New Zealand - the "LOOK AT THE PRETTY" edition, part 2

Previously, Ness and I hung out in some awesome glowworm filled caves, and it was awesome.

After finishing at the caves, we debated what to do with the rest of the afternoon. We headed back to Ruakuri Reserve to do a short walk there that's rated one of the ten best in New Zealand. It wasn't especially interesting during the day, we simply wanted to familiarise ourselves with it for our return later on, which is when it TRULY lives up to that top ten status.

Once we'd done that, there was still an hour or so left before we could check into our accommodation, and we'd exhausted the main possibilities in Waitomo. So we flipped over the map that we'd been given by the tourist information place, and noticed that it included a bunch of waterfalls and beaches and things that were about 30-60 minutes away. We decided on Marokopa Falls.

The drive there got a little bit...ridiculous:

Me: Okay, so the instructions say that after 5 kilometres, there'll be a fork in the road and we go left.
Ness: Cool. [what felt like a million years pass] Well THAT was the longest five kilometres ever. THAT'S WHAT SHE SAID!!!!
[both laugh hysterically]
Me: [a minute later] Wait, that doesn't even make sense. Why is it so funny??

Eventually, we arrived and headed down the path to the falls:

It was very pretty, but it was also blowing mist all over us, so we didn't stay very long. We drove a little further down the road, then declared ourselves bored and headed back to Waitomo to check into our accommodation.

There, our host recommended the restaurant across the road for dinner, so after a wee spot of relaxation (translation: checking all the internet things) we fancied ourselves up and headed over there. Well. We were not disappointed. The food was DELICIOUS - we ended up sharing an entree, then having main course and dessert each. A little more food than we'd been planning on, but totally worth it.

Pumpkin and cheddar risotto balls

Homemade fettuccine with cherry tomatoes and goat feta

Chocolate souffle with raspberry coulis and plum ice cream, OMG.

We left sometime later, happy but laden with food babies. If you're ever in Waitomo, I HIGHLY recommend the Huhu Cafe. And it wasn't especially pricey either!!

Back across the road at our B&B, we borrowed some torches and jumped in the car, heading back to Ruakuri Reserve. Why? Because there are glowworms along the banks of the river at night, and it's kind of like walking through Rivendell or something. It. Was. Amazing. I think we probably wandered around for the better part of an hour in the dark - it's kind of incredible how much your eyes adjust. At first, we were the only people there, and we got excited when we spotted a cluster of half a dozen glowworms. But as it got darker, it was like there were constellations all over the place.

Terrible photographic proof of glowworms

Eventually, a large group of loud tourists arrived, blinding everyone with their torches. Which was dumb, because the more you relied on your torch, the less you'd see the glowworms... So we abandoned ship and headed back to the car. When we got back up to the main road, something darted out into the headlight beams, and Ness practically had kittens. Once I'd identified it as a hedgehog, she had even more kittens on account of never having seen a hedgehog before. She jumped out of the car, and chased it - giggling the whole time - down the road. I wish to God I'd been able to stop laughing long enough to video it, because it was absolutely priceless.

Basically, Ness was the kitten. Source.

We giggled all the way back to the B&B.*

Next up, we hightail it back to Auckland, and I fly to Wellington to meet Kim!

K xx

*It's totally okay for us to giggle. Hedgehogs are an introduced species and a pest in New Zealand, despite their adorableness.

Auckland - the "touristy stuff" edition

Oh, hey. Remember how I went to New Zealand like two months ago, and started to tell you all about it but then got sidetracked by Christmas and wrapping up 2013 that I totally forgot to keep telling you about it? Yeah, that.

So on our way back to Kat's place from Bethell's Beach, we stopped off in the centre of town for a little jaunt up Mount Eden. The view is rather spectacular:

The caldera is crazy steep.

The following day, we headed back into town for a wee trip to the Auckland War Memorial Museum. They had some really fabulous stuff, including moa skeletons, Sir Edmund Hillary's pick axe, an incredible war memorial, and the creepiest golliwog in the history of golliwogs (which are, let's face it, pretty freaking terrifying at the best of times):

Anyway, after that we headed across town to Sale St for a late lunch and a few tasty drinks of the alcoholic persuasion. I had passionfruit cider, which was surprisingly tasty, as well as a pretty delicious pizza, and this fabulous chocolate fondant with raspberry ice cream:

Plus, if you sit outside, there's a great view of the Sky Tower. I call that a win from start to finish.

So there you have it - our last day and a half in Auckland! We didn't do all that much touristy stuff in town, but we got to see a lot of stuff further afield, and I'm really glad we did. Next up, we hit the road and head to Matamata for an adventure.

K xx

101 in 1001 #16

I realised a couple of days ago that I managed to cross another item off my 101 in 1001 list without even realising it - I've now been to twenty restaurants (of the non-chain variety) that I'd never been to before!

Mamasita, Melbourne 25/7/2011
My first meeting with the lovely Deidre. It's hard to believe it was only two years ago! I recommend going for lunch if you don't want to wait in the queue for a hundred years.

Russian Tea Time, Chicago 20/8/2011
With Hello Wisconsin and her husband, when I was in town for the 20SB Summit. I pretty much didn't need to eat for a week afterwards.

Mister Bianco, Kew 27/1/2012
A "thanks for letting me stay with you for, like, ever" dinner courtesy of a family friend. The food was pretty great.

Chinese Jin Dumpling House, Kew 30/5/2012
In which Char and I went out for lunch and ate pretty much all the dumplings in the whole of Melbourne. They were delicious. And, unlike the infamous Shanghai Dumpling, didn't give us food poisoning. WIN.

The Curry Club Cafe, Richmond 27/6/2012
Dinner with uni friends en route to a very awkward evening of inadvertent hilariousness.

Hairy Canary, Melbourne 11/8/2012
Catch up with school friends. Delicious pizza, amazing cocktails.

Cider House, Fitzroy 6/8/2012
Blogger lunch with Deidre, Katie and Ruby. As discussed previously, deciding between the 120 possible options of chips nearly killed us.

Chocolate Buddha, Federation Square 18/12/2012
Dinner and cider and awesome conversations (yes, Pacey Witter was involved) with Pretzel Thief.

Mitsitam Cafe, Washington D.C. 11/1/2013
The cafe at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington. Incredible. I wish I'd had the time and money to try everything.

Pedro's, Phoenix 30/1/2013
Mexipalooza with Gina and M. AMAZINGNESS.

Mimi's, Canterbury 8/3/2013
Friday night dinner with the parentals. Good food, but really noisy.

Miss Chu, South Yarra 23/3/2013
A post rehearsal lunch with my little brother C and a few others from choir. Holy crap, it was good.

Cafe Gaia, South Yarra 30/3/2013
Breakfast with C and Paulie. The quinoa porridge was kind of incredible.

Amigos, Melbourne 27/4/2013
My birthday dinner with friends. How can you go wrong with happy hour, nachos, fajitas and churros?!

The Quarter, Melbourne 29/4/2013
With my BFF, Nikki, after a morning of traipsing around the Australian Centre for the Moving Image's exhibition of Hollywood costumes.

Tazio, Melbourne 29/6/2013
Dinner with the parentals and family friends prior to C's farewell drinks. Great antipasto.

Rockpool, Melbourne 30/6/2013
C's farewell dinner. Holy hell, the food was amazing. It's insanely expensive, but totally worth it. I highly recommend the potato and cabbage gratin as a sidedish. It was DIVINE.

Fred Young's, Kew 3/7/2013
We had a family brunch here en route to drop C off at the airport for his flight to London.

Geppetto's, Kew 3/8/2013
Friday night dinner with the parentals and Little Miss A. The Nutella pizza is to die for.

Cafe Republic, South Yarra 28/8/2013
Dinner for my uncle's birthday. Average food, terrible service.

39 tasks down, FAR too many still to go before 1 April. EEK!!

K xx

Turning 30? It's pretty great

#92 on my 101 in 1001 list was to plan a kickarse 30th birthday. I think I not only planned but executed said kickarse birthday in fine form. I mean, it pretty much went for five days, so how could it not be totally awesome?!

THURSDAY:
My actual birthday. I had grand plans for sleeping in, but some butthead down the street decided that 7.30am on a public holiday was an excellent time to use an angle grinder. FOR AN HOUR AND A HALF. So I wasn't particularly impressed about that. But it improved dramatically from there. After breakfast and presents (including the shiny new toy I showed off in yesterday's vlog), we headed down to St Kilda for lunch at Donovan's.

If you haven't been to Donovan's, you really have to. But for a special occasion, because it's not even remotely in the category of cheap. It's worth every penny though, because the food is AMAZING. While I neglected to take any photos of me hanging out with my favourite people on the planet, I *did* take quite a few photos of the food. Because OBVIOUSLY.

My entree - tomato, caramelised onion and goat's curd tart with balsamic reduction

My main - chicken and mushroom pie

Some kind of potato construction of awesomeness from Paulie's main course

The cake we brought with us

My dessert - jaffa fondant

The platter they put together for Em's little sister with no notice

The inside of my fondant. AMAZING.

And in the course of lunch, my little brother C gave me my birthday present, which came with a card that said "I hope Mum and Dad don't get too annoyed at me giving you this......" I opened the present to discover an XBox!! *flail* And then Paulie gave me a bunch of games for it. So obviously, once we got home from our over FOUR HOUR lunch, I set up the XBox and spent the night of my birthday playing Lego Batman 2. Because OBVIOUSLY.

Aaaaaaaaaaand now that I've made you all incredibly hungry and exposed just how much of a dork I secretly am, I think I'm going to split this into two parts or this is going to end up thesis length!

K xx

Ridiculous presidents and bloggy friends

Previously, classes and basketball and prolapsed baby makers...

At stupid o'clock on Friday morning, pretty much everyone else in the group left on a bus for New York. I briefly considered going to New York with them, until I learnt that this bus was the only university approved way of getting there. And said bus cost $150. When you can catch the train each way for $30, I decided on PASS. So instead of having to be on a bus by 5.45am, Agatha Goodkin and I had a nice leisurely start. WIN.

I was to meet Sarah at the Newseum at 12.30, so Agatha Goodkin and I decided to head downtown and grab a bite of lunch first. On my brother's recommendation, I headed to the one place in Washington I thought I'd never go to again: the National Museum of the American Indian. If you've been reading for a couple of years, you'll remember that Kat and I thought very little of it as a museum. But as a lunch destination? It's SPECTACULAR.

Source

It features indigenous cuisine from the various regions of the Americas. Sadly, it took us longer to get downtown than planned, so I spent our time there shovelling my food into my face as fast as possible and sending apologetic text messages to Sarah telling her that I was going to be much later than planned.

Due to the rush, I neglected to take pictures of anything, so you'll just have to use your imagination. I had a salad from the South American station that was made of quinoa, purple potatoes, broad beans and a pepper vinaigrette, along with cheese filled fry bread from the Great Plains station, and the most amazing passionfruit agua fresca from the Mesoamerican station. It's not cheap - what I had came out at over $20 - but every single thing we had between the two of us was completely delicious. The staff were incredibly helpful if you weren't sure about something or wanted a taste before committing to ordering it. And overall, it made me sad to see how many people looked at all that amazing food and came out with a burger and fries... *SIGH*

Anyway, eventually I left Agatha Goodkin still enjoying her lunch and jogging most of the way back to the Newseum. Sarah met me in the foyer, and we headed in to be giant nerds and take pictures of ALL THE THINGS. Including but not limited to:

- My favourite couple:

This was their reaction when the Queen and Prince Phillip drove up in a fancy car

- Bill Clinton and his cat:

- Ronald Reagan wearing a leprechaun hat:

- LBJ howling along with his dog in the White House:

- And, you know, the view along Pennsylvania Avenue, which is pretty spectacular:

We also made our own digital newspapers, got goosebumps in an exhibition of Pulitzer Prize winning photographs, and got teary in the section discussing journalism and 9/11.

After we'd run out of museum to look at, we walked up 7th Street in search of food. Eventually, we came across Fuddruckers, and when she heard that I'd never had it before, Sarah decided that we definitely had to eat there. And it was kind of amazing. ESPECIALLY the chocolate shakes. Although they were so thick that they nearly gave us brain aneurysms... Eventually, I had to head back to the motel before Lauren arrived, so we headed to the Metro station and took this super flattering photo with the last 2% of Sarah's phone battery:

Chin up, Kirsti. Chin UP. Also, stolen from Sarah's Instagram. 

Basically, hanging out with Sarah was tons of fun to the point where I only got back to the motel about ten minutes before Lauren arrived!

Next up, Lauren and I discover the weirdest salad on earth, see some totally awesome planes, and queue up for cupcakes. Om nom nom nom nom.

K xx

Decisions, decisions

Months and months ago, Deidre and I decided that what we desperately needed to do was hold some kind of meet-up for our Melbourne blogger friends. We got all excited about it, and started making a list of the people that we wanted to invite. And then the Dessert Day sugar high wore off, and we promptly forgot all about it and went on with our lives.

Until a few weeks ago when Deidre announced that it was back on the cards, because a) it was her birthday, and b) she wanted to catch up with people before she heads to the US to get married! And so it came to pass that Deidre, Katie, Ruby and I met at the Cider House on Brunswick Street.

I arrived somewhat flustered, because I'd had the option of two buses to get me there.
a) A bus that would get me there 20 minutes early, or
b) A bus that would get me there 5 minutes late.

I opted for the latter on the basis that the Victorian Public Transport journey calculator assumes that you walk at Old Lady Speed, and I can totally walk faster than that, so I was sure I could turn that 5 minutes into "right on time". Except then I pushed the button for the bus stop a tad too early, and he pulled up at the stop before the one I actually wanted, but I was too embarrassed to say anything because that's totally how I roll, so not only did I have to walk an extra chunk of distance, but I'd neglected to take into consideration the fact that Brunswick Street consists of alfresco dining and People Who Stroll, and that the former means you cannot overtake the latter.

ANYWAY. That's a really long winded way of saying "I was flustered when I got there". And then I had to make decisions, which made me even more flustered. Because when it comes to the Cider House? There are a LOT of decisions to make.

In addition to three or four pages of cider options on the menu, there was the inevitable "what will I have to eat?" decision, which was made even more "Oh God, what if I end up with food envy????"-y by the fact that ordering chips (America: read "fries") involved the following steps:
1. Decide what type of chips you want. 4 options.
2. Decide what kind of seasoning you want. 5 options.
3. Decide what kind of sauce you want. 6 options.

Applying my (possibly flawed) maths abilities leads me to the conclusion that this offers ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY DIFFERENT POSSIBLE COMBINATIONS. YOU GUYS. THAT IS A LOT OF PRESSURE AROUND DECISION MAKING.

In the end, here's what I had:

A felafel burger (sadly, it was not one giant felafel, like I was hoping for). Oven roasted potato skins with rosemary seasoning and roasted garlic aioli. And a pint of Cheeky Rascal apple and raspberry cider. All of it was delicious.

After several hours of entertaining conversation and stuffing ourselves with chips, I mentioned that I'd walked past a place not far away that had a sign out the front saying they'd been awarded the title of "Best chocolate macaron in Melbourne". This was a pretty big claim, so we had to test it out:

The one on the left is a blood orange macaron, the right is the famous black and white macaron, which is some kind of vanilla bean custard filling with a big blob of 70% cocoa dark chocolate in the middle. The blood orange one was pretty amazing, but I'm not sure I'd agree that the other was the *best* chocolate macaron in Melbourne. Maybe that's because I like my chocolate macarons more chocolate-y and less STEALTH chocolate-y??

And no, I don't have photographic proof that anyone else was there. We're bloggers - we take photos of food, not people, dammit!!! The moral of the story? Blogger lunches are awesome and should happen regularly. Also, that it may take us a really long time to organise stuff, but once we have? It's freaking spectacular.

Who wants to come to the Cider House with me at periodic intervals to try ALL the chip combinations???

K xx

Ancient History, Volume XX

In the last installment, there was some trauma. And y'all should get travel insurance any time you leave the country, JUST IN CASES. (Seriously)

In the end, I had less than 24 hours in Lima the second time around. This meant I didn't see Ness from the time I left the hospital until I got back to Melbourne six weeks later. The idea of spending six weeks travelling on my own was more than a little terrifying. Thankfully, there were three other people from the Peru trip going on to Ecaudor with me, which eased me into things!

Our trip to Ecuador started with London Bound's (totally a code name) need to obtain a Filet o' Fish. She had (and I assume still has) this thing that she has to eat a Filet o' Fish in every country she visits. And she hadn't yet had one in Peru. Luckily, there was a Macca's (Mickey D's to you, America) at the airport and - after waiting FORTY FIVE MINUTES (seriously, who waits 45 minutes for Macca's?!) for the breakfast menu to end - she finally had her Filet o' Fish. Things were off to a good start.

The flight to Quito was uneventful, with the exception of them telling us we were about to land approximately 90 seconds before the wheels hit the tarmac. We got to our hotel without any problems, and shortly after that, we headed into the old city to have a look around, and possibly find a tapas bar. Sadly, everything was closed, and there was an ENORMOUS religious festival going on. After getting caught in several panic-inducing crushes, we decided to abandon ship on the old city and headed back to the new town. By the time we got back there, we were all starving (due to it being 5pm and the fact that we hadn't eaten since that Macca's at 11am). And so the tapas snack that we were planning on having suddenly turned into "let's each order an appetiser plate and stuff ourselves on mozzarella sticks and potato skins". Whoops?

The next day, London Bound got a roommate. This was something of a shock to her, because during the Peru trip, there were an odd number of girls so she'd had a room to herself the entire trip. Her new roommate was lovely, but was also about sixty, from Queensland, and on her first ever overseas trip. She was travelling with nothing but a carry-on suitcase, which contained three changes of clothing. She showered in her clothes to save on going to the laundromat. And every rum and Coke she drank, she sighed a little because it wasn't Bundaberg rum. So yes. She was a little...eccentric.

We spent a good chunk of the rest of the day out at "The City at the Middle of the World", otherwise known as an uber-tacky tourist attraction build at(ish) the equator. 

Now is the point where I confess that I never realised that the equator ran through Ecuador before I went there. Uh, Past Kirsti? EQUATOR. ECUADOR. These are not dissimilar words. You are a moron.

Past Me is in the north and south hemispheres at the same time. WHEEEE!!

Once we'd finished taking typical tourist photos, we headed back to the hotel and pottered about the new town until it was time for our briefing. There, we discovered that this tour would ALSO include a Watermelon-esque couple, although not nearly as bad as Mr and Mrs Watermelon. This young married couple were taking a year long, round-the-world honeymoon, and her parents had decided to travel with them (AWWWWWWWWKWARD) for a month. So at the briefing, her mother asked all kinds of questions like "Will we need to bring our own bed linen on the boat?" 

Can we just stop and marvel at that question for a second? Because not only did she think that it was a possibility. She thought it was such a STRONG possibility that she carried sheets and towels ALL THE WAY FROM AUSTRALIA. How she had space in her luggage for anything but those is completely beyond me! (And no. We didn't need to supply our own linen) 

The four of us from the Peru trip had dinner together that night at the most incredible restaurant of EVER. If you ever happen to be in the new town of Quito and feel in need of a bite to eat, GO TO BOCA DE LOBO. Because it is AMAAAAAAAZING. They have spectacular cocktails and quite possibly the most fantastic raclettes of EVER. (Although I'm not sure how it would be possible to go wrong with a giant plate of melted cheese!) #OMNOMNOMNOM

They also had quite spectacularly enormous hot chocolates:

Their motto was "Drink and live forever, or die trying", and some of their cocktails had truly amazing names. Case in point: London Bound ordered a "Little Bitch from Hell". Apparently it was delicious!

After we'd stuffed ourselves with cheese and cocktails and hot chocolates, we headed back to the hotel to watch Ecuadorian Dancing with the Stars (it wasn't very good) and pack up our things yet again. Because first thing in the morning, we were off to the airport to board a flight to the Galapagos!!

But that's a story for next time...

K xx

Ancient History, Volume XVIII

If you missed the last installment, Mrs. Watermelon got publicly humiliated, and I saw the world's most epic rock.

Day 4 of the Inca Trail started with a 4am wake up. Yup. FOUR O'CLOCK IN THE MORNING. Don't these people know that nothing good ever happens after 2am?? (Name that sitcom!)

Anyway. We were dressed, packed and in the lodge by 4.30am, where the porters had very kindly made us pancakes for breakfast to lessen the "OH GOD, WHAT TIME IS IT???" feelings of doom. Then, after a visit to the moth-ridden bathroom (and if you think THAT didn't cause me to have a minor nervous breakdown, you'd be wrong), we set off towards Machu Picchu. IN THE RAIN.

We reached the final checkpoint at about 5.15am, which was something of an issue because they didn't open the gate until 5.30am. Nothing quite like standing around in the rain going "Dammit, I could have had another 15 minutes of sleep..."! *sigh*

Anyway, the gate was eventually unlocked, and we had a delightful hour and a half's stroll to the Sun Gate. I say 'stroll', because there were 200 people walking in a line in the dark, so it was pretty slow going. On the plus side, after the first half hour, it was getting light enough that we didn't need to use our stupid headtorches any more. Such things are always a plus.

The only tricky bit of the walk was the climb up to the Sun Gate, because you have to go up a flight of 'monkey stairs' - really steep and narrow, and basically you had to use your hands to keep yourself moving. That was followed by a couple of steep flights of stairs up reasonably big hills. We finally got to the Sun Gate at about 7.10am.

Now. The idea of getting you up at stupid o'clock and making you hike in the dark is that you get to see the sun rise over Machu Picchu and go "Oooooooh". Instead, we saw this:

Not actually from the Sun Gate. But you get the point.

Yup. More rain. We stopped at the Sun Gate for all of ten minutes before the head guide announced that he didn't think it was going to clear up for aaaages and so we may as well head down to Machu Picchu. That took about 45 minutes, because it was downhill on rocks that were extra slippery thanks to the rain. I MAY have had a couple of little "Oh crap, I'm sliding and am going to fall off a cliff and die" moments. (Obviously, I didn't fall off a cliff and die. Although being the world's first zombie blogger would be quite an achievement..........)

By the time we reached Machu Picchu, it was PROPERLY raining. So we headed for the cafeteria, and spent an hour or so hanging out under patio umbrellas, eating overpriced second breakfast, and waiting for a break in the weather. Our tour leader clearly didn't have high hopes for it clearing up - he took our passports and $20 each, and set off into Aguas Calientes to try and change our train tickets so that we could go back the next day if it didn't clear. But thankfully, by 9am, it had eased to drizzle and we were able to set off on the tour.

And because I don't really remember much of the detail from the tour (BAD ARCHAEOLOGIST), have a bunch of pictures. WHEEEEEEEEEEE:

The tour took about an hour and a half, and then we had two hours free before we had to be on the bus down to Aguas Calientes. So a bunch of us decided that we'd climb the smaller of the two peaks that rise behind the site (the one that's going off the left side of the frame in that last photo). It was only about a 15 minute walk to the top, but the trail was pretty narrow and winding, and there were occasional scrambles over tree branches and rocks and stuff. But the view from the top? Totally worth it.

When we'd finished marvelling at the view, we meandered through the site on our way to the bus.

See that little V in the mountains? That's where the Sun Gate is.

The bus ride to Aguas Calientes was a LITTLE hair raising, due to a millionty hairpin bends. And I'm sure the day visitors really appreciated how delightful we all smelled after four days with no showers. After a lunch of pizza and beer (hey, we deserved it!), it was time to head to the train station.

Oh. AND. The culmination of the Watermelons saga: after she was stretchered to camp on the third day, she declared that she would walk on the fourth day. She made it to the Sun Gate, and basically gave up. The two guides that were with them had to stretcher her down to the medical station at Machu Picchu to get her checked out. Then one of the guides had to go back UP to the Sun Gate to get Mr Watermelon. Because he'd been so worried about his wife over the past three days, that he'd forgotten to drink enough water. And so he'd basically dehydrated himself to the verge of a heart attack. So the guide had to PIGGY BACK HIM DOWN THE MOUNTAIN. And THEN? The SAME guide had to walk back up there AGAIN to get their bags. And the Watermelons spent the whole day at the medical station, and didn't get to see Machu Picchu at all. So yeah. That happened.

(Incidentally? I'm pretty sure that "So yeah. That happened" is going to be the title of my hilariously witty and completely hypothetical autobiography...)

The train ride back to Ollantaytambo ended up being kind of hilarious. Because there were lots of tunnels. And Ness and I were listening to her iPod, which decided to play "Scotty Doesn't Know". So whenever we went through a tunnel, all we could think of was "Mi scusi!" (name that movie), and we'd fall about in fits of hysterics. I'm not so sure it was particularly funny to anyone ELSE on the tour. But WE sure as hell had a good time!

That night, after quite possibly the most welcome shower I've ever had, we all headed out to Inka Grill for dinner. If you're ever in Cusco, GO TO INKA GRILL. Seriously. The food is fantastic, and if you order guinea pig, it comes to the table with a little crown made of red capsicum/bell pepper on its teeny tiny creepy-looking head (We didn't order guinea pig, hence the lack of photos. Someone at a nearby table did though). Oh. And order the warm chocolate tart. You won't regret it.

After dinner, we went out for a few well earned drinks. And several people tried to complete the Machu Picchu challenge - staying up for the full 24 hours and drinking. After one (free poured, and therefore disgusting) vodka raspberry, I caved and headed for bed. At least I got a good night's sleep before the unexpected drama (HI NESSA!!) that was to come the following day... Dun dun duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun: to be continued.

K xx

30 Days of Photography - Day 5

Last night, I went into town and met up with Ness and Kat. By some kind of miracle, all three of us were in Melbourne at the same time! We had cocktails and tapas at Cho Gao, sitting on the balcony overlooking the State Library. I'd actually forgotten that smoking is still allowed in the outdoor areas of restaurants in Victoria. It honestly felt like every smoker in the universe was on that balcony and exhaling in our direction just to spite us...

From there, it was onto dinner in Hardware Lane. Apparently they're all about the restaurant touts in Hardware Lane these days. Who knew?! It was kind of like being back in Thailand, only with less "Come in, come in and see my lovely junk!" (that was Mexico...) "Better than Best & Less, mate!" and more of this:
Tout: Have you girls eaten yet?
Ness: Oh, we're just looking at this stage.
Tout: I can arrange free cocktails...
Ness, Kat and me: SOLD!!!

God, we're easy marks. Still, the food was reasonably priced and pretty tasty. Then we went to San Churro and consumed our body weight in chocolate-y churros-y goodness and chilli hot chocolate. Oh, and paid almost entirely in coins.
Server: That'll be $25.85.
Me: Here's a $5 note, and $21 in coins!
Server: *stares at handful of coins in dismay* You know what, I'll take your word for that. Here's 15c.

This morning, I met up with the lovely Carly of Tune into Radio Carly for brunch. We went to Three Bags Full in Abbotsford. There was a bit of a wait when we got there, but the people-watching made up for it. (Although I don't think I'm nearly trendy enough to hang out in a place like that!!) I had the hot cakes, which came with poached fruit and orange infused ricotta. They were pretty freaking spectacular. And very filling!

NOM.

Anysofarofftopicit'snotevenvisibleinthedistanceanymore, the theme for day 5 was 'from a high angle'. So here's a photo looking down the limestone feature wall/fountain thing in our back garden.

How was your weekend?

K xx