Kati & Mattes

Monday, October 12, 2009

Weekend in Melbourne - Our hood (Carlton & Fitzroy) Brunswick Street

This is the street we lived on during the first week and pretty much what we love most about our hood. Besides Smith Street and Gertrude Street that is :-)

Biking is very fashionable in Melbourne. But we're the only uses using average bikes. All the rest a super-high-tech, light-weight, rad bikes. Mattes is kinda jealous :-)

You see alot of oldtimers around. Today we spotted a little garage filled with vintage Ferraris. Gorgeous. Must sneek there again with the camera.

The magic that is Brunswick Street.

Schüttel Dein Haar für mich auf Brunswick Street.

as the name says.

And this is the Fitz and its ourdoor terrace under a tree. They serve the food through a window.

Weekend in Melbourne - Our hood (Carlton & Fitzroy) walking to Brunswick Street

Here's some stuff we see when we walk the walk to Brunswuck Street, e.g. this Sunday for breakfast.

can you see us?

Johnston Street, retail stores and restaurants, incl. the great Houndstooth, only open Mo-Fr evenings, great value for money fooood, went there with our housemates last Friday

Ah yes, our street in the sunset :-) The white house on the left is ours. Hurrah.

The milk store. Don't know why they call it that, it's like a kiosk in Germany. Yes, you can buy milk. But you can buy all sorts of stuff. E.g. tram tickets.

Another street along the hood with nice houses. It's like a little residential paradise only 5min from the city by bike. love love.

Weekend in Melbourne - Our hood (Carlton & Fitzroy) Walls

Houses and walls hold many treasures. Must get more pics of the verious grafitis done. E.g., we have a Mr. T on a wall behind our house. ab fab.

love the vespa, reminds me of bcn.

Weekend in Melbourne - Our hood (Carlton & Fitzroy) Food

Had a really nice sunny weekend in Melbourne.
Spent some more time sampling cafés along Brunswick Street and taking in the streets around. On Saturday I hung out with Sina's friend Lu and had a wonderful girlie afternoon in the hood. On Sunday Mattes and I were all over town, but started the day off with breakfast at Fitz, who have a great outside terrace which we'd been meaning to visit since ages. As almost all cities, Melbourne is simply at its best when the sun is out.

being shaped by Italian influences, nothing works around here without coffee...
And you must be precise. Tall white, short black, latte... Chinese to me when we got here, but getting the idea what they are trying to say now.

Café Latte at Fitz'. with the obligatory water they always give you here. we had a beautifully shaped coffee at Seven Seeds today. must go there with a camera one day.

Cappucino at Brunetti's. Brunetti's is a Carlton, no wait, is a Melbourne institution. Only 25m away from our house, it is an Italian café home to some of the best coffee and cakes you'll get in town. At even when we got there at 23:00 at night, we had to wait for a table. We ride by there on the way home in the evening, it's always bustling with people, mostly that go there for dessert after dinner on Lygon Street, love it. And the place it big, the terrace surely seats 60 people, and more than that fit inside. We get our bread there, too. Recommended!

Café latte and cake at Brunettis. Yummy with apricots and puff pastry. Lu's :-)

Lu on the terrace of the Black Cat on Brunswick Street. Didn't take pics of the food, but we had a really good eggplant Focaccio for 8dollars, yum yum yyyuuummm! Fun crowd out there. The spinich-cheese filo is also yummy!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

Melbourne - MBS (the business school)

It's about time we showed you where we hang out Mo-Wedn: the uni. the Melbourne Business School has a really nice campus, very modern, only 5min from our house with the bike, and right by the CBD (Central Business District)

Our funky 1-gear bikes which take us around town (note the basket)

The lovely patio of the school. Nice to eat lunch out here.

From infront of the school you look down the road into the business district - in the area around the school the houses are still flat and residencial, so the view into the cosmopolitan part of town is pretty funky.

The business school is the building (in the shade) on the left. Maybe I'll try and take some sunshine pics this afternoon. It's a cute park infront, too.

Matt in the library, where I spend most of my time. I love it - it's soooo light! Loads of natural day light, great infrastructure, good place to work. Mattes is just working on an entrepreneurship paper. Almost done. Olé.

Melbourne - Some pictures from our home this morning

Alot of coffee is drunk in Melbourne. We've joined the craze.

Our living room. Still with our door as a table.

Our back yard in the sun.

Our flatmate Meegan's tea pot collection. They are all blue in some way.

Melbourne - Cooking - Spanish evening

I've been cooking alot again after taking a break for 11 weeks during our trip through Asia. I'm really enjoying it - especially since the Queen Victoria Market, one of the best markets I've ever been to (large range, cheaaaap, beautiful) is only 300m from school. Last time I went shopping there, I bought so much that the basket broke off by bicycle... So we've started having people over for dinner again, and this Thursday, as an example, we had a little Spanis evening with (from left in the pic below) Martha (also from IESE BCN), Sabina (studied in Seville the same time as me, now exchange from UCLA), Steve (also IESE BCN), Javi (Martha's brother, normally lives in Madrid) and Matteo. I made a whole bunch of tapas, including Salmorejo (shout outs to Aitoritoooo), albondegas (meat balls in tomatoe sauce), gambas (yum yum yum), self-made alioli and chorizo. The mini cakes burnt, but we ate the inside. The pic is taken in our living room btw, which connects to the kitchen. We don't have a table in the livingroom actually, so whenever we have large groups over we disconnect one of the doors to one of our cupboards and cover it with a bed sheet. Et voilá!

Would like to get some more food-photography done, but somehow it's always dark when we eat and it only really looks good in natural daylight... But I'll take the camera to the market next week and see what magic we can get up to.
Below, FYI, the remains of the gambas and some of the aliolo (slightly brown as done with balsamic vinegar)

Melbourne Region - Tulip Festival Flowers

And there were flowers. Delush.

(love the pic of the black tulip, luv luv luv it)

(mattes hiding in the flowers)

(kati hiding in the flowers)

Melbourne Region - Tulip Festival Fun

Last weekend we went to the Tulip Festival about 1hr drive away from Melbourne city, at the border of the wine region Yarra Valley. With the photography club of the university, to learn some more about taking pics. It rained. So the pics could have been better, but we had a good time anyhow, because...

- there was live jaaaaaazzzz (in a tent!) - these guys really rocked the house, was fun to see then jive, especially since most of them were over 60 and you could tell they were having a blast

- there was yummy coffee and wine to taste... and warm up

- there were poffertjes, yum yum yum yum yum, we'll forgive the Dutch flag (Matt's eyes are just screaming "look what iiiiii've got, come and geeeeeet it")

- there was a boot scraper and i've never seen aboot scraper before

Melbourne - Oktoberfest

It was kind of sad seeing all the fun Oktoberfest pics from people back home via facebook, so we decided to seek out Oktoberfest in Melbourne. And we found it! In the European Bier Café they had Steins, German beers, pretzels, Leberkäs, an Umpa-Band, the LOT! And had a great evening - and thanks to Stefan for helping organize an all.