A visit to Melbourne

 

MELBOURNE is the second largest Australian city with a population of around 4million. It's very European in it's way of life, fashion shops, restaurants with outdoor esplanades. The choice of restaurants is mind boggling, I 'm quite sure you would be able to eat typical foods from a different country every day of the month (maybe even more), without having to repeat a single meal.

I was quite lucky to be able to travel to Melbourne quite a few times during the 7 months my husband worked there last year. I called them "My weekend shopping trips".

The clothing shops are quite diverse and of course being a bit of a shoe freak I never came back to Perth without having bought a pair of shoes.

I buy shoes because they look pretty, unfortunately they aren't always comfortable, too high heels, or too tight, well but I still try to wear them when I know I will be sitting down most of the time and I won´t feel the pain...

Women are suckers for pain, aren't we?

The 4 hour flight to from Perth to Melbourne, plus the two hour time difference, would always leave me a bit jet-lagged, but I was always ready for a walk into the city centre, some dinner and late night window shopping. The city never seems to go sleep, there is always music, open bars, late night restaurants, even 24 hour food shopping, something I don´t think exists in Perth. But who wants to buy food at midnight anyway?

Bees - Eureka Tower

Eureka Tower

Night view across river Yarra

In front of the Crown Casino

I was lucky that hubby's company rented him the most wonderful apartment in the city right on the southern banks of the the Yarra river in Southbank, across the road from the Casino and near Melbourne´s highest building, the Eureka Tower - Freshwater Place.

The view from the apartment was amazing, and I loved sitting in the lounge at night in semi darkness while the city lights shone outside. What a wonderful sight!

Sometimes we would go across to the Casino promenade where every night there was an hourly fire show display spewing from granite towers, from 8pm to midnight. On those winter nights I could actually feel the heat!

Well those months flew by and hubby is back home and I'm back to my ground floor view of the park across the road. Not a bad view, quiet but pleasant, with bird sounds and sounds of kids playing after school or during the holidays.

Although I prefer the view from my kitchen window into my succulent garden, but I will leave that for another post!

Freshwater Place, Southbank, where we stayed

Modern pedestrian bridge across river Yarra