[ A n g Z s t a h ' s P a r a d i s e ]: The Melb trip 30/1

for those of u who didn't know, i went to Melb with CC and Ketty for 5 days just recently and the trip was absolutely awesome!! i did pretty much everything i wanted to do there and had so much fun in the process =) i reckon after this trip, i either wanna make regular trips to Melb or i may even live there one day... we'll see what my plans r after uni hehe here were the highlights:

[N.B. i did the non-touristy thing and didn't take a whole lotta photos while i was there so pics here r courtesy of CC and Ketty =)]

DAY ONE ~ the heatwave begins, bumming at the City, lovely Lygon St dinner, tipsy karaoke

got to the airport around 8:30am [i'm rarely ever awake at this time hehe] and met up with CC for our flight at 9:05am... entertained myself on the plane by doing all the Sudoku puzzles in the Virgin magazine and reading 'Twilight' while CC flicked through all the cable channels on TV... arrived at around 12ish and waited around the airport for an hr waiting for Ketty's flight to get to Melb... hooray!! our Melb trip has begun =)

my travel companions for the next 5 days ^_^

after Skybussing it to the hotel, we checked in at our hotel, the 'Victoria Hotel', and after settling in, we walked around the City for groceries and lunch... also stopped at Melb Central and all those other famous landmarks like Flinders St and Fed Square for photos... i tell u now, walking around the City in Melb isn't that bad on a normal day but when it's 43 degrees out, doing anything seems so much more tiring...

The 'Victoria Hotel' on Little Collins St... not the best hotel around but it's definitely a place of convenience, flavoured Calpis [cow piss] XD, really trippy Wii tennis at Melb Central

for dinner, we headed to Lygon St by tram... after walking most, if not all, of Lygon St, we settled at this place called 'La Spaghetteria' where we scored free drinks and ate some pretty divine food... what ruined it for us was the extreme heat, which kinda put us off properly enjoying the meal =( i'll have to go back there sometime and eat the lasagne again... it was actually really nice!!

the restaurant we ate at and a photo of us while we were inside the restaurant

after feeling a bit put off dessert, we headed back to the City to do the typical azn activities: take sticker photos, go to a somewhat dodgy arcade and sing karaoke for hrs and hrs... while Ketty was off in la la land playing Tekken BR, me and CC were trying to beat each other at basketball and at Puzzle Bobble... good entertainment hehe then headed to 'Hollywood Karaoke' for karaoke... took a while to get the hang of the touch screen machine but we managed to sing ourselves silly with the help of fried chicken and Long Island Iced Tea hehe

inside our karaoke room, the Long Island Iced Tea: the reason for many of our random song choices and silliness and a post-drinking shot of us [guess who drank the most? *hint: she's on the left hehe*]

DAY TWO ~ the heatwave continues, DFO, Max Brenner goodness, bumming at the City, clubbing antics

the day didn't start all that well considering i slept in the clothes i was in the nite b4 so i was up at around 7-8am and i think i woke CC up in the process so we were up chatting until Ketty woke up... then headed to DFO [the walk from the tram stop to DFO was excruciating in the heat!!!] for some shopping and lunch... was too lazy to do any walking once we were outside and for some reason, public transport was free that day so we trained it back to Melb Central to play some games at 'Barcode' and do a little more shopping... the games at 'Barcode' sucked so we shopped at Valley Girl to find CC a top to wear clubbing... and she found one!!

free travel w00t w00t, with CC at Southern Cross train station and playing epic fail foosball with Ketty at Barcode

then it was off to Max Brenner to try some of the awesome drinks... and it didn't disappoint!! my drink [i think it was the milk chocolate frappe] came in the cutest cup, CC's waffles were divine and Ketty got the funniest case of brainfreeze hehe i'll have to come to Max Brenner when it's winter so i can try their hot drinks and/or the fondue ^_^

my drink [it had a hole for the straw and 'Drink Me' on the other side hehe], CC's yummy waffles and the place we got to experience all that =)

the nite time consisted of dinner at Gogo Sushi, followed by more games at the 'arcade' [i put the ' 's there 'cause it seriously doesn't look like an arcade... more like a shop with games in it] and clubbing at Eve... i have to say now, i wasn't completely used to the daylight savings so eating dinner while it was still broad daylight still seemed like a new concept to me hehe dinner was good, gaming was good, the longest 'short walk' to Eve wasn't so good!! after what seemed like forever, we FINALLY got to Eve and the guy who was supposed to take us there ended up ditching us at the entrance >_<" so here we were, at a club with a guy we'd only met for 20 mins... but the nite turned out to be pretty fun... the club had great music, great drinks and i had great company =) thanks to Steve who paid for the majority of our drinks and for putting up with all of us all nite hehe

CC and me at the 'arcade', drinking one of the many drinks that nite, CC and Steve being typical azns, Ketty and me during one of my many sitting sessions, the 3 of us b4 the tiredness set in

DAY THREE ~ the day i spent nearly 14 hrs in the same place... where else but CROWN =)

for those who know me well, one of the main reasons i wanted to go to Melb was to play poker at Crown... and boy, did i play it a lot during my time there hehe Day 3 was mainly a 'do our own thing' day so after waking up at 11ish, i walked to Crown after grabbing a quick bite to eat at Maccas... then it was a quick lap of the casino b4 settling at the poker tables... won $25 [would've been $26 if i hadn't lost my $1 chip hehe] b4 heading to Sante for dinner with CC, Ketty and Steve

went to Galactic Circus for half the nite and played a wide variety of games including DDR [Supernova 2 and Extreme], Deal or No Deal, Basketball, some weird monkey game and Para Para!! oh, how i have missed Para Para... i'm happy to announce that my skills at that game haven't lost their touch... too much hehe after seeing CC and Steve off, me and Ketty headed back to our respective games... Ketty to roulette and DDR and me to poker hehe took a break around 2am to head back to the hotel to get the key [still can't believe they only gave us ONE set of keys between the 3 of us >_<"] so we could head back to Crown again and let CC sleep... walking around the City at 2am isn't that bad in Melb... me and Ketty managed to walk to the 'arcade' and Crown from our hotel without any trouble except for the random pplz who kept saying weird stuff like 'i know u!! i know u!!' in a failed azn accent... Ketty played some more Tekken BR and i ended up playing poker for another 1ish hrs and left after 2 guys at my table were picking fights with each other

presenting the coolest place in Melb hehe, reliving a high school pasttime of mine [b4 evil Replay took it away =(], with CC at Galactic Circus

DAY FOUR ~ Chadstone adventure, fine dining at Meat and Wine Co, more karaoke, more late nite poker

after sleeping at 6am, me and Ketty were way too tired to head out to Chadstone with CC at 9am so we headed out at 11am instead 'cause we were gonna get kicked out by housekeeping hehe once we got there, we ate brunch at Nando's with CC and Hieuie... after checking out most of the shopping centre, me and Ketty headed to Intencity to check out the DDR machine... it was pretty cool but so hard to read!!

it's not clear but the sign does say 'Chadstone' hehe

bussed and trained it back to the City then headed back to the hotel to play Taboo with CC while Ketty went to play more Tekken BR... then checked out the places around Meat and Wine Co and had a brief D&M with CC about the future... had a scrumptious dinner at Meat and Wine Co with CC, Ketty, Hieuie, Katy, Serinna, Tommy and Linda b4 heading to Kbox in the City for karaoke... after singing there for 2ish hrs, it was back to Crown for me and Ketty hehe yeah i know, i can't get enough of the place hehe but after that poker session, i decided it wasn't the best idea to play poker at 3ish in the morning with drunk, angry players and soccer supporters [turns out i was playing poker at the same time the Liverpool v Chelsea game was on hehe]

with CC during our D&M session, the girls try and be sexy hehe, the Melb crew who took us out: Tommy, Linda, Hieuie, Katy and Serinna, with CC, Serinna and Katy during karaoke

DAY FIVE ~ awesome yum cha in Chinatown, Fat jeans shopping, poker yet again, last min shopping

after sleeping again at 6am, i was pretty dead tired by the time i had to check outta the hotel... started the day by heading to Chinatown for some yum cha... OMG, it was good!! we went to this place called 'Westlake' and it happened to be a good place for me to learn my Canto hehe then headed to GPO where me and CC went jeans shopping at Fat and we both successfully found a pair of jeans!! i had to pay $100 more for my pair though =( afterwards, we headed to Crown again to play more games at Galactic Circus b4 i went back to the poker room for another poker session =) so proud of myself... all up, i managed to win over $400 ^_^

managed to drag Ketty off electronic poker [she's soooo gonna be playing this again next time she's at Crown XD] to do all my little errands b4 leaving which included buying cupcakes from Little Cupcakes, buy DVDs for my Dad and buy azn cakes and buns for my Mum and Dad... managed to do all this in a little under an hr w00t w00t