First: the free stuff. There’s the City Circle tram, which goes in a big loop all around the city, and guess what, it’s free. Then there’s the tourist shuttle bus, which goes from Richmond to the Arts Centre and throughout the city, and guess what, that is also free. And if that was not enough, there are tourist helpers on Swanston Street with red caps and shirts and maps in case you get lost. Oh and don’t forget the tourist information substation on Bourke Street. It’s as if the city were designed to make life easier as a tourist.
Then there’s Fed Square with its outdoorsy space and lots of free summer festivals and entertainment (Slow Food, Food and Wine, Thai, Moomba Water Parade, etc) and the tourist information center, which has, wait for it, FREE information on everything going on in town – you couldn’t be bored living here.
Let’s add to that the fact that the CBD is a grid, with easy-to-remember order of streets (King, William, Queen, Elizabeth) – could it get any easier? There’s the half price tickets booth on Swanston Street for same-day bargain theatre. Vegetarian food is everywhere. Good food is everywhere, of every variety. Some of the foods I thought I’d miss when I left Southeast Asia are right around the corner. Then there’s Ackland Street for cake shops, Lygon Street for all things Italian, need I go on? Suzuki Night Market, and Victoria market with a plethora of food and produce and cheap souvenirs and clothes, and any and everything you could imagine.
Oh, and I can’t forget about my favourite bridge, connecting Richmond to the CBD. It has these speakers that play spoken stories or songs from each of the 53 Commonwealth countries. These stories or songs all overlap each other, and make for a nice, distracting, arty walk in to the city. Oh and of course there’s city art and sculpture everywhere in the city.
There are bike paths everywhere, CLEAN public toilets everywhere, water fountains everywhere, it just keeps getting better. And let’s not forget the Royal Botanical Gardens, the perfect picnic spot, or just a place to chill out on a nice summer day. Oh how I love those gardens.
I mean okay Melbourne is not perfect, it’s getting expensive, the real estate is crazier expensive, there are some drunken brawlers in the CBD at night which is getting the police all worked up (justifiably so), and strangely, people don’t really smile or say hello when they pass you on the foot paths, and yes, I have been run over by city people trying to pass me on the street.
But for the most part, damn I love this place. If anyone can find a rival to this fabulous city, I’d like to hear it…
0 comments:
Post a Comment