Why Melbourne is the BEST city in the world!

I never thought I would find a city to adore - there isn't anything that I hate about it (yet)! Ask anyone and they will tell you that I always find something wrong with a place. Melbourne is just incredible...I don't even know where to begin.

I arrived yesterday (Wed Jan 21) in the morning after an 8 hr bus ride from Canberra. I am staying at the Melbourne International Backpackers near all the action of the city centre. My 3 roomates are great (2 Germans and 1 french). I've noticed a lot of backpackers are young (early 20's or less sometimes) and from either France, Germany, or Korea. The Europeans typically go travelling the world between high school and university. We North Americans are behind in that respect. I wish I had known about this when I was younger but at least I'm doing it now! Anyways, I spent my first day by meeting up with a friend of a friend where we got some drinks at a nice bar by the Yarra River. We sat outside overlooking the river...next to the river was a path with cyclists and runners (and in the river were people rowing race boats -- sculling). After that, I grabbed some Indian vegetarian food and ate that in front of the beautiful State Library.

Today (Thurs Jan 22) I met up with a friend from elementary school! Wow, I would never have guessed that I would see her again after ~20 years in Australia! We walked through Victoria Market before settling on a place to have lunch. We had so much to catch up on over Japanese food.

After lunch, my friend went back to work and I wandered around some more. I went back to Victoria Market....that place is so HUGE that I didn't get to see everything. There were counters selling food from different countries --- french cheeses, polish sausages, etc. There was also seafood, breads, meats, wines, fruits and veggies, souvenirs, etc. The fruits and veggies were inexpensive and the prices tend to decrease rapidly as the day draws to an end. The vendors are so desperate to get rid of their produce that many were selling containers of strawberries for as low as 50 cents each! I bought mine a bit early so I ended up paying 2 for $2.

What else do I love and was surprised to see? FREE public toilets!!! The entrance looks like a New York City subway entrance with an ornamental green barred fence surrounding the steps leading down. Instead of a sign saying "subway" it either says "Ladies" or "Gents". I went down into one and at the bottom of the stairs there were 3 stalls to my left and 2 sinks in the back wall in front of me. There's also a bench to the right in case you're waiting for a friend or a stall. It was pretty clean and didn't smell much. These toilets are scattered all around the city. Amazing. I love it!

I love the multiculturalism in this city -- an perfect mixing of cultures and personalities in 1 place. There seem to be a good even ratio of asians, indians, europeans, aussies. There are also a mix of business people, athletes, punks, skateboarders, etc. Everyone is just co-exisitng in harmony. Even the police are light-hearted --- there were a bunch of police officers directing traffic at an intersection where the lights weren't working. They tried to yell out to a pedestrian to not cross but he ignored them and kept crossing. I was next to the 2 cops who let him go and they just laughed about it.

Because of the great mix of people, there are many types of cuisines to choose from. I am so overwhelmed! Vegetarian, Indian, Chinese, Singaporean, Malaysian, Korean, Japanese, Italian, French, etc. The list just goes on and on and on....

I stumbled upon a small side street resembling a small alleyway (which looks very european). This is called Hardware Lane and along this little stretch were Italian and French restaurants. (There is an Italian district elsewhere which I plan to go to tomorrow).

Transportation is just excellent here too! Whatever modes of transport you can think of, it is here! Let me list them: tram, bus, metro (subway), horse carriages (ok, this one's touristy but it adds charm).

As I walked southwards toward the Yarra River, I passed by the city square. There I saw kids doing trapeze. Funny, all the kids were girls....girls are so much braver than boys. Hahaha. This was a trapeze company that teaches people trapeze. The students had to swing and try to grab the hands of the guy swinging on the other end.

Federation Square is a bigger square with steps going up --- it reminds me of Place-des-Arts in Montreal. With the Australian Open (tennis) being in Melbourne, Federation Square had been converted to "Tennis Square". There is a bigscreen showing the tennis matches and people gather around (sitting or lying down on the ground) to watch for free.

Walking down, I also passed by several musicians on the street. There were jazz musicians as well as a guy playing the bagpipes!

I walked along the Yarra River which splits the city into north and south sides. This stretch is long and has so much going on! On the north bank is that pricey nice bar I went to last night. On both banks are paths for pedestrians, cyclists and joggers. Palm trees line the south bank. The scullers in the river are students from the Melbourne university Boat Club who have their clubhouse further down on the south bank. Closeby is a skateboarder's paradise with graffiti art on the various ramps where teenagers practice jumps on bikes and skateboards. Sitting not too far on the grass were 2 groups of punk teens with dyed hair, piercings and dressed in black. I also saw 2 hippies at one point. There were old people walking around --- again, all types of people together and no one blinks an eye. Walking further down the river, there are BBQ stoves and picnic tables! People using them were: a group of asians, couples having a romantic wine dinner, and a group of aussies playing cricket using eskies (ice coolers) and trash cans as the wickets.

Finally, I ended up at the Botanical Garden and walked through that. There was a live children's performance with actors going on in the children's section. Scattered about are mini shacks where you can sit inside to rest your feet. Some people were just sitting on the benches or grass in front of the ponds with the ducks and black swans. There were 2 girls playing badminton.

When I got out of the Botanical Garden, I walked through more parks. I saw more joggers as well as a big group of young adults celebrating Australia Day early. Everyone was dressed in yellow and green; some wore the flag as capes. Some batting around a cricket bat.

I then walked up the north bank along the river. At the end I saw where the Australian Open is held. Through the trees I could see the courts. I also saw Batman Avenue....yes, Batman. (There was a guy with this last name).

What else is there here? Lots more culture in the form of live theatre, museums and art galleries!

To top it all off, with so much there is to offer you do not have to battle crowds to enjoy them! Everyone is so chill here.

Lunch and Monstrous Flying Creatures!

Last night, I was looking for a bathroom to brush my teeth so I found the one on the top floor unoccupied (I never used that one before). I was in the middle of brushing when I heard something land on the wall in front of me. It was a water bug! Those things are harmless but look like cockroaches. Then I heard another one fly onto the door...and then another one. Three in total that I was aware of. Two of them started to play with each other. I was so skeezed out that as soon as I finished brushing, I ran out of there without even washing my face! Shudder. Gross.

Earlier in the evening, when I went to the hostel kitchen to make a cheese and tomato sandwich, I saw that someone had the audacity to steal most of my cheese! They grated it! At the last hostel I was at, someone stole my Tim Tams! Tim Tams are a popular Aussie chocolate covered biscuit...it's big hit here. Grrr.

Today, I met up with a friend whom I met through IEP. Mariah and I walked around looking for a place to eat when we stumbled upon a cute little Italian cafe. We ordered the tortellini mocadore, which had mushroom, ham, scallions and a cream tomato sauce. We had that with a piece of bread so sop up the sauce. Mmmmm!

Then onwards to the Bontanic Gardens to find those huge bats we had heard about! We walked through the Rain Forest Walk outside when I looked up and saw heaps of bats sleeping up in the trees! They were hanging upside-down with their wings wrapped around their bodies. One of them had awoken and flew up above our path. Then it made noises to his slumbering friends. That thing was HUGE!!!! It's wingspan was about the size of a large seagull! It was so fast, I couldn't capture that on my camera. If we were there at dusk, we would've seen them all fly around. But we don't want to be there when that happens!

After that, we walked over to Chinatown looking for bubble tea (tea with tapioca balls) since Mariah had never tried it. There was a Ten Ren Teahouse so we went there. We couldn't decide what to order since there were so many choices! I tried a tea called Osmanthus which was sweet and apparently popular with the female drinkers and Mariah ordered the green tea ice cream in green tea flavour. That one was delicious!

I have to pack up today for my trip to my first WWOOFing host tomorrow. I will be taking the train ~3 hrs south of Sydney. Yay!