Since we have been here we've done so much, so many different types of things. This is a brief review of life in Melbourne from the perceptions of a visiting Pom and a Yank. If you're a back-packer this probably won't be of much help to you, but it may at least provide some insight into what you can expect when you visit Melbourne and Victoria.

Victoria
Victoria seems to me, to be the 'forgotten' state - I mean everyone knows about Sydney and that it's in New South Wales - home of Botany Bay, and the Sydney Opera House; Uluru and the Red Centre in the Northern Territory; Cold and wuthering Tasmania, where environmental battles have been fought and won, Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef - but no one really knows much about Victoria or Melbourne.

Victoria is one of the smallest states, but it's still the size of Great Britain. It is a 10 or 11 hour drive to get to Sydney, but people do it in a weekend. The climate here is warm temperate, but much more like the UK than I thought it would be. Everyone's image of Australia is either desert/outback with searing heat, or the beach! I was shocked when we arrived here last spring to find flowers that only bloom in the summer in Britain, flowering in the equivalent of our March, such as roses, and geraniums.

Having said this I have been assured that it can get cold here in the winter, though I didn't see any evidence of that this winter which was apparently, unusually mild. It does snow in the High Country, and you can ski, but the season is very short. There are small pockets of temperate rainforest, such as in the Otways to the west, and Tarra Bulga National Park in the Strzelecki ranges, east. Then up in the North West Corner, near Mildura you are bordering on desert. Down here in Melbourne, next to Hobart (Taz.), we usually have the lowest temperatures in the country. And a phrase that you will hear over and over again when you are here, until you go insane is: Melbourne's weather is four seasons in one day! AAAAAAHHHH! I haven't found this to be particularly true, except maybe in spring which seems to be the most changeable and unpredictable of the seasons.

Something I do find strange is that while there are only 8 states/territories, each one only has one major city. These states are enormous. I mean Western Australia is huge - it is 5 times the size of Texas, and it only has one city, down in it's south west corner, Perth. It is so hard to grasp the concept of all that space with so little in it!

Anyway, to get back to our 'home town'...Before we came out here, everyone said that Melbourne is the cultural capital of Australia, while Sydney is meant to be the 'happening' city (what many people mistake as the country's capital). After we'd been here for a while we met a girl from the UK who had been in Oz for 8 years, both in Sydney and Melbourne - she described Melbourne as a 'big country town'. Indeed it does have that kind of feel to it. It is big, I mean HUGE, it seems to sprawl and sprawl for miles. We live pretty close to the city centre and it takes us about an hour to get out of the city whichever way we go - unless you count ending up in Port Philip Bay!

Brighton Beach

One of the main things that struck me about Melbourne is how green it is, there are parks and 'reserves' everywhere, lots of tree lined avenues, and 'nature strips'. There is always some little nook where you can escape to a little piece of grass, if you need to get in touch with the earth! It is quite a flat city, apart from the great big hill that we happen to live on - perhaps gently undulating would be a better word. It is built around the shores of a very large bay - Port Philip Bay, so if you want to get to the sea 'proper' (i.e. with waves, so that you can surf) again you have to drive about an hour either east or west.

Getting back to the cultural bit: Melbourne prides itself on it's arts. There always seems to be some kind of festival going on, whether it be The Melbourne Festival itself, the more wacky Fringe festival, (both Oct/Nov), Comedy (March) Moomba, and other multicultural events. Then there's the little local ones, like Chapel St. and Lygon St.

Theatres and Cinema
There are plenty of theatres and cinemas - we have 3 cinemas all within walking distance of where we live:
The Longford - a bit of an old-fashioned art house cinema, with one screen. Occasionally they have more mainstream films, like Notting Hill and Mickey Blue Eyes;

The Como - a more up market version of the Longford (well, it is on the corner of Toorak and Chapel, a couple of the poshest streets in the city!); and

The Jam Factory - a 10 screen cinema with more mainstream, Hollywood type stuff. But they also have, for the more discerning cinema goer, Cinema Europa, which again shows more arty things. For those with a palette extending beyond popcorn and hotdogs, you can take in coffee and yummy chocolate brownies instead of the usual movie fare. For the even more discerning among us - those with lots of cash, the Gold Class offers reclining seats, enormous armchairs that tilt right back, and the chance to enjoy a meal with a glass of sparkling wine, while watching the film. We go to the cinema regularly - perhaps every 10 days or so, depending on the releases.

There are many theatres too, most notably that at the Melbourne Art Centre, a very distinctive building which people either love or hate. It has a tall tower that is lit up at night with blue lights moving up and down - hard to describe. It is renowned for looking very phallic. We have been to a few events there, a play and an opera. There are several theatres in and around Collins St. which we have also been to. There is certainly no shortage of arts events to keep you occupied.

Angel Sculpture

As for art art, the National Gallery of Victoria is at the moment in the process of moving half of its collection to a new building on Russell St. Having been to several of the great galleries in London, this was not too exciting for me. But I did go to an excellent exhibition of the work of Emily Kame Kngwarreye, an Aboriginal lady who did not start painting till she was 66 or thereabouts, and now her work is priceless. There are many private galleries around the city too. But I'm afraid Melbourne just can't compete with London.

Shopping
Two other great passions in Melbourne: shopping and eating out. Melbournians seem to pride themselves on their fashion sense. For a completely unfashionable person to comment on this is very difficult except to say that "there are more colours in the spectrum than BLACK!" But this is an old bone of contention. Melbournians think it's chic and sophisticated to dress all in black. I think it is dull, lacks imagination and any expression of personality - but hey, isn't that what fashion is about, being part of the crowd?!?

Anyway, Chapel St and Toorak are two of the main designer shop streets, with locals like Jane Lamerton and Christopher Kronus. There are also quite a few factory outlets around, one area being Bridge Road in Richmond. Then there are various malls around the city. Our closest is Chadstone, which has pretty much everything if you like malls. Of course, there are lots of shops in the city centre or CBD. There is the big mall of Melbourne Central with the infamous Lead Shot Tower and clock that plays Waltzing Matilda on the hour. Between Collins and Burke St. there are also lots of little alley ways or arcades which are fun to wander in and get lost.

Melbournian Art

If you are into more 'ornament' type shopping there are various craft markets, on Sundays down at St. Kilda, along the esplanade and also at South Gate. If you want household goods like beds, lights etc, you just need to drive out of the city on one of the main highways and you'll find all the big warehouses, like Forty Winks, Harvey Norman's and Sidney's Bedding and lounges, or for air conditioning go to the Weather shop! Some people may be relieved to know that there are several Ikea stores here too, as well as Freedom, which is sort of it's Aussie equivalent.

One of our favourite shops is Ray's Tent City where we buy our camping and travelling gear and cheap 'cargo' pants! They do great sales with 20% off everything. You can get Blundstones, the Great Aussie boot, really cheap. Who needs Country Road anyway?? (sort of equivalent to Next in the UK).

Eating Out
On to eating: or more commonly occurring - chatting and drinking café lattés in sidewalk cafes. This is a major Melbournian past time: whiling away the hours conversing with your friends, while consecutively talking on your mobile, wearing sunglasses, dressing in black and drinking some form of adulterated coffee - I like mine 'straight up' - a long black, as they call it here!

There is a wealth of cafes. Just down our road, there must be at least 10 within about 2 blocks! I don't know how they all survive, but I guess there are just enough people out there with time to sit around and drink coffee. Apart from that, some are great restaurants too. You can get any kind of food you can imagine in Melbourne. Not surprising when you think that this nation was founded by immigrants.

Italian is one of my favourites and you get the best pizzas just down our road - it is our Friday night ritual to get pizza from Ticinos, fresh out of the oven, mmmn! Opposite is another Italian, Piazza Novano, where we have often enjoyed delicious pasta, but I do wish they would change the colour of their walls, a horrid acid yellow. There is a new Thai place next to these which we haven't tried and it only got 2 stars in the free Melbourne paper - Inside Melbourne. Further down there is French, Japanese noodle bars, Mexican - we could almost do the whole world in one street!

In other parts of the city there are specific areas for specific tastes. Lygon St. is the Italian area. Little Bourke, in the city, is China town. Brunswick St. in Fitzroy has more veggie, 'grungy' places (which I like); there is a Greek area too. Acland St. in St. Kilda is renowned for it's cakes and pastries, from Eastern European migrants.

For a nice dining experience by the River Yarra, there is Southgate. There are a variety of restaurants, ranging from the super posh like Blakes, which has a nice water front view, to dining for us mere mortals at the Blue Train which has interesting pizzas, noodles, pasta, a real variety. And of course there is the Crown Plaza, which houses the casino, cinemas, designer shops, Planet Hollywood and other more up market restaurants.

If you prefer the sea to rivers, go to St. Kilda and try the Stokehouse which is kind of fun, especially for breakfast on a sunny Sunday morning. You can watch the kamikaze roller bladers along the cycle path, while you tuck into your delicious pancakes with blueberries and maple syrup. And if you're not sick of pizza yet, you can even have it for breakfast here!

An Aussie Pub

Melbourne is also blessed with many pubs, but for me - an ardent pub goer at home, they just aren't the same. Half the fun of pubs at home was the surroundings you were in, old coaching inns, good beer. I just don't find the pubs here as nice, they're more like bars in the US. There are ones that try to capture that 'ye olde English' pub feeling, or more usually, 'ye olde Irish', such as Bridie O' Reilleys, down Chapel St. At least you can get a decent pint in there - though they don't call them pints here either, it's pots or stubbies.

Sports
Well, I suppose I have forgotten to mention another great love of Aussies, in general, and that is sport! Now I am not a keen sports fan really, but the opportunity of seeing it 'live' appeals much more. Of course, here we have the famous MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground) or simply 'The G '. We saw both international cricket here (the Poms getting soundly thrashed by the Aussies, as usual!) and the unique 'Aussie Rules' football.

Melbourne also hosts the Australian Open tennis, which we were also lucky enough to go to earlier this year. Then, of course there is the horse racing, and from what I hear, Victoria is THE horse racing state. It goes on all year, though the big events in the cycle come in the Spring Racing Carnival. The highlight of the Carnival is the Melbourne Cup, amazingly a state holiday! This is a chance for locals to really dress up, go mad and wear some more black! Only kidding! It seems to be more about people watching, being seen, and drinking lots, rather than actually watching the races. We went to Derby day (on the Saturday) and though black was still in the majority, there were a few people who dared to be different.

The Australian F1 Grand Prix has lately moved here from Adelaide and we have the motorbike circuit on Philip Island. Of course, the bay and ocean affords plenty of options for those who like water sports.

This has been a general introduction to Melbourne and Victoria. I hope that it has whet your appetite to find out more and maybe make an extra stop here on your trip to Oz.

Questions?
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