First stop of the day is morning coffee at Code Black, one of the popular places to get good coffee, and great that it’s near my Airbnb. After which, I head to another café but located in the CBD area, Bakemono Bakes – a beautiful wooden Korean-style takeaway café, selling pastries. Coffee here was bad, but the croissant was amazing! In sg, I felt Tiong Bahru Bakery is one of the best in sg, and Bakemono’s croissant is like even better?
CODE BLACK COFFEE (BRUNSWICK)
15-17 Weston Street, Brunswick VIC 3056
0700-1700hrs (daily)
BAKEMONO BAKES
273 Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
0730-1500hrs (Mon-Fri), 0830-1500hrs (Sat-Sun)
Round the corner is Chinese Museum, or Museum of Chinese Australian History, presenting the history of Australians of Chinese ancestry. It holds an extensive collection of Chinese clothing, textiles, photographs, documents, and artefacts that reflect the Chinese community in Australia from the 1850s.
Since it is the Lunar New Year period, they have a special exhibit about the new year, and I learnt so much from it! As a child, new year just comes to me as the period where I get to receive lots of money (red packets) and play with my cousins. I never understand why it lasts for 15 days, and the traditions of it. Had fun here and definitely my favourite exhibit of all!
MUSEUM OF CHINESE AUSTRALIAN HISTORY
22 Cohen Place, Melbourne VIC 3000
1000-1600hrs (daily)
Admission: $11
Then I had lunch at SamSam Chicken, which I happened to discover on tiktok, a Korean fried chicken place, fried up by robot chefs! I got the sweet chilli flavour to try, it was really good, quite similar to sg’s Waker Chicken in terms of flavour. I just don’t like that it comes sprinkled with chopped nuts.
SAMSAM CHICKEN
207-209 Swanston Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
1200-2200hrs (Mon-Thu, Sun), 1200-2300hrs (Fri-Sat)
Website | Instagram
Next, I headed to Federation Square, an open venue for arts, cultural and events. The sun was burning by now, around 2pm. I hurriedly walked to ACMI, located within Federation Square, a museum all about film, video games, digital art, and culture. Sat down to chill for a while and enjoy the air-con.
The museum is free admission and before you enter, you get a “lens” code. Upon registering on ACMI, you can tap the “lens” at any display that you are interested in, and you can go back to learn more about it online later at your free time. I enjoyed this museum a lot, there’s so much to movie making, animation, video games, TVs, and so on.
ACMI
Federation Square, Flinders Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
1200-1700hrs (Mon-Wed, Fri), 1200-1630hrs (Thu), 1000-1800hrs (Sat-Sun)
Free Admission
Right across Federation Square is the very popular Flinders Street Station, took some photos and videos before I head off to the next stop. It is the first railway station of Australia that started in 1854 and is the world’s busiest passenger station in the 1920s!
Next stop is Lukumades, who does Greek donuts with a modern twist. They were so popular, they moved from a food truck to a physical store in just 9 months! There were so many flavours to choose from! I got pistachio (topped with dark chocolate) and biscoff lotus (topped with biscoff crumbs) flavour, they were soooo good! The donuts were crispy on the inside, slightly chewy in the inside, somewhat similar to a mochi donut; and the sauces were amazing (though it did get a little jelat towards the end).
LUKUMADES (PEEL STREET)
83 Peel Street, West Melbourne VIC 3003
1200-2300hrs (daily)
Across the road was Queen Victoria Market, one of the major landmarks of Melbourne, operated since the 1800s. It is the largest and the most intact 19th century markets today. Visiting the market in the evening for their Summer Night Market program, filled with live music, roving entertainment, food trucks and sunset vibes! It was so so packed, especially at the food stalls area, I could barely move! It was also really warm, and I was getting exhausted, so I decided to just get out of the crowd and grab an Uber back to my Airbnb.
QUEEN VICTORIA MARKET
Queen Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
0600-1500hrs (Thu-Fri), 0600-1600hrs (Sat), 0900-1600hrs (Sun)
Took a short nap, then walked to McDonald’s to grab dinner.
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Expenses for Day 5
Code Black, Iced Latte, $7.09
Bakemono Bakers:
- Croissant, $4.80
- Latte, $5.20
Chinese Museum, $11
SamSam, Sweet Chilli, 8pc winglets, $14.80
Lukumades:
- 10pc donut half-half, $14.90
- Peach Refresher, $6
Uber to Airbnb, $18.96
McD, Double Fillet Meal, $12.05
TOTAL: AU$94.80 = $86.18
Previous Expense: $3,830.91
Total as of Day 5: $3,917.09