Melbourne

Melbourne - the capital of Victoria and second-largest city on the continent - is the "other" city in Australia; although if you said that to any Melburnians you'd have another thing coming.  The Melbourne-Sydney rivalry is even more alive than that between Boston and New York.  Even though Sydney always seems to be just one step ahead, Melbourne is widely regarded as the cultural capital of Australia, and is projected to overtake Sydney as the largest city in the next few decades.

For me and Lauren, Melbourne was the starting point for our trip.  After a quick two-hour flight from Brisbane, we landed in the cold.  I'd be told many times that Melbourne is a city that gets four seasons in one day, but as a proud New Englander, I wasn't intimidated.  However, as a New Englander who has become acclimatised to a subtropical surrounding, I promptly put on my layers and whinged when we hit the airport.

The first thing that hit me about Melbourne was the trees.  It's Autumn in Australia, and Melbourne is temperate enough to get a true change of seasons.  After missing two falls at home, my heart melted to see all the reds and oranges, and hear that familiar crunch beneath my feet.

We really only had one afternoon to see Melbourne, so unfortunately we didn't really get a grasp of the city.  One drawcard of the city is its beautiful gardens, which we did walk through.  The city is also famous for its side streets and alleyways, where you need to be in the "in" to know where to go.  I won't pretend to be a trendy Melburnian, but I'm lucky enough to know a few, so Lauren and I had a delicious dinner at a trendy tapas bar that you wouldn't have looked twice at if you had passed the the street.

Although I only got a taste of the "other," I was certainly left wanting more of Melbourne.

Melbourne CBD

Exhibition Hall from the 1880's