Autumn in Melbourne

Federation square

Melbourne is one of the prettiest cities I've visited. The central area is small enough to be walked easily, the streets are easy to navigate, it's clean and has lots of greenery. The city is very friendly to tourists with a free hop-on/hop-off sightseeing bus, lots of information and brochures and last but not least, the local language is English, making it super easy to get around.

Shopping center, built around a historical tower

It's autumn now in the Southern Hemisphere so the weather is getting cooler, the leaves are falling and it was raining. Nevertheless, I managed to visit the major sights. It's obvious that Melbourne is full of immigrants. There are Chinese, Italian and Greek neighborhoods. The markets and shopping centers offer food from all over the world. I was surprised to discover that you can buy Slovenian sausages at the market where they call them European Kransky. There was also Radenska mineral water and Gea pumpkin seed oil.

After four months of traveling through Asia, I was really tired of eating rice and stir fried food most of the time. In Melbourne, I can walk over to the Italian neighborhood and have all the delicious salad and focaccia I want and still adhere to my belief that I should eat local food when I travel.

Melbourne Cricket Ground

Another aspect of Melbourne is sports related facilities. They host the Australian Open tennis grand slam tournament as well as the Australian Grand Prix Formula 1 race. This year, the Formula 1 season debuts in Melbourne on March 17th and the area around Albert Park is already roped off.

They have the Melbourne Cricket Ground, home of probably the oldest sports team in the world, the Melbourne Cricket Club. In addition to cricket, the stadium also hosts Australian Football League matches.

Rowing on the Yarra river

Among other sports, I noticed rowing activity on the river, there are bicycle paths with bicycles for hire, there are numerous swimming pools, joggers on the sidewalks and probably much more.