Melbourne

Time for a 'fact hunt'.

Melbourne is the capital of Victoria and has traditionally been Sydney's rival for biggest/best city in Australia. It is currently the second most populous city in Australia with just under 5 million people, and by coincidence Victoria is the second most populous state, behind New South Wales. 70% of Victorians live in Melbourne.

When Australia decided it needed a capital city & state, Melbourne and Sydney went at loggerheads to get the vote. The compromise was to build an entirely new city and state, namely Canberra/Australian Capital Territory, which was to be developed half way between the two rival cities. Melbourne was chosen as the interim capital whilst the development took place.

Although some people prefer life in Melbourne to Sydney, it's generally an accepted fact that Sydney has become Australia's main city in the last 50 years or so, particularly with the iconic Harbour Bridge and Opera House. Recent projections suggest that Melbourne might once again overtake Sydney in terms of population in the next 20 years or so.

Melbourne is famous for its changeable weather conditions, as in the song '4 Seasons In One Day'. This is brought about by a combination of the Dandenong Ranges to the east, it's position on the Port Phillip Bay and the flatness of the land, resulting in weather that sometimes circles the city. The result is a tendency for very hot and humid conditions and quite a bit of rain, which isn't really my cup of tea climate-wise. In the summer of 1939 the temperature in Melbourne reached almost 46 degrees. Ouch.

My first impressions of Melbourne are that this would be a great place to live. A nice, compact city centre with parks and attractions around, trams and trains for easy transportation, and a nice cultural atmosphere with cool little bars and restaurants scattered about down the side streets. Unfortunately I'm quite fussy about my weather and I couldn't see myself living in Melbourne long term. There also aren't many beaches about, and the ones that are here are quite small and congested. Just my opinion of course, I can imagine a lot of people would love it here. And it is a very nice place.

As the weather in Melbourne has been miserable the last few days we've spent our time trying to find things to do. This has proved to be more difficult than first anticipated, and has led to a lot of frustration and a few arguments, mostly about which pub we're going to waste the day away in. Apparently Melbourne has more to do than Sydney, however that's really not of much use to someone who hasn't got a clue where anything is. Most things are classified as 'hidden secrets' - great, fantastic, we'll just spend our time walking up and down the streets not finding anything and getting very hungry and thirsty.

Anyway, rant over, the weather has been okay for the last couple of days and we've seen a bit more of the city. On Friday we went to the Australian Open tennis, cheap seats only at $29 - the main Rod Laver tickets were $80 and there weren't any really good matches on - so we settled down and watched some lesser known players in the second/third rounds. I really enjoyed it, decent tennis up close is good viewing, especially the mixed doubles afterwards which was light-hearted and entertaining. We tried to get in to see the Williams sisters in the womens doubles but unfortunately everyone else had the same idea and it was full when we reached the court. Never mind, I thought it was good value for money and the sun even shone for us, which is seemingly a miracle for Melbourne.

Yesterday we went to the Royal Botanical Gardens - very similiar to Sydney's version but without the Opera House and Harbour Bridge in the background - and then went up the Eureka Tower for some dizzy panoramic views of the city. All good stuff. The Edge was fairly harrowing, you step out on the 88th floor and then the glass floor clears below, allowing you to see the ground below.

Today we did the Neighbours tour, our hostel lied to us and said we'd be able to go on Ramsay Street but when we got there they were filming and we had to stay out. We met Karl Kennedy and some kid, which wasn't particularly exciting, and got to watch the Ramsay Street Olympics episode from 1986 on the bus. Does that sound worthy of almost 20 pounds to you? I'll leave you to decide.

In between all of this we've been plotting our trip to Tasmania which starts on the 25th. Five action packed days of adventure, beautiful views and feeding kangaroos and Tasmanian Devils. I can't wait. The weather looks good too, I hope it holds up!! Bye for now, thanks for reading...once again I hope everyone's okay back home, I hear there's been a lot of rain? That sucks, but brings a smile to my face too. Sorry...