Melbourne

Our last stop in Australia was Melbourne, voted most livable city 4 years running. At the heart of the identity of both Sydney and Melbourne is a fierce rivalry much like between Düsseldorf and Cologne. Real in the past, fun in the present. To not take sides in this ongoing discussion we will not tell you which city we preferred, no matter how many times you ask. It's Melbourne.

While Sydney definitely has the more iconic landmarks in opera house and harbour bridge, Melbourne has a very diverse cultural scene, combined with lot's of sports, hipster bars and stuff like that. But don't worry Adam, we'll always root for the Swans!

Upon returning from Apollo Bay we first had to get to our couchsurfer who unfortunately lived in deep suburbia but made more than up for his blunder by taking good care of us, like picking us up from the local station and providing us with a comfortable bed ;).

We then went straight back into town to meet other couchsurfers who couldn't host us but still wanted to meet up. We didn't make it quite in time for the public swing dance class but arrived for ice cream shakes. One could think it was planned that way but it was really just the way it played out ;). After we walked around the area south of the Yarra seeing the art museum, the botanical gardens up close as well as the rod laver arena and the huge cricket ground from afar.

Funny story: one of the founders of Melbourne was called John Batman and the name Batmania was in the discussion for the name of the city. Also, when asking the local Aborigines for the name of the local river, the aborigines - thinking the stupid white people never saw a river before asking something hardly understandable about it - answered "a lot of water". Sure enough, the English then basically named the river "water", or Yarra. The aboriginal name is something completely different.

The second day we took a guided tour through the city like the one in Sydney and saw most of the landmarks including many back alleys with heaps of great graffiti artworks and hidden bars. One called Berlin having 2 rooms, one styled in socialist style for the east of the city and one in Western style.

We were also lucky enough to be there in time for the St. Kilda festival. A mostly free, open air art and music festival with no real beer stands. Quite different in that regard ;). But with beautiful weather and a great location directly on the beach we enjoyed a couple of hours listening to music, strolling along the beach and the stalls selling crafted stuff and checking out a local community garden, much like the Prinzessinengärten in Berlin.

On Monday we just packed our backs, ate at a Hare Krishna restaurant - because cheap - and made for the airport to fly to New Zealand. The final stop of our great adventure, this time for real ;).

Quiz: this man on the second picture is not an anonymous hipster or Sigmund Freud but an important local historical figure. Who is he? Hint: he is referred to as the australian Robin Hood.Read more