We love Melbourne! It reminded us a lot of Chicago from the CBD to the great restaurants, bars, neighborhoods, music, sports, river, beach, architecture…Many reasons why Melbourne has been voted as the most livable city  in the world by the Economist magazine.

We spent three weeks in this terrific city, lodging in South Yarra, a trendy neighborhood with old and new.  Old and new architecture, high rises and old Victorians, dozens of all types of restaurants, shopping (not our cup of tea) both boutique and elite chain.  One excellent restaurant we experienced was Two Wrongs on Chapel Street, where fine dining meets “dive bar” aesthetics.  We enjoyed the innovative menu and the time talking to the partners that started the restaurant.  They shared their story and some good suggestions on Melbourne restaurants, bars and neighborhoods.  One local establishment suggested was Leonards House of Love  which was a fun, more local pub tucked just down a side street off Chapel Street.  We enjoyed hanging out here a couple of nights talking with their great bar staff including a few Kiwis, Conner, Jack, and Steel.  We had fun exploring up and down Chapel Street from South Yarra to Prahran.

During our stay, we also managed to hear some good music and sample some craft beer.  It happened to be Good Beer Week, with craft beer from Australia and around the world.  There were great events scattered throughout bars and restaurants across Melbourne with great events for an entire week.  We attended Blues and Brews at The Catfish in Fitzroy which featured a seven piece Blues Brother band.  They did a fantastic job with the music.  Afterward, we went out with a couple blokes to a late night souvlaki restaurant that made for an interesting evening with some locals!

We have found that Sunday afternoons in New Zealand and Australia are routine times when folks relax, sip a drink and listen to live music.  We had the chance to participate at a small bar in Fitzroy,  Labour in Vain .  We heard a terrific rockabilly band, Firebird Trio, that reminded us of Elvis 50’s era music…great blues overall!  Just as we were thinking this they started playing a great rendition of Hound Dog.  After the music we were off to the Standard Hotel to hear a bit of 70s-80s cover music and get a bite to eat.

Another pub/restaurant we visited a couple of times was The Imperial.  It is a great place to people watch with large open front windows for watching sights and sounds on Chapel Street.  They also have decent pizza, some good apps and a very good rump steak.  We met a young lady in her 20s from Scotland working here, who has set off on an early life adventure.  I could understand about every 10th word from this charming young lady with the beautiful strong Scottish accent.

A place right around the corner from us, Hunky Dory Fish and Chips, is a great for seafood, dine in or takeaway.  They had great grilled fish and a seafood skewer with shrimp, calamari, fish and scallops.  They also had a great young lady, Sam, working there in her early 20s, from Tampa!  Sam has been traveling the world the last year or so, spent one year teaching young kids in Thailand, now in Australia for a bit and heading to New Zealand for the spring around October. She has a nice blog started that some younger folks might like about making a sea-change and taking off on a new life adventure.

Right across the street from us, was a Woolworth’s grocery.  This was like having our own kitchen pantry!  We visited there about once a day!  They had decent sushi. I also loved diving into one of the many sushi to go shops in the city for a salmon roll.  We made it one morning to the Queen Victoria Market, a great outdoor market for fresh produce, fish, meats, and restaurants.  I sampled a turkish Borek for lunch from The Borek Shop…delicious!

Our gym we joined was right across the street, as well.  This was a good incentive and we ended up going every other day for three weeks.  Tracey is buffing up!

We loved exploring the city by tram, light rail and walking.  We did the “free walking tour” of the city which started at the State Library of Victoria, an enormous library-museum, filled with hundreds of people everyday using the great spaces and free high speed internet – some of the best internet we have had in either Australia or New Zealand!  (There goes the theory we had about the problem possibly being a little tiny trans-pacific cable connecting Australia and New Zealand to the rest of the world).  We spent several afternoons in the library and viewing its “museum” aspects.  They had a good exhibit of Ned Kelly, Australia’s very own 1800s outlaw gangster that some see as Australia’s equivalent of Robin Hood.  The exhibit included his homemade armor suit he built and wore to evade flying bullets from law enforcement.  Now I see where nine out of ten men from Melbourne get their hair style.  I call it the “Ned Kelly look”.  Short hair on the sides, bit bushy on the top and a fairly bushy beard.  I have seen this look on one of my nephews with this style the last few years!

Our walk continued through a city park, of which there are several.  The Carlton Gardens and Royal Exhibition Building are beautiful.  The Building became the first building in Australia to be awarded UNESCO World Heritage status.  It was built to host the Melbourne International Exhibition in 1880-1881 and later hosted the first Parliament of Australia in 1901.

The walk took us through Chinatown and the wonderful laneways and arcades of the CBD.  The laneways dating back to the Victorian era contain many narrow streets filled with cafes, shops, small bars and urban art… a wonderful place to hang out and people watch!  AC/DC Lane is a notable urban-art filled laneway named after the band with Australian origins.

Beautiful Flinders Street railway station  on the Yarra River is one of the cities most recognizable landmarks, stretching two city blocks is the central hub for the Metro rail system, one that we went through regularly during our city travels.  It is the busiest railway system in Australia.  It has a row of clocks outside that are famous as a meeting place, hence the phrase, “meet me at the clocks”. The clocks indicate the timetable for departure trains for each line.  There was an attempt to replace these clocks with a digital variety in 1983 but the decision was reversed in one day after public outcry!

Federation Square is across from Flinders Station.  This is a large square, home to some unique buildings.  So unique in fact that it was voted as the worlds “fifth ugliest” by Virtual Tourist in 2009.  The square is home to a few museums, shops, restaurants, a theater and an outdoor stage that has many city cultural events throughout the year.  We attended the Malaysian Festival and a celebration of Buddha’s birthday at the square.

The Australian Centre for the Moving Image (AMCI) at Federation Square was hosting an impressive Scorsese exhibit.  We spent nearly three hours studying much of the history, great films and memorabilia, much of which Scorsese himself provided for the exhibit.
Crossing the Yarra River over the beautiful Princes Bridge built in 1888 brings you to the Melbourne Arts Precinct including the “Spire” and a good view of the Eureka Tower .  It is 97 stories above ground and one of the tallest residential buildings in the world.  The Tower is named after the “Eureka Stockade”, a rebellion during the Victorian gold rush in 1854. The building’s gold crown represents the gold rush and a red stripe represents the bloody revolt.  The other blue and white lines represent the Stockade flag.

Proceeding a bit further brings you to the Queen Victoria’s Memorial Garden and to the impressive Shrine of Remembrance war memorial.  The eternal flame and cenotaph were added after WWII.  The flame has been burning since it was dedicated and lit in 1954 by Queen Elizabeth II.

Not a very far walk from the memorials are the Melbourne Royal Botanic Gardens.  The gardens are 94 acres and have over 10,000 species!  We took an afternoon to explore these gardens.  Even as we begin to enter the winter season in the southern hemisphere, there were many beautiful flowers and lots of green.  What a terrific spot to have so close to the CBD!

We made visits to two beach communities.  We took the Metro out to St. Kilda.  We thought about renting bikes and touring down the coast to Brighton Beach…but thought better of it!  Instead we walked along the beach, out to St. Kilda pier and then to the downtown St. Kilda area for lunch.   There is a penguin colony at the end of the pier where you can sometimes see them returning at dusk.  We did not see any as we were there mid day, but did see the Rakali, once known as a “water rat”.  A couple fishermen were playing with the “rat”.  There is also a great view of The Melbourne skyline from the pier!

St. Kilda also has a very old amusement park, Luna Park that opened in 1912.  The Scenic Railway is the oldest continually operating roller coaster in the world.  They also have the Coney Tower that is a replica of the one at Coney Island’s Luna Park.  Next to Luna Park is the Palais Theatre that opened in 1927.  It is an outstanding example of Art Deco architecture. The theatre is now a concert venue.

On our last day in the Melbourne area, we made a visit to Brighton Beach.  There are beautiful homes along the drive.  The Dendy Street Beach in Brighton is known for the colorful Bathing Boxes that have no running water or electric.  They have existed as far back as 1862.  While we were there one sold in the $300,000-400,000 range!

We did not get to a football, rugby or cricket game, but the city has several large arenas including the 100,000 seat capacity MCG (Melbourne Cricket Ground), known locally as “The G” and the largest in the Southern Hemisphere.  No wonder Melbourne has been voted in the past as the world’s number one sports city  with the world’s best venues by the Ultimate Sports City awards in Switzerland!

Much more to explore in Melbourne, even three weeks is not enough.  We loved it and while Sydney gets most of the tourist fanfare, it is a must visit for those travelling to Australia!

And a few more pics!