The City

I’ve been exploring the city of Melbourne over the past few days on my free time. There’s a huge tram system that runs throughout the city, and it’s apparently one of the largest in the world. I haven’t really needed to use one yet, my building (Unilodge @ Melbourne) is across the street from uni, and a 20 minute walk from downtown. The campus is separate from the city, very much like McGill is. Actually, the universities here are pretty similar to the ones in Montreal. University of Melbourne has Victorian- like architecture, while RMIT is like Concordia since it is much more contemporary (strangest shapes I’ve ever seen in a building!) and spread out around the city.

The entire city is filled with shops, malls, restaurants, bars, and cafés everywhere. There’s a huge café culture here. You can’t just get a simple coffee like Tim Hortons here though. All they have are the quality kinds of espressos, cappuccinos, and lattés. They’re pretty expensive too. And yeah, the Aussies LOVE their beer.

The city is really easy to navigate, since it’s divided into equal square blocks. The State Library of Victoria is a gorgeous old building which I still want to explore. I’ve also taken the City Circle Tram, which is a free tram that gives a tour around the city, the business district, and the Docklands (running along the bay). I still haven’t seen the beaches yet, or the penguins (!) but I hope to do that very soon.

A few interesting things I’ve noticed so far downtown:

- They have a Walmart here, except it’s called Big W.

- They have Burger King too, but it’s called Hungry Jacks.

- There’s a Batman Street and Canada Lane.

- There’s hidden shops, bars, and restos in dogdy-looking alleys, but apparently they’re considered as streets and are safe.

- Melbourne just started using blue Bixis a few weeks ago apparently. They’re all over the place!

- The streets are SUPER clean compared to Montreal!

That’s all so far, I’ll be exploring more of Melbourne over the next few days during my Melbourne Welcome program. Highlights I’m looking forward to are the SkyDeck, the Melbourne Zoo, an Aboriginal walk and the Botanical gardens.

Oh, and the residence I’m staying in temporarily right now looks like something out of Harry Potter! It’s really spectacular, and I’ve always wanted to experience what it’s like to live in such a place. Sorry about the delay for pictures, I may only be able to post them next week when I have my own Internet connection.

Cheers, hope all is well back home!

-Sean