Melbourne

So... The plan was to travel around Australia, starting with Melbourne and blog on all the places that I visited. I arrived in Melbourne five months ago now and apart from a couple of day trips in Victoria; a weekend road trip to the Great Ocean Road and the Grampians; plus Christmas/New Years in Sydney, I have rarely left Melbourne.

I have no regrets though, I came to Melbourne and fell in love with the place. I've met amazing people, managed to score an awesome job and generally I've just had a really good time, which is hopefully going to carry on for a few months more before I leave to actually travel in Australia.

Melbourne at Night by Andy Walker

I wanted to post about some of my favourite things about this city that I love so much and for this to kick off some Melbourne related posts- travel stuff and quite a lot of vegetarian food stuff (I have been experiencing the cheap veggie eats all over the city). I have not been taking many photo's, I did not bring my good camera fearing breaking it (rookie error- you need to use your things without fear and taking photo's is something I have really missed doing here). So the photography in this post is a group effort from all the great people I have met in Melbourne, which is mainly from living at The Nunnery for 2 months and meeting a ton of people who passed through there- some who are lasting friends and who I'm sure I will cross paths with in the future.

Jake Mann

Graffiti Art:
As you're casually walking around Melbourne, you will come across a quite a variety of graffiti art adorning the walls of buildings, particularly in little lane ways, like Hosier Lane, where not an inch of wall is exposed. It is really so beautiful and reflection of what a cool arty city that Melbourne is.

Freddy Fuller

Jake Mann

Lane ways & Cafe Culture:
I must have put on about half a stone since being in Melbourne and this is credited to the fantastic food here, especially the amount of great coffee and cake. I love the little interesting lane ways which are full of little cafes and restaurants, they're so interesting and intimate.

Centre Place by J.J.Lum

Federation Square & Flinders Station:
Not everybody agrees that Federation Square is architecturally beautiful, but I disagree, I really like to contrast of it next the older buildings around it like Flinders Station. Federation Square is a brilliant meeting space, day or night it is filled with people. It also hosts a ton of free events, from festivals; to meditation and yoga classes; as well as free film screenings. I have had any happy times here and love on a sunny day just to sit in one of the deck chair, reading a book, watching the world go by.


St Kilda Beach:
Maybe not the most beautiful beach in Australia, but it's good enough for me! I love that in addition to having a brilliant city, that St Kilda beach is only a 20-30 minute tram ride away from the city centre and it also has a cool bar scene. Another little special thing about St Kilda- at dusk at the end of the pier you can so see cute little penguins coming home from a days fishing (and also a few water rats if that takes your fancy!)

  
A big thank you to everyone who helped me out with photos!!