Federation Square

To say we’re a little sad to leave Melbourne is an understatement. It’s exceeded our expectations in every way. Melbourne is a funky, eclectic and artsy city. The CBD (Central Business District) is always jumping and rest of the city is divided into distinct pockets, each with its own character and vibe (St. Kilda, our base and our obvious favorite!).

I’m not alone in my admiration. When you see rankings of the best places in the world to live, half of the cities are in Australia and Melbourne is is often #1.

In other posts, I’ve talked about Melbourne’s passion for the arts, parks and athletics, its easy-to-navigate transportation network and its schools. I should also mention its beautiful gardens, unique Victorian architecture, the winding Yarra River and a wide street grid with its labyrinth of narrow lane ways (full of restaurants, bars and shops).

The city has over 4 million residents and is truly multi-cultural (over 140 nationalities). They also maintain a strong respect and recognition of their indigenous peoples.

One day, a young boy on the tram told us that Melbourne is “the most boring place ever.” I guess most kids think that about where they live but we found Melbourne anything but dull. During our two month stay, a day never went by when we were at a loss for something to do or when we failed to discover something new.

: Trams conveniently transport people in and out of the CBD

: Trains connect to outlying suburbs

: Flinders Street Station is one of the more iconic train stations.

: Across the street is Federation Square.

: Fed Square is the city’s meeting place, one of the busiest areas of the city.

: In addition to having the main Visitor Center at Fed Square,

: there are a number of museums, restaurants and a giant square where people can gather.

: Remember, when we watched the AFL final here?

: Sometimes you see really cool people on the screen!

: The Center for the Moving Image has a great exhibit on film and the process of making movies.

: I had so much fun playing here!

: One of Australia’s largest, the Melbourne Cricket Grounds is located downtown.

: The Yarra River runs through the city.

: The banks of the river house many restaurants, shops and park areas.

: Several unique bridges criss-cross the river.

: This reminded me of the love locks in Paris.

: Melbourne’s CBD is a mix of new and old.

: St. Paul’s (Anglican) Cathedral sits across the street from Fed Square and Flinders Station.

: Across the river is Melbourne’s Art District with performing and visual art spaces.

: Integrated into the busy city are large green spaces, like Victoria Gardens.

: Off the main streets are lane ways filled with restaurants and shops.

: The pedestrian/tram only Bourke Street Mall.

: The stores here and the nearby old shopping arcades have some of the prettiest Victorian architecture.

: Just north of the CBD, is the Royal Exhibition Building in Carlton Gardens, one of the world’s oldest remaining exhibition pavilions.

: The building housed a world exhibition and is still used for events today.

: Nearby is a church we often attended, the beautiful St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

: Palace Theatre, opening night of Once.

: Carlton’s Lygon Street has many good Italian restaurants.

: The oldest market in Melbourne is South Yarra’s 125-year old Prahan Market.

: In addition to fresh produce, meats and bakeries, they have some wonderful ethnic stalls. We discovered some incredible spicy hummus here!

: Prahan Market is next to one of my favorite little areas, Chapel Street.

: I loved this place and could have spent hours digging for “treasures” if I had any spare space in our suitcases!

: Down a seemingly abandoned alley was this charming little artist market.

: We spent an afternoon at the Hispanic-Latin street festival. Thousands of people eating and dancing – surprisingly enjoying themselves liquor free!

: The Queen Victoria Market is one of Melbourne’s largest and very popular with tourists.

: I really enjoyed the old architecture of the charming Melbourne homes.

: Like everything Melbourne – just lovely!

Australian Football League. Australian Rules. Footy. Before I start, let me say that before I got here, I knew nothing about the game except that a friend asked us to bring him back an Australian Rules football — he plays on a league in Milwaukee! I still don’t much but it’s been impossible to avoid a bit of “footy fever” over the past two weeks. Frank and I watched the semi-finals last weekend to learn a little about the game.

This week, the sidewalks and trams were filled with hundreds of fans sporting scarves with the finalists’ team colors – brown and gold for the Hawthorne (Tasmania) Hawks and red and white (Badger colors!) for the Sydney Swans. Today was the AFL Grand Final or the Australian Super Bowl. The game is held each year at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds, which holds over 100,000 people! For those who don’t know, Australian Rules is kind of a mix between rugby and football. The players wear tight little shorts with no protective gear, the field is huge, the game high-scoring and each team has 18 players on the field at a time. Frank loves that the game is void of video replays and that it keeps moving — when a player is injured, they play around him! I’m sure that’s pretty simplistic for AFL purists but what do you want from someone who makes the game secondary to the color and excitement of the fans?