Before we left Sydney, we shipped half our luggage (dive gear) on to Brisbane in order to reduce our checked baggage fees for the next few stops of the trip. This also meant we could take the bus/train to the airport instead of a cab (I'm not sure Dessa agrees that this was a benefit) and then bus/tram in Melbourne. The apartment Dessa had booked near Melbourne University turned out to be in a great neighborhood and with easy access to down town via the tram system (more on that later) but it didn’t come with wifi service which as it turns out is quite a problem. The free city wifi we had read about turned out to not be set up to support uploads of hundreds of MB of pictures so we found a restaurant, Jimmy Watsons, around the corner with wifi we could use in exchange for beer, a Coke and appetizers. 2 hours later we had the blog posted but we still couldn’t manage to get all the pictures up on Flikr. Although the wifi was very slow, the food and drinks were very good. Lesson learned - wifi is important.

Our apartment did come with 2 things we could have lived without as we discovered the next morning: a teeny, tiny shower (I could barely turn sideways without knocking the door open) and construction (hammering, drilling, beeping, …), which started like clockwork every morning at 7:30am a mere 15 feet from our window. With that noise making the apartment a less than hospitable environment, we got out early and stayed out most of the day - so much for our hope of a more relaxing laid-back week.

We had read and been told by friendly Aussies that Melbourne was much more of an artsy and foodie delight than Sydney and the Economist has rated it the most livable city on the planet for the past 4 years. For us, Sydney had set a pretty high bar with its iconic landmarks and very walkable CBD. After our first few days in Melbourne, we weren’t particularly impressed. It was definitely eclectic but it also seemed rather grungy. The breakthrough for me came as a result of a bicycle tour we did with Melbourne by Bike. The tour guide, Michelle, did a fantastic job of showing us the sites and helping us understand some of the 'why’ behind Melbourne. The city prides itself on being different, on appealing to the new and setting trends, on being the hidden gem. Still strange to me but helpful.

With this bit of context, it was easier to appreciate Melbourne for itself vs comparing it (unfavorably) to Sydney. Melbourne has classic old buildings residing beside new architecture that is very funky - weird shapes, multiple colors, three-dimensional surfaces. To add to the contrast and in line with the Melbourne culture, graffiti is considered street art and is not only permitted but also encouraged. You can find it everywhere, but most frequently and in highest concentration in narrow lanes and alleys between buildings. This has the advantage of opening up areas for shops and restaurants and bars that wouldn’t be used in most cities. As part of the tour we went down several dead end alleys, which could be considered as colorfully decorated entrance "halls", to be shown a new and hip shop/bar/café. In some cases those alleys included the garbage cans of the stores etc. that opened onto main streets. These garbage cans had also been painted to become part of the art.

The food culture is equally as odd. New restaurants and bars apparently open all the time and take pride in not having any signage. They are discovered by word of mouth or not at all (and apparently it’s the cool thing to be the first to tell your mates about the new place to eat). There are restaurants, cafés and bakeries every few steps but very few are what you would consider fine dining. Plenty were expensive but few were particularly fancy in cuisine or ambience. We ate at several and the food was nothing special (with the exception of Brunetti’s). Our bike tour included lunch at a place called Naked for Satan. Very eclectic interior and its menu consisted of appetizers (miscellaneous things on slices of French bread held together with toothpicks). Each was $1 and you paid at the end by counting up your toothpicks.

Our favorite place to eat in Melbourne was one street over from our apartment. Brunetti's was acknowledged on the tour as a fantastic pastry shop and we couldn’t agree more. We walked over most evenings for some dessert (the Lemon Brule Tart is to die for). We even went there for dinner one night and had lasagna, which was probably the best I’ve ever eaten.

The pinnacle of Melbourne society however has to be their snooty coffee culture. Michelle, our bike tour guide, explained how each tiny coffee cafe would post a sign to let customers know what kind of beans they use. Restaurants will do the same. She said she wouldn’t even eat in a restaurant that used the wrong kind of coffee beans. Like Italians, they drink their coffee very strong. In response to questions from other Americans on the tour, she told us that Starbucks coffee is too weak and not very good and that when she tried Dunkin Donuts coffee on a trip to the US it was so bad she had to spit it out. Just around the corner from Brunetti’s was one of the best coffee shops in Melbourne (in her opinion). It had no outside signage and in fact was simply a window in the wall with no visible shop at all. You placed your order at the window and walked away with your coffee, as they didn’t even have a bench outside to sit on.

We were about a mile and a half from the CBD and several tourist attractions but there is a very good tram service, with a stop almost on our front door, which we used everyday. The tram was expensive at almost $4 per ride but they had a free service within the CBD so we walked into town in the mornings and only really had to pay to use the tram on our trip home.

The tourist information center at Federation Square was great. They had little brochures that were self-guided walks that listed all the points of interest along the walk. We did a couple although we failed to stay on the track (this wasn’t my fault as Dessa was in picture mode and would simply wander away to photograph another flower or bug).

They really are very arts focused. Sculpture, music, museums, painted walls, and gardens abound. Even the way people dress seems to shout "this is my individual expression of art". We visited another the art museum, which did little for me, as it was mostly modern art. I have enough trouble with most modern art but this place took it to an extreme. They had a half of a whole floor dedicated to an “artist” that worked with triangles and squares. One very large wall was used to display several different pieces – each was a large sheet of heavy felt with 2 edges of an isosceles triangle cut into the middle so that the flap of felt hung down. The difference between the pieces was the color of the art. I was inspired. If only I could have found some paper and scissors I would have cut out some snowflakes. I could have made a forture.

The Shrine of Remembrance and the Royal Botanic Gardens however were wonderful. The Shrine was a memorial to all the wars Victorians have fought in including the current war in the Middle East. It was extremely well done. The RBG was extensive and we spent a lot time wandering. Dessa took almost 300 pictures of flowers, bugs and birds the day we were there (don’t worry we haven’t posted them all but several are quite good). There were several other nice parks along the Yarra River, which flows through the middle of town, and the locals clearly spend lots of time in them.

At the State Library (another stop for free Wifi) we found an exhibit of Bohemian Melbourne (how appropriate) and on Ned Kelly. Ned is like the Australian Billy the Kid and has a large cult following in Australian. His claim wasn’t being a fast draw but that he wore iron armor, which he made for himself and his gang out of plows. Once again, I loved reading about the history and Dessa was ready to move on pretty quickly (she did however wait very patiently for me – so I got her an extra treat from Brunetti’s that night).

Music is also a big focus. There were street performers all over, as well as free city staged performances in various venues. One day we sat in Fed Square and watched 3 different performances while lounging in sling chairs provided by the city to encourage people to relax and hang out. On our last day we took the tram to the beach suburb of St Kilda for their music festival. There were probably 100k people enjoying various bands (playing on almost 10 different stages around the area), a beach volleyball tournament and several carnival rides/food stalls.

The weather was a mess swinging from unusually chilly, to really hot, then back to quite chilly with lots of wind and some rain thrown in for good measure. Overall a good visit but we’re sticking with our first impression. Melbourne is best described as artsy grunge, and proudly Bohemian and definitely worth a visit. Time to get a rental car and head along the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide.


As always, higher resolution photos are available on Flikr:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/bill_and_ dessa/sets/

(by the way, all the photos from Sydney are now up on Flikr as well)