My slice of Manhattan

what does every girl need at least three times a year?

shopping trip away with the girls! it seems in a way to act as a psychologist for us women in the sense that through us swiping that card and zipping up that dress, each little problem that bothers you seems to be inevitably irrelevant.

So MIC, DeliHuni and OMGThatSmile headed off to the wonderful (Manhattan) Melbourne for drinks, dresses, trams and more than our fair share of metrosexuals.
We boarded the train......the 12 hour trip train i should say.
Now this didnt phase me as much as the others as i had done this trip before......alone.
But after about 5 hours of reading Cosmo and talking of our sex lives, you start to wonder whether relationship councellors need any formal training at all.

So we finally get there and hail our chariot to our palace in which we will rest for the next 3 nights. Well our chariot was an "aiite" black man in a taxi and our palace was a backpackers on King St. Who needs to pay accomodation wen that money can be spent on more shoes right??

After showing HIM where to go and a scenic tour of King St we got to our hostel and unpacked. Everyone seemed to be making the customary call back home to let them know we're safe and werent suddenly derailed somewhere between horsham and ghost town....
since i had not notified my family of my where abouts that weekend i had no one to call.....tear.

Quick call to an old friend and we were organising our first outfits and ready to head out....as sitting for another 2-3 hours didnt seem appealing after the day we had.
We proceeded to eat out at a pizza joint and discuss times of old and what we had all missed. After this i think all of us agreed on that we needed sleep as the wknd ahead was not going to be relaxing....

Friday morning.....up at f**king 5am because of a garbage truck and then up at 8am to get ready to shop. We had been well advised to visit DFO. For all Adelaide readers, this HUGE place is situated in the suburbs and would take u about 40 mins to get to by train and bus....but it is well worth it..... Imagine Harbour Town, but with about 5 times as many stores and better ones at that. We loved it....Id say we were there from about 11am to 4pm....it was nuts...

After that we were exhausted and decided to head back for a quick nap before heading out that night. How old are we????

So we got oursleves looking all fine and headed down to the Crown Casino for a dinner by the river and some unexpected shaningans upstairs.
Dinner was awesome at Automatic....which is basically Buongiorno's with better food and higher price range. Sitting by the river and admiring the hourly flames would seem mediocre to the average Melbournian, but for us Adelaide girls this was a touch of class that had to be enjoyed with the first Cosmo for the wknd.

Then the ever so slightly Metro manager informed us to head up to Odeon for a good night out. We saw the $15 cover charge and thought screw this place! As we headed out the bouncer saw three gorgeous chicks heading the wrong way and started to panic....

' whats the matter girls??? dont u have enough money??'
'excuse me?'
' here let me stamp u, do u have enough for drinks? here have a drink card.'
'ooookkk.....'

So we proceeded back inside and headed straight to the bar. Odeon is sorta like a mini red sqaure but without the skanks and black guys. It musta been Time Warp night cause the 80's hits were going off!

This Englishman saw us at the bar and was intrigued as to the drinks that we were shoting (jelly donuts mmmm) so he proceeded to shout us as he had a tab running. We talked to him and his Scottish friend for most of the night. Not that i could understand a word the Scott was saying and at the end engaged in a little dancefloor foreplay with the Englishman. Before we left i stated i was gonna snog him, and i did.

Did OMGThatSmile inform me that this man was wearing a wedding ring???? Uhuh. Fantasy No.1 fulfilled.....well partially.

So back to the room at about 2am to rest before shopping all again the next day.
Each morning saw us with a routine trip to Starbucks, yet another luxury Adelaide is not fortunate enough to possess. Tall Caramalatte mmmmmmmmmmm.....

So today it was Bridge Rd for shopping.....and i can say we couldnt get the whole lot done before feeling absolutely stuffed. We headed back to the city...probably grabbed more Starbucks and some Nando's for tea and went back to the room.
From a phonecall we were informed that there was a Hard Rock Cafe in Melbourne and that soon became our venue for the night.....
Got dressed a little retro and headed up the hill situated on the main street! i know, hills in the city....these guys are crazy!
This night saw one too many Cosmo's, some awesome cocktails made by the bar girls, some standard aussie pub songs and yes, MIC dancing ontop of the bar with staff etc...
We even got DeliHunni smashed, a vendetta of mine for a long time.... hehehhehehe
So we caught a taxi 2 BLOCKS to Macca's, a whole of $3.20 i think it was....and stuffed our faces as one usually does wen highly intoxicated....
After that we somehow struggled back to the hotel room for some raunchy underwear photos of us all and then i think i remember just zoning out.
Up early Sunday to pack our bags.....depressing....and our final day out!
We headed down to St Kilda for a well deserved breakfast, and i took them to a place i had visited a few times in Melb before....Vibe i think the name was. A very funky cafe that well deserves recognition for their Red Bull breakfast.... Pizza with scrambled eggs on top and a red bull.....went down nicely...
after this had a quick look in the infamous St Kilda cake shops and then proceeded to head to Chapel St.
I had run out of cash by this point, and DeilHunni foolishly stepped in with a credit card...hehe nah thank u hunni, i paid back in full so all is good....

Bought some great stuff and for the first time all wknd i saw OMGThatSmile shop like she was meant to....

So after yet another amazing day we headed back to the city to check out Louis Vuitton, a must for DeliHunni and i must give her credit on not buying anything in that store!
So after our final shopping escapades, we headed up to Hard Rock one more time for dinner with who seemed like a nice friend. Had a very intense conversation and then retired to the train stations to sadly head home.....

As we walked to the secret platform in the middle of the night, holding all our possessions in the cold....i couldnt help but say.....

'Does anyone else feel a little Schindler's List about this?'

Thank you Melbourne for an amazing weekend and we shall be back!!