travel blog – Liv Living Life

When I was planning my trip to Melbourne, I didn’t think I’d get the chance to do the Great Ocean Road, considering I didn’t have a car and didn’t want to rent one and do the trip all on my own. Cue Issy asking if I wanted to drive it with her. Of course I said yes! The road itself stretches along 243km of Australia’s south east coast from Torquay to Allansford, and was built by soldiers returning from World War 1.

Although the majority of the day was spent with an overcast sky, the views along the coast were so beautiful that the weather didn’t dampen our spirits.

There was no way I was going to embark on this road trip and not stop off to get a picture at its famous memorial arch. Every person I know who has done the Great Ocean Road has taken the same photo, but hey, I’m a sucker for cliches.

Along the way we stopped off at Urquharts Bluff, a beach hidden from view off the main road. Seen as we were the only ones around it was nice to just take a minute and bask in the peace and quiet away from the city, and the sun even made an appearance for the brief time we were down there.

As Issy had to work that evening and we had set off quite late in the day we only made it as far as Lorne before heading back to the city, but not before stopping off at a pub on the main street for an early dinner. If we were doing this trip over a couple of days, which I would definitely recommend, I would like to have gone for a surf in Lorne, but instead we just settled for watching an ongoing lesson from the warm, dry confines of the pub.

Ideally I wanted to go as far as the 12 Apostles, which is around a 3 hour drive from Torquay, but I’ll just have to make that a priority for the next time I visit. Although a plus side of heading home early? RAINBOW ICE CREAM!

Until next time,
Liv
xo

One thing I could eat every day for the rest of my life? Bagels. I went through an obsession in my second year of uni where that’s all I would eat, so imagine my excitement when Issy took me to a cafe dedicated entirely to bagels in Carnegie, Melbourne. Her Mum brought some home every morning for our breakfast which was super nice, and although I’m a picky eater and usually stick to plain or wholemeal, the onion and poppyseed bagels were my absolute favourite.

It wasn’t until my penultimate day in Melbourne that we actually sat in to eat. At first I thought, ‘how many bagels could there possibly be?’ and ‘will they only do bagels on their own? Or will there be proper breakfast meals with them?’. As we walked in the queue was already huge and there were no free tables in sight, but it didn’t take too long for a space to become available for us. I was spoiled for choice with the menu, ranging from sesame to blueberry and choc-chip bagels (I didn’t even know the latter two were a thing), alongside classic breakfast meals such as scrambled egg, a tuna melt, and a ‘Summer Brekky Bagel’.

Although the onion and poppyseed had been my favourite all week, I opted for the scrambled egg with a sesame seed bagel and an English breakfast tea (spot the Pommie). Even though I went with a simple option, it was still bloody delicious and kept me full for hours thereafter.

I was so sad to leave Huff Bagelry behind, so I’m hoping there’s a bagel cafe somewhere in Manchester that I’m yet to discover or someone gets the bright idea to open one themselves asap.