First Few Days in Melbourne

I arrived in Melbourne on Saturday afternoon. I've spent the past few days walking around and getting acquainted with the city. I really like it so far. It's a completely different city than Sydney. Its still a huge city (roughly 4 million people) but it seems much more relaxed than Sydney. Its also quite a bit cheaper. Melbourne was the largest and wealthiest city in Australia for a long time, now Sydney and Melbourne are about even, although I would say Sydney seems to be a little more famous in other parts of the world.

Melbourne is known as the sports capital of Australia. The Australian Open major tennis tournament is held here each January, they have a big Formula 1 race every year (a huge deal outside of the USA), the President's Cup golf tournament is held here this week, and there are tons of rugby and cricket matches played here.

Melbourne is also famous for its large number of cafes and "European feel." There is a street called Flinders Lane that has very skinny alleyways with lots of restaurants, coffee shops, and bakeries. Its not a good place to go when you are hungry, I went there today and it was hard not to spend a lot of money on food, everything looks so good and the street itself smells like you're in a bakery. Here are some pics of Flinders Lane: