City of Melbourne Through My Eyes
Before leaving from Bangalore I didn't have any particular expectation on this city. I always thought it would be like yet another international city, never expected much of character like European cities. Nor I expected it to be that cosmopolitan. Though Australia was always my dream country to visit, Melbourne never placed itself in my list of dream cities, which has names like London(now off the list after visiting :)), Paris, Vienna, Zurich etc.
This city turned out to be a pleasant surprise to me and places itself as one of the best cities I have ever visited, may be next to Jerusalem. It is scenic, cosmopolitan, laid back, friendly place to be in. It has a unique identity which cannot be found in any other place in the world, I am not sure about the other cities in Australia itself. I am yet to explore at least another one.
Scenic Beauty
First impression is not necessarily be the best impression. Didn't get a very good feeling about the city on the night we reached, may because of the little less maintained airport. But it turned out not true during my next few days of stay. Melbourne has lots of natural beauty with well maintained beaches, parks. Few of them happens to be next door to St Kilda, the place where we stay. My favorite place is Albert park which has a beautiful lake and home to different species of birds.
Melbourne skyline blends itself nicely with its natural surrounding. Also there is very good mix of old Victorian building with the modern ones. For some reason I didn't see the same thing happening in London, modern building looked quite out of place there.
View of the skycity line from Yarra river bank at Finders in the night is breathtaking.
People
There is a remarkable population of immigrants in the country. Mainly Asians. I could spot Indians everywhere. On one weekend I was counting at least 4 Indians in every 10 people we see. There is big gang of Indian students as a service staff in the apartment I live. So, the place has a strong Indian flavour.
Locals are quite friendly, sometimes go out of the way to offer their help. Be it helping me a hand on the stroller in the trams or helping with the routes and directions even without asking explicitly. This is quite contrary to what I pictured from the news channels and newspapers when I was back in India.
Pace of Life
As I've come across, pace of life is not as fast compared to other cities or even Bangalore for that matter. People do devote lot of time for their personal lives. People have lot of hobbies like rowing, surfing, fishing, cycling, running and many more. Apart from there people seem to be quite family oriented. They do spend quite an amount of time dining out as well any time of the week. This I noticed as our apartment happens to be situated next to a street called Fitzroy's street famous for its restaurants and pubs. Even during the weekdays it has a 'weekend' feel with restaurants and pubs buzzing with people.
Fun place to be
As people and language is not a barrier one can freely roam around in the city. There are lots of things to do. Lots of (window)shopping to be done in Docklands and so many other places, have nice food sitting next to harbour, river or a river, go on cycling tour or a river Cruise. For those who are interested can go to museums which we haven't been keen on doing.
Having said all these I can't stop myself comparing it with the place I belong, Bangalore. It seem quite opposite in almost in every aspect. Not only in traffic and public transport :) Anyway I don't expect Bangalore to become like Melbourne. Every place should have its own flavour and character just like each one of us.
This city turned out to be a pleasant surprise to me and places itself as one of the best cities I have ever visited, may be next to Jerusalem. It is scenic, cosmopolitan, laid back, friendly place to be in. It has a unique identity which cannot be found in any other place in the world, I am not sure about the other cities in Australia itself. I am yet to explore at least another one.
Scenic Beauty
First impression is not necessarily be the best impression. Didn't get a very good feeling about the city on the night we reached, may because of the little less maintained airport. But it turned out not true during my next few days of stay. Melbourne has lots of natural beauty with well maintained beaches, parks. Few of them happens to be next door to St Kilda, the place where we stay. My favorite place is Albert park which has a beautiful lake and home to different species of birds.
Melbourne skyline blends itself nicely with its natural surrounding. Also there is very good mix of old Victorian building with the modern ones. For some reason I didn't see the same thing happening in London, modern building looked quite out of place there.View of the skycity line from Yarra river bank at Finders in the night is breathtaking.
People
There is a remarkable population of immigrants in the country. Mainly Asians. I could spot Indians everywhere. On one weekend I was counting at least 4 Indians in every 10 people we see. There is big gang of Indian students as a service staff in the apartment I live. So, the place has a strong Indian flavour.
Locals are quite friendly, sometimes go out of the way to offer their help. Be it helping me a hand on the stroller in the trams or helping with the routes and directions even without asking explicitly. This is quite contrary to what I pictured from the news channels and newspapers when I was back in India.
Pace of Life
As I've come across, pace of life is not as fast compared to other cities or even Bangalore for that matter. People do devote lot of time for their personal lives. People have lot of hobbies like rowing, surfing, fishing, cycling, running and many more. Apart from there people seem to be quite family oriented. They do spend quite an amount of time dining out as well any time of the week. This I noticed as our apartment happens to be situated next to a street called Fitzroy's street famous for its restaurants and pubs. Even during the weekdays it has a 'weekend' feel with restaurants and pubs buzzing with people.
Fun place to be
As people and language is not a barrier one can freely roam around in the city. There are lots of things to do. Lots of (window)shopping to be done in Docklands and so many other places, have nice food sitting next to harbour, river or a river, go on cycling tour or a river Cruise. For those who are interested can go to museums which we haven't been keen on doing.
Having said all these I can't stop myself comparing it with the place I belong, Bangalore. It seem quite opposite in almost in every aspect. Not only in traffic and public transport :) Anyway I don't expect Bangalore to become like Melbourne. Every place should have its own flavour and character just like each one of us.
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