So Chris and I have come to the end of our DIY Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.

Breakfast was a pancake from the kitchen, it being The Nunnery’s Pancake Sunday.

We then checked out and headed off to our final venue – the IceBar Melbourne, on Brunswick Street, Fitzroy. It was a great experience. So we put on gloves and blue overcoats and went into a small-ish room which had a number of great ice sculptures based on movies like the Matrix, Transformers, etc.. There was a bar in one corner where the young lady who made our cocktails (we received one cocktail and a shot from the menu as part of the payment to get in). We stayed for about 40 minutes after the 11am opening, got to play noughts and crosses with ice tiles, and other numbers game that you had to line a series of numbers from 1-9 so they added up to 15 on each row, column and diagonal. I got close (all rows and columns, one diagonal but not the other), after which the young lady showed us the solution. We got talking, and I mentioned that I was heading off to Alaska. She said that the temperature was set to minus 10 degrees during the opening hours, and minus 12 degrees at night, which kept the ice sculptures frozen. She had come from around Scotland way and said that this temperature was okay to deal with if you have the right gear. So I’m pretty sure I’ll be okay in short stints, but will definitely purchase a face cover or two when I get to Alaska in a couple of days so that my face doesn’t freeze! Plus a thermal covering or mini bag for my camera batteries, as the cold makes them flat, and I don’t want to lose these opportunities to take photos.

Unfortunately the program is not allowing me to upload the two photos of us at the IceBar so I’ll add them into the comments section on FB for those interested in them.

After the IceBar, we headed to Broadmeadows Shopping Centre for lunch, and then I dropped Chris off at the airport before heading to my hotel for the afternoon and evening. Thanks Chris for a great week with many different cuisines and experiences! I had a thoroughly enjoyable week.

Over the next day, I shall be travelling to Alaska. The first leg is Melbourne to Brisbane on QANTAS, then from there to Vancouver, then to Seattle for the final leg to Anchorage. The flights and layovers will take around 25+ hours and so I plan to have a 24 hour break in the hotel to recover from jetlag and get in tune with the times. And then off to further adventure!