Melbourne - The High Life

I wanted to write a really detailed account of my trip to Melbourne, but I've lost the motivation to do that. Well, traveling is always something to look forward to. I'm always up for a change, and new things in my life. Melbourne certainly brought me that :) It was quite an expensive trip (including travel fares, I spent close to $1000 but shhh) I'll post a few pictures and describe the general Melbournian life before I go into my own personal thoughts ..

Camwhoring on the plane to Melbourne! Hong informed me that it had been freezing for the few days that he had been there before me, so I wore a leather jacket and scarf. When I arrived, it was warm and stayed that way. It was only after I left that the weather resumed to its cool state.. Damn I was really looking forward to cold weather.

 Firstly, Melbourne has Asian supermarkets which are 10x the ones we have here in the Gold Coast and Brisbane, and the items are way cheaper too. I guess I was looking forward most to seeing a mini Seoul, but I guess that's really actually Sydney and not Melbourne. A lot of things seemed to be a lot cheaper, including alcohol. One bottle of Soju was only around $5?? It's expensive compared to Korea, but around here I see restaurants selling them for $12+ per bottle.

Melbourne looks absolutely gorgeous at night. Above is a panoramic shot I took from the hotel room I was staying at - we got a view of some of the city, and a great view of the river (which you can't really see well in this shot). *sighs* What a shame the quality of the photo is so bad .. You must believe me, it was just breath-taking.

 Ah, here's the river, along with the fire show they display every night along Southbank.

 

 And Flinder's Street Station. I was so fascinated by how pretty a train station could look.

 

 Random shot of Hong sleeping in a really awkward position on the bed..

 

Another panoramic shot I took .. of THE TEDDY BEAR SHOP. There used to be one at Southport (which recently closed) but you could hardly compare it to this one, which is huge. Yes, I like teddy bears. hehe who doesn't?

Hong on the Panda see-saw machine! I had a go on it too, since it lasted a really long time. Naww doesn't he look cute..

 

 I was lucky enough to catch the 8pm flight back home, which is around when the sun begins to set. I actually witnessed the sun completely set while I was waiting to board/waiting to take off on the plane, and after the plane left the ground and flew above the clouds, I re-witnessed the sun set from a different angle. How beautiful! Speaking of planes, I somehow managed to be the only person on my flights to and from Melbourne with a whole row to themself =D So naturally, I chose the window seat on both flights teehehe.

Okay so I did take a lot more photos (especially polaroid ones), but I can't be bothered to upload them all. Melbourne's a great place to live, but I'm not so sure about visiting as a tourist. The only attractions I really visited were the aquarium and the Eureka Skydeck Tower, so I might be a little biased since there's probably a lot more. I simply didn't have the time or money to do everything I wanted to and go everywhere there was to go. One great thing about Melbourne is the free city tram. It seriously comes in handy, because the city is huge. The whole of Brisbane city is probably equivalent to one street of Melbourne..

If you do happen to go to Melbourne one day for whatever reason, go to the Suzuki Night Markets. They're held every Wednesday at Queen Victoria Market, and although a lot of the things they sold weren't really of my taste, the atmosphere is wonderful and they have live music performances on a small stage.

Oh my gosh. One thing people would absolutely adore is the many alleyways, filled with cafes, restaurants and boutiques with all sorts of items. It really felt like I was in a city, and not just some lane with a few shops along the sides *cough*Brisbane*cough*. There were a lot of retro shops, and shops which sold THE most cutest cards, including scratchie cards, where you have to scratch off an area to see the message/picture underneath! I wish I bought more, but I didn't have the funds since I spent it all on other random stuff alike.

I used to think that Brisbane and Gold Coast were pretty good places to live - but after coming back from Melbourne, I've come to really hate the Gold Coast. The other day, I was waiting for my bus home from work, and there was some guy looking really hobo with a bag full of weed, rolling a joint. This is something you're extremely unlikely to see in Melbourne, what with all the (young and hot) businessmen <3333 The Gold Coast is a great place to visit if you're a tourist, but I'm really sick of this lifestyle. I don't want to be associated with the bogans and this general feeling of life without order. I mean, it's great that it's so laid back here, but honestly it doesn't feel classy at all in any sense of the word and makes me feel frustrated at how everything is.

My new goal is to be living in Melbourne or Sydney in the next 10 years, seeing as how they're considered to be two of the biggest cities in Australia. *sighs* I'm going to have to work hard to achieve that!