Melbourne is the second biggest city in Australia and has lots of things to offer. It promotes itself as being the most liveable city in the world and after experiencing it we see why.
But our purpose of visit was completely different – Australian open. How did this look like? We got to our hostel, asked for wi-fi password, sat down in the lobby, pulled out our credit cards and computers, checked for tickets and bought some for the next day.
Our first full day was reserved for AUS open. A quick breakfast with delicious coffee (did we tell you that Australia has THE best coffee, and that Melbourne and Sydney are actually kind of competing in who has the better coffee?) and we headed straight to Rod Laver Arena. We watched three matches so you can imagine how much time we spent there. In the evening we went straight to our cozy bed in Melbourne Central YHA.
The remaining days we enjoyed the city:
Carlton Brewhouse
We went on a brewery tour with our Canadian friends for some serious beer tasting. First we had to put on a safety vest and went into the brewery, no photos allowed. The tour was like any other brewery tour, but here they showed us the bottling and labelling process where you can see with your own eyes how many beer bottles are produced in one second, a lot. 😀
Fitzroy
This neighbourhood outside the centre has many cafes and restaurants and was on our way back to the city from the brewery. A great place to have lunch.
Eureka Skydeck 88
The tallest building on southern hemisphere (at least that´s what their web page says) with its observation deck on the 88th floor is a great way to see Melbourne. The views are just amazing. You´ll see the Olympic Boulevard with all the stadiums (also all AUS open arenas), the entire downtown around Yarra and the ocean view invites to some daydreaming. Visit the Skydeck in the late afternoon and stay until sunset. Doing so you get to see two completely different faces of Melbourne, the normal one and the romantic one. Because we also did something similar in Sydney we have to say Eureka in Melbourne is a lot better. One point for Melbourne in their “healthy” rivalry. 🙂
Walk along the Yarra
The walk from Princess Bridge to Charles Grounds is incredible – full of cafes, restaurants, nice hotels, malls and at the end of the walk a fashion outlet. The Skyline also changes constantly because you see it from different angles.
DFO South wharf
This is the outlet we mentioned before. Stores like Billabong, Rip Curl, Hurley, Quicksilver, Roxy, Nike, Adidas and others have amazing prices and “must have” discounts.
Tennis watching on Federation Square
Although there were many big screens with tennis we preferred the one on Federation Square. We were never lucky enough (or early enough) to get chairs, but it´s normal for people to sit on the ground.
Small back alleys around Flinders and Collins Street
Exploring the back alleys was fun, because of Melbourne´s incredibly lively café culture.
The question remains? Who has better coffee? Melbourne or Sydney? We decided that we have to go back and visit both of them again just to find that out. 😉
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