My favorite weekend getaway that I’ve done here has to be Melbourne–pronounced Melbin if you’re an American who can’t get the Aussie accent down.
I flew down there with my parents when they visited me for two weeks. The flight was only an hour and a half long, so it’s similar to flying from SFO to LAX for a weekend (which, I have to admit I’ve never done). I may be biased into thinking it was a great place because I was with my parents when I went, and I hadn’t seen them in a long time, but to me Melbourne was a really happy, lively city.
First of all, the food was incredible. Everywhere we went, whether it was a deserted Irish pub or a fancy Italian bistro, had delicious, decadent food. As I’ve said earlier, all this good food comes at a price, like everything in Australia, but I’ll try not to beat a dead horse. I fell in love with the food, and how many vegan options there were everywhere. It makes me really happy when a place caters to all of its residents and visitors, including ones with special diets. Add on to that with the special diet food being AMAZING and I’m sold.
Second, it was a beautiful city. On our first day there we went to the Queen Victoria Markets, which have everything you could possible need, from outback hats to fresh honey. The skyline is semi-reminiscent of Chicago, and all the buildings have unique shapes and many of them are multi-colored. Even the buildings that aren’t multi-colored are often covered in art, whether it’s new-age street murals or more traditional graffiti–it adds a sense of brightness. Plus, the government of Melbourne has created a project where each tree is tagged and you can download an app to learn about it! (you can look at that here). Considering how much I love trees and all plants, this was revolutionary for me.
Lastly, Melbourne is SUPER close to the Great Ocean Road, which is absolutely stunning. It’s the only place I’ve seen koala’s in the wild, which almost made me cry (I really do love animals). The Great Ocean Road is a really interesting history lesson that also happens to be a beautiful example of what a great artist mother nature is. The whole thing is jagged cliffs and rolling hills, tight turns exposing black rocky beaches, and rainforest trees giving way to Australian ocean shrub. It’s beyond words how beautiful it is, and I encourage anyone who comes over to Australia to make their way along the Great Ocean Road.
