Ashes, it's only a poxy little urn! Whatever!! - Melbourne & Sydney

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Melbourne is famous for it's weather unpredicatability, however we were completely caught unaware arriving from 34 degree Cairns to a freezing 8 degrees. As soon as the backpacks were off the carasel Elaine was changing from a short skirt and vest to jeans and hoodie. Fortunately the next day the heat was back into the high twenties.

Being the smaller of the two cities, Melbourne has invented itself as the supercool alternative to Sydney. Clean, modern architecture, cafe culture, sports orientated, hip shopping, beachside dining and a refreshing lack of scallies. We spent time walking the markets, the southbank and docklands area, we even recovered from a hangover to watch Victoria play Tasmania in the MCG. We visited uber-cool Brunswick street, even cooler Chapel Street, dined in the Italian district took in the sea air at St Kildas, the list of really cool things was just endless.

In Melbourne we also caught up with an old work friend, Felix, who treated us out to an amazing seafood meal, provided us with a bed, let us wash our clothes and even roped her flatmate into cooking a fantastic BBQ (cheers Felix).

We finished off Melbourne by hiring a car to see the Great Ocean Drive. We overnighted in Port Fairy which was lovely despite an errie fog decending when we arrived. We took in the main sights like the famous 12 apostles and headed to the airport to catch a flight to Sydney. Ballsup, we messed up our dates and ended missing our flight by 24 hours, fortunately it's probably the cheapest and most frequent flight we have had so an hour later we are booked on another flight and are on our way!

Sydney differs from Melbourne, it's big and brash, more densely populated and has a bigger city feel. The Opera house and Bridge are amazing, Darling Harbour is a cool place to relax (and watch the ashes on giant screens). We head to the famous Bondi to join the masses people watching or posing, whichever your poison! We walk to the more relaxed Coogee beach and also take a ferry and visit Manley beach. We ruin ourselves drinking in the day watching the Ashes and through the night watching the back to back footy games and stroll down to the fish markets at 5am out of our skulls, oh dear! Thankfully we arrived before even the fishermen.

So Sydney or Melbourne? Sydney has the beaches, the diversity found in big cities; Melbourne has an assumed coolness, more space, less hassles. I think overall Melbourne just wins out. Well, maybe!

We've had an amazing time in Oz, what we've seen has been stunning and we appreciate it's just the tip of a very large beautiful iceburg. Our experience of Ozzy culture has been very different to the perception as 'fun loving and relaxed'. Interestingly, we found Oz too much of a nanny state, every ego boosted Ozzy male eager to say 'no' and back it up with a rule. Oz isn't as cutting edge as the UK, last years fashions and mullet hairstyles are a case in point. They may stuff us at most sports but I take satisfaction that brittania is definately a cooler, more progressive place to live! I didn't think I'd say that before I came. The beauty of travelling I guess!

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Comments

[Anon]

When...
are you coming home Paul? You said you were just going out to the chippy, but you have been gone ages!

[Paul Barker]

Envious of Farnborough
Paul, wow. I did oz 20 years ago (showing my age), but am just sooo envious. Mind you, the first test was painful enough here, let alone there. Great to keep up with your travels.