Why life is better in Melbourne

War Memorial
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Melbourne is located in the state of Victoria and is Australia's second largest city with 3.7 million inhabitants. Like all other main settlements in Australia, Melbourne directly borders the ocean. So what is it what makes Melbourne so special? I would say it's the combination of natural assets, the cultural diversity and laid back friendliness of its inhabitants as well as the never ending amount of things to do. Hey and guess what. Melbourne does even have a number of decent beaches close to the city centre. The further down you drive to each side of the Port Phillip Bay the better the beaches get. Melbourne is also highly marketed as Australia's event and sports capital. And you really get the feeling that there is always an event going on that draws the attention to the city. In less than four months Melbourne hosted world-class tennis, the Formula One Grand Prix, the Commonwealth Games, the Australian Football League Grand Final and the well known comedy festival. The central location in the city centre, Federation Square, hosts some form of event or meeting almost on a daily basis.

Melbourne Skyline View from the Langham Hotel
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All of Melbourne's inner city suburbs are cultural hubs on their own. The Lygon Street in Carlton is famous for it's numerous Italian eateries. The Chapel Street in South Yarra is the playground for muscle cars and weekend pimps at night and extensive shopping outings during the day. The Brunswick Street in Fitzroy is more alternative with many ethnic restaurants and live music venues. The Docklands are relatively recent waterfront developments in the west of the CBD and combine residental properties with numerous stylish bars and restaurants. St.Kilda today enjoys a resurgence after being the hangout for prostitues and druggies for years. It is located right on the bay and the reopened St.Kilda Sea Baths are a mixture of sports complex and food venues. Port Melbourne is the port, where the Spirit of Tasmania ferry anchors as well as recently international cruise ships, and has a number of excellent restaurants nearby. Beacon Cove, directly adjacent, is a small residental area with picture-book perfect houses, that always reminded me on the artificial world of the movie Truman Show.

Melbourne Skyline View from the Crown Casino
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I remember when I was telling everyone I would go to Melbourne for a year, everybody told me how lucky I was: I would have one year of sunshine, beaches and outdoor activities. Well this might be true for many other places in Australia; but not exactly Melbourne. Generally spoken, the weather in Melbourne is quite similar to northern european conditions. There is a clear distinction between the four different seasons, but luckily without snow in the winter. Nevertheless the term Melbourne weather has a meaning of its own. After we arrived in Melbourne we have been told that quite frequently there can be four seasons within a single day. And I can tell you after a year. It' so true. Sometimes you get up in the morning and it's freezing cold and it rains hard and once you leave the house an hour later the sun comes out and it might get really hot. But no matter how disturbing the weather will be, Melbournians will never stop wearing their flip-flops and shorts. 

Port Phillip Bay View from the Rialto Tower
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Aussie Rules Football is the typical Australian sport. For us non Australians it looks like a combination of soccer and American Football without pads. Melbournians just love their Footy and unsurprising almost half of all the league's teams are Melbourne based. It seems that everybody, men, women and even kids are supporting a team and can tell you a thing about Footy. We should have become Essendon Bombers supporters at the end of the year, as our neighbour in Toorak, James Hird, is one of the all-time greats of this sport.  I have watched a couple of games life in the stadium and really got fascinated by the dynamism and power of this amazing game. Nevertheless the atmosphere in the stadium is not comparable to any major European soccer venues and Aussis are just not capable of creating a similar acoustic hype.  

City Centre next to the Parliament
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What I consider really fascinating is a phenomenon which can probably be discovered in all of Australia's larger cities. Once you drive for a while and leave the metropolitan area, the landscape suddenly changes, houses and cars become less and you will be reminded, how gigantic Australia's land mass really is and that all major developments are located either directly or nearby the coast.