Once I had satisfied my appetite at the Queen Vic markets it was time to move on to Melbourne’s indie heartland of Fitzroy.
The walk takes me through the Carlton gardens, home to the world heritage listed Royal Exhibition Building.

The IMAX and Melbourne museum next door provide a great architectural juxtaposition.

I wander up George street where I stumble across Pamela Bakes garage store Page Two, an eclectic treasure trove of second hand books with a bit of vintage jewelry thrown into the mix. I could have spent hours in this place. The books are in great condition and include rare, out of print titles. There’s not much Pam doesn’t know about books, so ask her!

I briefly visit the Centre for Contemporary Photography further down George Street. Works by NZ’s Yvonne Todd give business portraits new perspective in Wall of Man while Nicholas Mangan’s Some Kind of Duration uses a burnt out photocopier, projected images and industrial sounds to represent the demolition of the Pyrmont incinerator in Sydney

I continue on to Smith Street where I browse through Memorabilia on Smith, a shop packed to the rafters with just about anything you would want to hoard: figurines, comics, badges, signs, dolls, a large collection of football memorabilia and a set of laughing clowns (the type you feed with ping pong balls at a fair). I think just about anything you would hope to unearth would be found somewhere in this collection.

Next stop is at Monsieur Truffe Choclats fins in Smith Street for a chocolate fix of almond clusters with a hot chocolate chaser.

The walk back to town took in the lovely Fiztroy Gardens and the Treasury Gardens.