I was living with my boyfriend for 10 months on a Working Holiday visa in Melbourne. While I spent some time working, I also had some time to live in the city in a normal way, and got a bit of a feel for Melbourne.
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I have to say about Melbourne is it's very clean, neat, tidy and safe compared to some of the cities I've lived in or visited. A compact, walkable city. Fabulous parks, slightly cheesy and amusing free tram ride around the city for visitors, dry warm weather in the summer, but can certainly be gray and rainy at times, sometimes unexpectedly windy. Melbourne is amusing in the way it advertises itself as having some European aspect like cafes and restaurants, etc. Just my opinion, but while these things are fine, anyone who does any amount of traveling knows you can get them in any big cosmopolitan city in the world and this is not what I personally think makes Melbourne interesting. I think that Melbourne has its own unique charm and doesn't need to compare itself to any other place, but I don't think the city promoters have gotten that yet :) Just check out my personal list of what I thought were favorite things to do or go to, and maybe you will understand.
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Parks!! Go to the amazing parks. My favorite place for my boyfriend and I to go for a romantic picnic was Fitzroy Gardens, but we did go to many others in and around town. Explore the city on foot, and go through and up and down the main grid of streets and anywhere in between: Collins, Bourke, Swanston, etc - check out your city map. All kinds of shops, interesting Victorian buildings scattered here and there. The Melbourne Aquarium was great too. Healesville Sanctuary is a bit away from the town, but full of all those great Australian animals you want to see, in a natural-style setting; Melbourne Zoo is good too. If you can, drive out of town and visit Mornington Peninsula (vineyards, wine-tasting around there, along with great views), or drive out to the Great Ocean Road.
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I really enjoyed my Great Ocean Road trip and seeing the Twelve Apostles rock formations. Just seeing the great ocean views was a breathtaking experience! Living and working in the city, I sort of got used to everything and everyday life, but walking out to the parks for some green time with my boyfriend was wonderful.
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The Mitre Tavern, 5 Bank Place - fun times there with friends for Thursday night trivia. Quaint and hidden away on a cute little street.
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Find and use the latest Cheap Eats guide, and book published by The Age, which is Melbourne's newspaper. There are always inexpensive and really good restaurants opening up (and closing all the time too!!). My boyfriend and I mainly used this guide because we were on a budget, but it was very useful and we managed to eat at a wide variety of ethnic eateries. Lots of locals use this guide, in fact, our friends who are from Melbourne told us about it in the first place!
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Published on Tuesday July 27th, 2004
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9 votes
