Back in Melbourne!

Back in Melbourne, Christine and I popped into Chocolate Buddha, a highly recommended noodle restaurant right in Federation Square. We really liked it, though it didn't quite measure up to the Peking Duck we would later have at the Bamboo House Restaurant in Melbourne's Chinatown.

View of Federation Square from Chocolate Buddha.

A church we passed on our walk from downtown to the southern suburb of South Yarra.

At a sidewalk restaurant in South Yarra.

That same evening (Thursday), we finally managed to push through our 7:30pm bedtime and endeavored to have a proper night out on the town. We wound up at Pugg Mahone's, a pub we actually thought was pretty much okay, and then after a drink or two, we ventured forth again but couldn't quite find any appropriate venues for the rest of the night. We kept winding up in backpacker bars full of teenagers, or in line at Goth clubs, also with tons of teenagers, so we ultimately ceded defeat and returned our hotel.

Fortunately for us, we received much-needed professional help the next day in the form of Alex. Alex lives in Melbourne and is a friend of Christine's friend Sara, who made a connection for us and the next thing we knew, we were sitting in our hotel lobby at 1:00pm on Friday afternoon waiting for a total stranger to come pick us up and show us around town.

Sara neglected to warn us, however, that Alex is just ridiculously attractive. This proved to be very distracting and made it difficult for us to really appreciate any of the other highlights of the city he was so graciously pointing out for us. As soon as he heard that we had wound up at Pugg Mahone's the night before, however, the tour was unceremoniously truncated, and he whisked us off to a series of watering holes for the rest of the day to try to correct our skewed impression of Melbourne's nightlife.

Alex and Christine at Windsor Castle (despite the very regal name, this was actually just a bar with some fab outdoor space, but it was really fun). He's pretty hot, right? Did I also mention that he's like a former Olympic pentathalete or somesuch, has got a great job and is totally sweet and funny, to boot? Thank goodness he doesn't have my blog address -- if he knew I was saying all this, I'd be slapped with a restraining order...

Do you know anyone else who looks this good while talking on the cellphone? I didn't think so.

Alex with his childhood friend Kirsten. Kirsten is pretty darn kickass herself, and graciously co-helmed the "Christine & Rob Nightlife Orientation Tour" as the evening wore on. Although originally from Melbourne, Kirsten currently lives in London. Since I'm moving to Paris, that will make Kirsten and me "Eurostar Buddies," as I may have drunkenly mentioned to her about 47 times over the course of the evening. Anyway, she totally rocks, and I hope she doesn't think I'm a stalker if I come visit her in London. (Maybe these guys can get a volume discount on the restraining orders?)

Christine, Me, Alex, Kirsten and Talbot. Talbot is a friend of Alex and Kirsten's who is visiting from Sydney. He was also quite a looker himself (I guess these hot people travel in packs), but had his eyes closed and a bit of a funny face on for this photo. Clearly this means Christine and I will have to track him down on Bondi Beach when we're in Sydney and force him to go out with us again so we can take some better pictures. I'm sure he won't mind...