The Great Aussie Market: Vic Market

The Queen Victoria Market (also known as ‘Vic Market’) is the southern hemisphere’s most largest open-air market and offers a variety of fruit and vegetables, meat, poultry and seafood, gourmet and deli foods as well as specialty delicacies. On Sundays, a much wider range of merchant items is available and is almost alike a modern Arabian Nights bazaar. The Queen Victoria Market is a major tourist destination and was named after Queen Victoria who ruled the British Empire, from 1837 to 1901 and the market is now an historic landmark for Melbourne as the building dates back to more than 120 years ago.

Locals often visit QV Market mainly because of the vast variety and abundant availability of beautiful fresh seafood.

I love this section of the market – bakeries full of fresh breads and pastries, pastas, cheeses, and more! Oh my.

Feta & Spinach and Beef & Onion

Quiches and Home Made Pies… Ooooh lorrddd.

But best of all.. MACARONS AND CAKES!

Where do you go to get fresh coffee beans and tea leaves? QV Market!

Fresh pastas, ready to cook.

Honey, dried fruits and nuts!

Fresh fruit market. This place is hugeeeeee.

Did I say… FRESH!!

It also has a large non-food related market, selling a diverse range of clothing, shoes, jewellery and handmade art and crafts.

What I love most about this place is the availability of unique Australian items and souvenirs for vistors (and locals like me!) all round. Can you ever have enough koala and kangaroo plushes?

Too cute!

Did you ever want to grab yourself a the famous Aussie bush tucket hat? You can take the opportunity to pick one up right here.. For cheap too!

The market was also once known as a a thriving underground pirated goods centre however there was a massive crackdown in 1997 and the market cleaned up its reputation.. But you still find some pretty strange coloured (with odd Brand Labels with unusual fonts) here. It’s “UGG”, really? You sure?

And why of course, I just had to buy one of these. AUSTRALIA!

Vic Market: Trading hours and Location

The Queen Victoria Market trading hours are 6am to 2pm on Tuesday and Thursday; 6am to 6pm (with the general merchandise section closing at 4pm) on Friday; 6am to 3pm on Saturday; and 9am to 4pm on Sunday. The market is closed on Monday and Wednesday, and on Good Friday, Anzac Day, Melbourne Cup Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day.

On the way back from Atlantic City, James’ mom drove us to the New Jersey Premium Outlets. There was an additional 50% off the sale price! Crazy. I got myself the below heart pendant. It’s gorgeous.. And massive!

But if you think that’s massive, James’ mom got herself an even bigger crystal! I don’t have any pics of it, but it was pretty too.

As a Christmas present to myself, I bought the Tiffany & Co Return to Tiffany Mini Lock on a Bead Bracelet which now matches both of my necklaces, the Return to Tiffany Heart Lock Pendant and the Return to Tiffany Heart Tag Pendant on a Bead Necklace.

It’s so cute!

As  much as I love my Marc by Marc Jacobs Turnlock wallet, I’ve been looking for a new wallet to replace it for over a year now. Because it is made of an incredible soft leather in cream, it instantly got ruined. All the dirt and grum of handling it day by day has coated it and made it completely grungy. But not only that, in the same week that I purchased the wallet – I managed to get ballpoint pen scribbled all over it and have never managed to get it off since!

I’m really particular about my accessories, so I’ve been looking hard for a replacement. There hasn’t been anything that I’ve really liked, but had been eyeing an LV wallet because I know two people who have said that their wallets have lasted over ten years! That’s definitely a lot longer than a week of ruining my MJ wallet! Now that is durable!

The LV wallets I’ve seen are pretty chunky, or are tri-fold, or don’t have much room for cards, or don’t have a zip for coins. But in Atlantic City, James and I were shopping at Caesers and I saw that the LV had my perfect wallet! Except it only came in Monogram :( And when we hurried to Sak’s, they couldn’t find the Damier Ebene either.Sad sad! We waited around for about 15 minutes for them to check all their drawers for it (their system said they had two) but it just could not be found. But as we were about to leave, they found it! YAY!!!!!! So JT got it for me for Chrissy and he got himself the sunnies which I reckon looks pretty good on him.

Anyway.. THANKS BABY. I LOVE IT. <3

Photos are below!

I went home and took another photo of it. White background looks cool, doesn’t it? Haha.

On the way back to NYC, I really wanted to go to Fifth Ave. It was too packed with people and traffic that we only could manage to go to Sak’s Fifth Ave although I wish we could’ve gone to a lot more stores like A&F and Henri Bendel.

Nevertheless, we still got to drive down Fifth Ave. It’s such a happyland for me. Pretty holiday lights, decorations and Christmas Windows. How could you not feel joyful?

This is what Sak’s looks like at this time of the year:

I didn’t get to look at the Christmas windows that Sak’s had to offer but I saw some of the mannequins dressed in hot red. Love.

We also managed to get a glimpse of the Rockefeller Tree. Yayyyyy.

Then Aunty Glenda & Uncle Jovin took me to eat Malaysian food. Yayyyy what a happy day. Here’s what I had (Har Mee). I was craving this since the morning so I was really excited when they asked if I wanted to eat Malaysian food. Haha.

James had Beef Rendang:

Then we all shared Ais Kachang.. Yum yum.