Melbourne.

There are good and bad sides to working; the worst one is that you don't get to travel, and the best one is that you get to travel! So we had an opportunity of spending a week in Melbourne for my work, so of course we went! Melbourne was very European, had reasonable public transport (unlike Perth), had a lot of museums and theatres, and had the best cafes and bars. Here's some pictures, and as always, click to view a larger version and copyright my boyfriend.

The Central Business district (CBD) viewed from the South Bank during the day.

The Central Business district (CBD) viewed from the South Bank during the night. The well-lit building at the front is Flinders Street Station.

Another day view of the CBD from South Bank. The tall building on the left, Rialto, had a brand Lui Bar on the 55th floor where we had the pleasure of drinking beer and looking at the city lights.

CBD from 55th floor. Flinders St Station on the right next to the river.

South Bank from 55th floor. Most of this picture is Crown Casino Entertainment Complex which had a Hong Kong / Las Vegas -feel to it inside. In the horizon the lights of St Kilda Pier are visible.

Docklands from 55th floor.


We spent a day off exploring the Botanical Gardens. Not very many of the local plants were flowering in the middle of the winter!

The day was a sunny one, maybe 20C.

After the Botanical Gardens we took a tram to Chapel Street. The tram network in Melbourne is supposedly the most extensive in the world!

Chapel Street area had a lot of elaborate graffiti on the side streets. It also had a lot of small boutique shops, bars and restaurants. I bough a pair of shoes and we enjoyed a Moroccan dinner at Mama Ganoush. We also checked out St Kilda after the sunset, but unsurprisingly the beach esplanade would've been better during a summer's day!

Yet another night-time pic of central Melbs! Beautiful!

On our final day we went to Fitzroy area (Brunswick Sq) which similarly to Chapel St has a lot of cafes, bars and little independent shops. The houses were old yet lovely, and the atmosphere very friendly.


The sidestreets had lots of funky graffiti.

And this dim-lit picture is from my favourite bar/restaurant ever, Naked for Satan. The bar was housed in an old distillery, and derives its name from a secret code for making illegal vodka in the heat of the summer. The bar was decorated with all kinds of lamps (like the bottlecase-lamp shown in the pic) and tasteful pin-up pictures. They served their in-house brewed beer as well as delicious pintxos. I could've sat there for days!

When we were finally in a taxi headed back to the airport, we spotted a full 180-degree double rainbow over Melbourne. What does it mean? I thought to myself. Maybe Melbourne wants us to stay? Or maybe it means that it rains a lot in Melbourne and that the sun shines from a low angle!