Wisconsin Girl in Perth: March 2012

In December (2011), I finally made my long-awaited trip to the city everyone kept telling me I'd love. Melbourne - which is pronounced "Mel-bin" by these crazy Aussies (why? I still don't know. Jason Bourne would assassinate anyone who tried calling him "Bin") - is known as the cultural capital of Australia. It is the second most populous city after Sydney, and there's a bit of rivalry there going back a long while.

Now before I dive right into all the interesting things about Melbourne, I need to explain why this city fascinated me so much. The average American, having not really researched Australia before, probably has not heard of Melbourne. Sorry Melbourne, but it's true. To most Americans and I dare say a lot of other outsiders, Australia has one major city with a weirdly shaped opera house (which we're not sure if they actually do opera there), and a cool bridge (but not as cool as the San Fran Bridge), that hosts awesome fireworks on New Year's Eve. We watch the Sydney fireworks with the interest of "someday maybe I'll go there", literally HOURS before even getting the beer or showering for our own NYE parties. We think that the Great Barrier Reef is right off the coast of Sydney, that there are kangaroos everywhere, and that the rest of the country is a red desert full of giant insects that will kill us - with three exceptions:

In the middle of the country there is a massive red rock in the desert sort of like Stone Henge.
There must also be a swamp where both Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin taunted crocs and snakes.
We have no idea where or how this is possible in a hot desert, but there is also that mountain that the "Man From Snowy River" rode down.

So imagine my surprise when I found out that the second biggest city (4.1M) is Melbourne (which still gets a laugh every time I say it wrong), a culturally significant metropolis and the capital of the state of Victoria (there are states in Australia? another thing most Americans don't know.) Melbourne was founded in 1835 by settlers from Tasmania (then called Van Diemen's Land....read more about Tasmania in my next blog). It had a major gold rush in the 1850's that pushed its population over Sydney's, and made it the center of commerce and one of the world's largest and wealthiest cities. The population of Australia TRIPLED during this time. Many settlers came from Europe (notably Ireland) and China to try their hand at finding gold. It was also the seat of government when Australia became federated in 1901, until 1927 (when the capital moved to purpose built Canberra, in an attempt to make both / neither Sydney or Melbourne happy).

It's such a cool and vibrant city that whenever I told anyone at work that I was visiting, they got nervous that I would want to transfer. Then they'd say, "The weather is so crazy there! It's so cold, oh yeah you like cooler weather, you'll like it! It gets all types of weather in just one hour! The coffee is SO much better there! ohh the shopping is great!" It seems like Perth has a bit of a crush on Melbourne. They talk about it way more than, say, Sydney.

I was lucky enough to have a friend from Perth who had recently moved to Melbourne, and she and her roommate were awesome enough to let me crash in their apartment. But first, upon my arrival, we spent the weekend driving along the Great Ocean Road from Melbourne to Lorne. It is a really beautiful drive along the Southern Ocean (and a bit harrowing for the driver who doesn't really get to enjoy the sights).

Along the Great Ocean Road

Great Ocean Road near Lorne

The rest of the week, I explored Melbourne and it lived up to all the hype. Laneways of coffee houses, open air cafes, artwork, trams, shops, shoes, lunches, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Federation Square, Queen Victoria night market, great restaurants, cool places for drinks at night. Melbourne is filled with all these different neighborhoods that each have their own personality (Fitzroy, Richmond, Toorak, Prahan, St Kilda, etc.) I went to the top of the Eureka sky deck (88 stories up) and looked down over the city. I hadn't been in such a tall skyscraper since leaving Chicago. On a beautiful day I took a tram down to St. Kilda to the beach. One day another friend (who moved from Perth - pattern?) and I drove out to the Dandenongs (a low mountain range with beautiful forests of Mountain Ash trees). Back in the city, I walked around the MCG (Melbourne Cricket Grounds), which is by far the most famous stadium in Australia. Both cricket and Aussie Rules Football ("footy") are played there. Melbourne (or Melbs, as people call it), is a major sporting city - cricket, horse racing (the famous Melbourne Cup), the Australian Open, and get this - TEN of the 18 AFL teams are based here. Which, as a Chicagoan for 7 years, I ask - are you crazy? Even the Cubs / White Sox rivalry was enough to cause problems!

Melbourne, overall, was worth the wait and I hope to spend some more time there. Who's in?