After a month spent in the wilderness of New Zealand, our noble (air) stead took us two hours back. We landed in Melbourne – the capital of the Australian state Victoria and the second largest city of Australia with almost a fifth of the whole country’s population calling it home. Some time ago, Melbourne also used to be the capital of the whole country before Canberra took this place. There is a lot of world class business, entertainment, sports and culture happening in the city and it’s been consistently ranked among the best places to live. Moreover, it should have the best coffee culture globally. At least we’ve read it somewhere. This sounds pretty good, right?
What we did here
This overachieving city was the first stop of our Australian adventure. Even though the beginning didn’t look very adventurous with Mia being sick (that cold water during the Black Water Rafting in a cave in Waitomo!). So we had to skip the planned trip to the main attraction around – the Great Ocean Road and couldn’t visit small penguins on Phillip Island which we really did look forward to. But well, going on a trip with a fever isn’t fun either (and we can keep it as yet another reason to come back). However, despite that unpleasant situation, in the end we were able to have a look at the city and enjoy its streets a bit.
Getting a big picture
As the first thing we did after Mia felt a bit better was finding the highest tower in the city, getting up there and taking a good look at where we are and how it looks from above. It’s becoming almost a tradition by now. When we were in Melbourne, the Eureka Tower in Southbank was the place to go. However, just a few months later (since November 2019) the highest building around is Australia 108. Talk about reasons to come back!
From above, Melbourne seems like a nice and well organised city with lots of green, a bunch of interesting buildings such as spiky Arts Centre Melbourne, Shrine of Remembrance in Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne Cricket Ground or Olympic Park as well as Yarra river flowing through the city center. And we all know that a river in the city is always a good idea :)
Wandering through the streets
After getting a glimpse of the city from above we went to explore it by foot. We walked along the Southbank promenade, danced with some ballerinas in front of the Arts Centre, saw the Federation Square, visited the Queen Victoria Market (top view of the downtown from here) and got lost in the streets full of street art and cozy cafes. You can find a lot of useful information about these and many more places, tips and actual events here.
We also used our proximity to the free tram zone and explored the Docklands waterfront with a lot of modern buildings and art pieces and nice views of the marina.
The city is so international, so colorful, so friendly. No surprise so many people want to live here. We really like it and hopefully will come back to taste it a bit more soon :)
Visiting colorful bathing boxes
Not so far from the city center, only half an hour by local Sandringham line train from the Flinders Street Railway Station, there is a small town called Brighton with a beautiful beach overlooking Melbourne full of colorful bathing boxes. There should be 82 of them but we somehow found more of them (with some more being renovated/built). Some of them were super cool and in the golden hour looked quite impressive.
We’d be very surprised if you haven’t heard about this beach though, as it is pretty popular and there were droves of people selfieying (only at the side closer to the public transportation / parking lot though, so if you walk along the beach for a few minutes you can have the tiny house cottages for yourself).
How to get around
We arrived from Auckland to Melbourne’s Tullamarine Airport, the second busiest airport in Australia, serving international and domestic flights almost everywhere. It’s just half an hour from the Melbourne CBD and there are several options on how to come there, have a look here. Or you can easily use Uber, up to you.
Melbourne has great public transportation. Metro trains get you across the city and beyond (e.g. the Brighton, as we wrote above) and in addition to the extensive network of those trains, there are also buses and trams snaking through the city making it easy and comfortable to explore Melbourne in different directions. You can use the free City Circle Tram or check the free tram zone in Melbourne’s CBD and Docklands.
As for the tickets for exploring the parts of the city outside the free tram zone or the suburbs you need a myki card or you can buy your myki Explorer card.
Where did we stay
There are a ton of options for staying in the city, from cheaper hostels to top hotels or apartments. We stayed for five nights in Space Hotel Melbourne located very conveniently close to the State Library and the free tram zone. It was a great option in our situation, since the hotel room was spacey and the bed was very comfy. The hotel also has a huge kitchen with a terrace, laundry and some working lounges and play rooms. And the price was reasonable. So all in all, very good value.
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