however. I am, in no way shape or form sharing this for you to take the trip and do it exactly the same. There is no way you could ever replicate a trip from doing so. Our itinerary worked perfectly for us as it was exactly what we wanted but every single person is different and you really need to find your own travel groove. Take a little or take a lot but just use this as a good inspiration and guiding light to get started. 

Are you ready?

Our Europe Itinerary for 4 & a half months

London for 4 nights & we stayed here 

Cardiff for 1 night & we stayed here

Dublin for 4 nights & we stayed here

Belfast for 2 nights & we stayed here

Inverness for 2 nights & we stayed here

Portree for 2 nights & we stayed here*

Elgin for 2 nights & we stayed here

Edinburgh for 4 nights & we stayed here

Amsterdam for 3 nights & we stayed here

Brussels for 2 nights & we stayed here

Athens for 2 nights & we stayed here

Santorini for 7 nights & we stayed here & here

Mykonos for 3 nights & we stayed here

Split for 3 nights & we stayed here

We then Sailed Croatia for 7 nights (highlight of our trip) & used this company

Budapest for 3 nights & we stayed here

Kirchburg for 5 nights & we stayed here

Vienna for 3 nights & we stayed here

Prague for 4 nights & we stayed here

Rome for 4 nights & we stayed here

Naples for 2 nights & we stayed here

Positano for 2 nights & we stayed here

Amalfi for 2 nights & we stayed here

Florence for 3 nights & we stayed here

Venice for 3 nights & we stayed here

Milan for 2 nights & we stayed here

Vernazza (Cinque Terre) for 2 nights & we stayed here

Monte Carlo for 2 nights & we stayed here

Nice for 2 nights & we stayed here

Cannes for 2 nights & we stayed here

St Tropez for 2 nights & we stayed here

Toulon for 2 nights & we stayed here

Nimes for 2 nights & we stayed here

Barcelona for 4 nights & we stayed here

Valencia for 4 nights & we stayed here

Mallorca for 2 nights & we stayed here

Madrid for 2 nights & we stayed here

San Sebastian for 3 nights & we stayed here

Paris for 4 nights & we stayed here

Luxembourg for 2 nights & we stayed here

Berlin for 3 nights & we stayed here

Frankfurt for 2 nights & we stayed here

Heidelberg for 2 nights & we stayed here

Munich for 2 nights & we stayed here

Interlaken for 5 nights & we stayed here

Dubai for 6 nights & we stayed here

Websites that we used to book all of the above - & spent a million hours researching on...

Skyscanner - to book all of our flights internally & across countries

Airbnb - an ah-ma-zing website that we adored. This is how we stayed in luxurious apartments for so cheap.

Hostelbookers - you can't backpack through Europe without staying in hostels & this was the best website.

Hostelworld - also good for booking hostels but less variety than hostelbookers & a little more expensive.

Booking - great to find hotels & hostels when the other websites can't find you many options.

TripAdvisor - we didn't use this to book, but great to read honest reviews of hotels from previous guests.

Also, the only iPhone Apps that we couldn't live without over there was the following.

AroundMe - SO helpful in any and every city we went too when we needed to find an ATM, restaurant, toilet, the list goes on! It would pick up on where you were and then point you to the closest everything. It saved our butts many times.

TripAdvisor CityGuides - TridAdvisor is obviously every travelers best friend so this app shouldn't surprise you! Before reaching each new city we would download it to the app so once there could look up all the top attractions, tours, restaurants and activities. It would map you there from wherever your starting point was as well so if the mood called to use it we could just get the app up and map ourselves to the tourist thing we wanted to do at that moment. Fan-tastic!

[Left; Budapest      Right; Cinque Terre ] _________________________________________________________________________________

So there you go. 4 & a half months of trip of a lifetime travel condensed here, for you, with love, in just 3 paragraphs. This is the thing though, I am trying to encourage as much as humanly possible for you to just book that trip. Just go. Stop telling yourself that you never have the right timing, or money or circumstance because let me assure you, if you keep telling yourself that, then you never will. I had told myself, that no matter what, when I finished uni, I'd go to Europe. I spoke it aloud, I wrote it down, I shared the dream, and last year I did just that. I would love to see 2013, or the years to come manifest in to the year you took a trip to the place you've always dreamed of but never deemed possible. I truly believe, with the right belief, planning, research, saving & tools you will be able to do it. And this is exactly what I hope my 2 Europe posts will do for you.

Your turn.

If you have any cities that aren't on there that you think people would love or should know about then I'd love to hear about them in the comments below. Also share any other websites or Apps that you have found amazing when traveling, let's help people grow their travel dreams together.

Love, light & big wishes,

Anna xx

[ Madrid ]

[ Croatia ]

[ Nimes ]

[ Kirchburg ]

[ Vernazza ] 

[ Munich - Oktoberfest ]

Some BIG & Exciting news

On a beautiful and calm December morning as Morgan & I were floating low over the sand dunes in Dubai in a hot air balloon at sunrise, he got down on one knee and asked me to be his wife....

WE'RE ENGAGED. 

It was the most surreal, peaceful, romantic, happiest moment of my life and I can't wait to become his wife (& he assures me he can't wait to become my husband either-hooray!) We had never ever discussed marriage as it was both something we knew would happen on our own time and terms and I always just wanted it to be a surprise, and he sure did surprise me in the most spectacular way ever. 

We're taking things s-l-o-w-l-y though. Not too slow of course, but slow enough to relish in every second and every moment of this new chapter of being engaged. 

No matter how many times I say fiance' or I'm getting married I still giggle and swoon a thousand times more when I hear it come out of his mouth - it just sounds so, so...perfect.

With this being my shiny place of inspiration for all things on life & love you might see a few more posts pop up about the process I am about to go through in letting this beautiful fact of actually being engaged sink in, the engagement party (that we officially booked today, hells yeah) and wedding 'stuff' as time goes on (like how I am already learning just howww important your wedding photographer is on the day, hell-o h.o.u.r.s of upcoming research!)

Here is what I know to be truer than true in the whole of my heart already though.

I love this man I get to now marry more than anything (even saying I am getting married makes me well up, so help me on my wedding day!) So as much as we're aware that the wedding will be the most important day of our lives, we are more focused right now on the day after the wedding day and that little part of 'forever' we then have to work on. Our Marriage. And that's why we're not rushing it. (think middle to end of 2014). We are working together on all aspects of what is ahead of us - which of course includes things like themes and colours and guests lists, but also talking about what marriage means to each of us and how we would raise children. 

We're excited. Excited x infinity in fact. It is the most surreal and unreal time for us both and I felt it time to share with you beautiful readers the news that made my 2012 the most memorable of all. 

That I, Anna, get to take Morgan, my kind hearted, beautiful souled, handsome, amazing (lolly & cordial obsessed) man, as my husband and that makes me feel like the happiest and luckiest girl alive.

p.s if you're new to our love story find some back history here and here x

{ Walking through the desert on the way to the balloon basket blissfully unaware what Morgs had planned }

Bologna 101; Italian food + Tours

{ Fresh Egg Pasta freshly made }

Not being ready just yet to let go of travel inspired posts I have an extra special post for you today my gorgeous readers! Do you remember the time in Italy that Morgs & I did our very own food tour of Bologna? I had shared our take on this gorgeous Italian town and the fact that the best food Morgs & I tasted in Italy came from Bologna. There was some big non negotiable's for us both when travelling and eating & drinking our way around Italy was high on that list. We were so lucky to end up following our noses and stomachs to Bologna as it turned in to our yummiest and one of the most random/adventure packed days from our 3 weeks in Italy. It was such a lovely surprise when Gabriele from the website Emilia Delizia contacted me after reading my post on our food tour in Bologna! I asked her to do a special post for you guys on her personal take on 'What to eat & drink in Bologna' which I am sharing with you today...

If we had of found this website when we were in Italy there is no doubt we would have been one happy traveler - I can't encourage a bookmark of this website if you are ever heading to Italy as it will make tour booking so much easier. Hopefully you guys enjoy learning about traditional Italian food as much as I did from her piece.

So Gabriele take it away!

"What to eat & drink in Bologna"

This short guide provided by emiliadelizia.com about eating out in Bologna will help your readers to choose food and drink while they are in Bologna. This town is called the fat because of its opulence in the cooking department. Dishes tend to be quite elaborate, rich and decadent. In Bologna you will drink red sparkling wines and you will eat "English soup" as dessert!

Fresh Egg Pasta

Bologna has no durum semolina pasta in its tradition, all the pasta you will find here is made fresh from soft from wheat and eggs as a protein binder. The results come in many shapes from the simple Tagliatelle, to more elaborate Lasagne, Tortelloni and tortellini. Tagliatelle are served with ragu' which is a meaty sauce resembling more to a stew than a pasta sauce. Certainly you can also find the famous pasta strips topped with porcini mushrooms or a Parmesan cream with truffles, possibly from the nearby town of Savigno. 

On the other hand Tortelloni have a more elaborate hat shape and they are stuffed with ricotta and herbs, the condiment could be just tomato sauce and basil or butter and sage. The king of the Winter months is the Tortellino. These smaller versions of the hat shape are best served in their capon broth with a rich sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. You should look for restaurants or delis which serve hand made Tortellini to really fulfill this experience.

Bread, bread and more bread.

Italy probably will make you forget about your carb free diet for awhile, as you might know it is all about eating wheat products such as bread, pasta, foccacia, pizza and so on. Bologna is no different but there are some special breads that are worth a mention (and for you to try!)

For example, Crescentine are small round breads that in the good old days were cooked between clay disks (tigelle) near an open fire. These small breads were originally the staple of the poor farmers on the Bologna hills. They are still very popular today and they are cut in 2 halves and served like a modern sandwich with cured meats like; Prosciutto di parma, Mortadella di Bologna, Coppa, Salami, Culatello and the list goes on!

{Crescentine bread}

Piadina is another example local bread and it is a street food and you can easily sample in Bologna. Originally from the Eastern part of the region namely Romagna. Piadina is a flat bread traditionally prepared with pork clarified lard and cooked on a cast iron pan. The lard will give a nice fragrance to the bread that it is going to be served with squaquerone cheese and cabbage if you follow the farmer tradition, but today you can top it with anything you like. 

Wine drinking in Bologna

Bologna when it comes to wine is very eclectic. On the Eastern hills we have Sangiovese wines which are made with homonymous grapes. Sangiovese is a full bodied red wine and when aged it has a lot of pleasant structure with hints of rustic charm. On the Western part of Bologna you will find Pignoletto, a white and sparkling wine which is served young, soon after the harvest. We also find Lambrusco, a unique red sparkling wine which is also served young and in Summer is best served chilled. All of these wines are just perfect with the local cuisine. 

Dessert

No meal is complete without a dessert! In Bologna you will have plenty of choices but one stands out more than the other; Zuppa Inglese, which translates in to English Soup. It is in fact a trifle mimicking the famous English trifles but with local Bolognese ingedients. It has a base of savoiardi biscuits soaked in liqueur and topped off with egg and chocolate custards.

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If your headed to Italy soon or know of any family that are send them to emiliadelizia.com - Morgs & I looked in to a lot of food and wine tours when we were over there but didn't find any that were perfectly suited to us, but if we had of found emiliadelizia it would have been a different story.

Now...who feels like some pasta?

Yours with dreams of red wine & pasta in Italy,

Anna xx

Finding Love & Magic in Interlaken

If there were 5 words to sum up just how truly amazing, beautiful and memorable our time in Interlaken was they would be...

It can't be summed up. 

It truly can't. 

How can you honestly put in to words one of the most incredible, exciting times of your life? WE SAW SNOW. Cue fireworks and band music now. But not only did we see snow, we saw some remarkably heavy heavy snow that covered the whole town in white and allowed us to frolic like we were 12 year olds, do snow angels and have snow fights all whilst the snow was still falling. It was un-real. 

Here is the clincher though - Morgs & I had put Interlaken on the list (Switzerland in general) for 2 reasons ... 

1. To go Skydiving over the Swiss Alps.

2. To go skiing for the first time for us both ever

And guess what? Both of these amazing events couldn't or didn't end up happening because it was snowing so heavily. Initially I was pretty sad that two of the big to do's on our trip list couldn't end up happening - in fact to say I was gutted about not being able to skydive would be an understatement. But here's the beautiful thing, remember me first sharing how much I'd let go on this holiday? Well that came in to play hugely, but alongside that, I had Morgs who without skipping a beat shrugged the whole thing off like it wasn't no'thang', immediately said it was for the best as there were obviously better plans for us - have I mentioned how much I adore this man? and dragged me back out in to the snow for some more laughs & incredible awe inspiring moments.

I don't think either of us can really explain what it was about Interlaken that was so so amazing for us - it's just snow after all (right? wrong!), but being two snow virgins being out in falling heavy snow was one of the most magical moments of our life. 

The awesome thing that happened as well is that because we couldn't go skiing or skydiving it opened up two whole days for us to explore the surrounding mountains which ended up being some of our favourite memories from Switzerland. Being able to train up to Lauterbrunnen and Grindewald to have big lunches, play in even more heavy snow and laugh till our cheeks hurt from the fun are moments and memories we get to now cherish forever. 

The other cool thing that happened was we declared to the universe obviously Switzerland wasn't meant to give us all of our experiences and falling snow and being in snow was what we were to take away from Interlaken. We are now exploring the option of booking a ski holiday in Queenstown New Zealand and exploring different sky diving options at home (jumping over the ocean is high up our list as is doing it when we get over to Melbourne this year), both things we never would have gotten to experience otherwise which we are totally claiming as beautiful blessings in disguise. 

With all of this love talk about Interlaken here are just a few other incredible lessons we took away from our time in this magical white winterland...

• To live, laugh and love with carefree abandon. I really mean it.
• That acting like a child again was some of the most freeing and hysterical fun we had.
• That when plans fall through, plans we had your heart set on, it was for the best and the universe has so much more in store for us.
• To truly be in the moment and show up for ourselves. 
• To find peace in the quiet moments. And I really mean Peace.
• To do exactly what I felt like doing when moments called for it (like spinning till I fell over, screaming from excitement and running out in the cold with barely any clothes on to feel what its like) was some of the most fulfilling fun moments of our travel trip. 

Even sitting here quietly now, back in my beautiful sunny home town Perth writing about our Interlaken experience actually makes me tear up, it was truly just that fun and memorable. Like the whole rest of our trip though it just worked, everything that was meant to be happened for us and it couldn't have been a more perfect town to end our huge 4 and a half month adventure in. Leaving Interlaken bound for the Zurich airport to start our trip home I felt relaxed, fulfilled and truly blessed for 5 days of pure magic. 

Can you believe this is it though? Interlaken was our final destination in Europe and although I have a post to do on Dubai - oh myyy god did we love Dubai! - our big adventure is over. I will be sharing a few more posts to do with Travel before it's back to business around here and I have some exciting & huge plans for the blog in 2013. 

Thank you to all you gorgeous souls though for following along on Morgs & I's crazy adventure - we felt connected through all of your comments on the blog, tweets and instagram comments....a big thank you post is on it's way but for now, just know having you all 'along for the ride' made our trip that much more special and memorable.

I hope you've loved sharing our experiences as much as we loved living them and writing about them. 

SO much love + gratitude,

Anna (& Morgs) x x

We heart Heidelberg

It's hard to put in to words just how beautifully surprised we were when we first arrived on Heidelberg's doorstop. Our biggest no-no when travelling was from the very get go to never go in to a country or city with expectations from ourselves, and especially from others so Heidelberg was of course no different. We arrived with no expectations just a little knowledge of this old town full of character and our heavy backpacks. Can I just say here though, if we did have any expectations, they would have been exceeded, exceeded so much that to use metaphors, the ball of expectation would have been smashed way out of the ball park, down the road and around the corner, we were that surprised and that immediately in love.

It's like with any new city or town or country that we went to and fell in love with though. You can't put your finger on exactly what it is about that place you love so much. I mean, after all, it's just a new city, with similar shops elsewhere in the world, an old castle that most other old cities had, and friendly locals willing to help out if need be. But you don't love it any less. 

Heidelberg for us was it's Baroque old town, its gorgeous cobblestone streets, it's incredible Christmas markets scattered all over the city and it's beautiful old, rich rich history. The town had originally been slapped on our travel map as when looking in to Germany we discovered it was one of the only towns that escaped bombing during WW2 which meant that the town stood originally as it did many moons ago, which was a huge attraction to us. Once there though we both fast said it was one of our favourite places visited in Germany and we loved how we could be surprised with new things to see or do each and every day. 

We walked for hours everyday getting lost in it's old town streets, we wandered up to the medieval castle high a top the hill, we found hole in wall cafes to drink hot cups of coffee out of the snow and we went for food and fun every night in the Christmas markets alongside all the other locals and tourists searching for the same thing as us - memorable times with loved ones. 

When we spoke of going to Germany, everybody gave us fantastic recommendations on where to go like Munich, Hamburg, Frankfurt and all the normal places you would expect to go....but if I can give you our own recommendation put Heidelberg high on your priority list (and make sure you stay in old town, it's the heart of this beautiful city). 

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Your turn...

Have you ever been to a city you'd never heard of before and it been one of the most magical times ever? I'd love to hear about it and get inspired for our next trip.