Blog 14 - Queen Victoria Market

 One of my favorite things about walking around the city of Melbourne was stopping in the shops and local markets but nothing compared to the Queen Victoria Market. It was located only 10 minutes from the Scape apartments we were staying at so I had a lot of opportunities to go and walk around. This market is a major landmark in Melbourne and is well-known around the world partly due to it being the largest open air market in the Southern hemisphere. I went for the first time before going to St. Kilda for the day and walked around for about an hour with a bunch of others on the program. I knew I’d be back so I didn’t want to buy much just yet unless I absolutely fell in love with an item but I still had a great time walking around and seeing everything that was there. John, Hayden and I walked by a stand that had a sign “free gin” and we were immediately intrigued. We sampled a couple of the “award winning best in the world” gin and although it was 10:30 in the morning we all still loved it. We talked to the guys selling it for a while and to our surprise one of them was an American who moved here to focus on this company and see it thrive. We purchased the bottle of gin and over the next two days finished it and it ended up being one of our favorite purchases of the trip. However, my mom was disappointed that I had the opportunity to go to one of the coolest markets in the world, yet still found a way to only purchase alcohol. I explained to her that I would go back to get a couple more things and a couple days later I did exactly that. A couple days later we stopped by for about an hour again and I bought a bunch of things. I bought a teddy bear in the form of a kangaroo to give to my girlfriend as well as a bottle opener that looked like a kangaroo. They were both really cheap but will be used at home all of the time. I then went to buy an Australian rugby jersey which was a little pricey but definitely worth the price I paid. I wore it for the rest of  the day and will definitely be wearing it out at College Park from time to time. I ended up having an amazing experience at the market and recommend to anybody who visits Melbourne to go to the market.


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