Day #24 & 25 – day trip to Peru

Yesterday started in the very best way; with dessert. I follow loads of Melbourne eateries on Instagram, and one of these is Christy Tania’s Glacé. Happily, Glacé is about a 10 minute walk from St. Kilda, so we started our day there for breakfast. Saf went for a classic Croque Madame, but I decided early on to go for one of the beautiful frozen artworks on display. Although they all sounded unbelievable, there was only ever one option. The frozen s’mores hedgehog man was 😘👌🏼 and definitely the right choice.

From there, we took the train to the Melbourne Cricket Ground for a tour. Our guide, Noel, was a member of the club and knew anything and everything about the ground, however I think all Saf was really keen to do was see his name on a giant sign at the end of the tour.

From there we walked past the Olympic stadiums into the park where we sat in the ground of the Sidney Meyer Music Bowl to snooze in the sun for a while. When we were both awake, and after Saf had chased a bird around for a bit, we walked down to the Shrine of Remembrance. Next week is Anzac Day (Australia and New Zealand Army Corps), so the significance of remembrance and respect for soldiers is definitely heightened in Australia at the moment.

We took the tram to Flinders Street to find somewhere for dinner, but paused to wander down Hosier Lane which is known as a street art spot in Melbourne. The giant portrait of the Notorious B.I.G. was a personal fave.

I thought we were going to find a hundred places in Flinders St to eat, but we ended up wandering round for about 25 minutes before settling on a tapas place that was one of the first restaurants that we had walked past. Oooops.

We’ve moved on to our second medical melodrama of our trip. My back is pretty much better at this point, but Saf has done something to his foot in the course of the last few days, and is now finding walking really difficult. I’m returning him as much sympathy as he afforded me when I was in pain (a.k.a. zero) but if he wants to chill out and not walk around too much, that’s kind of okay by me. I think I can manage that.

We had actually always planned to spend a day on the beach today as the weather was due to be the warmest of the whole week, and this meant Saf could spend the whole day off his feet. As it happened we woke up to 14 degree gales masquerading as bright sunshine. However, as the true Brits we are, we gritted our teeth and sat on the freezing beach and had ourselves a good old time. Saf even went for a swim in the sea which lasted all of about fifteen seconds.

The BEST part of today was dinner. I had made us reservations at Atlas Dining about 3 months ago, and I’ve been excited to go ever since. The owners visit a different country every three months, then serve five ever-changing courses based on the food they ate there. The current stop is Peru, and our menu was:

– Kingfish Ceviche
– Eggplant Huacatay
– Pork Puka Picante
– Aji de Quail
– Banana, Coffee, Pisco

Head chef Charlie Carrington brought out our dessert, which was absolutely killer. I could have eaten it forever. I’m not usually the biggest fan of banana desserts, but the bitter coffee and tequila sauce was just so good. Compliments to the chef.

Since it was still quite early, we took three trams (it would have been two, but I’m incompetent) to the beach front to get a drink. It was there that Saf learned the devastating, yet highly anticipated news that changed his life forever.

That’s right.

Arsene Wenger has left Arsenal.

Saf is doing okay, but thanks everyone for their concern at this difficult time.

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