‘melbourne or sydney... melbourne or sydney,’ was the focus of our where-to-live-in-oz debate.
like many visitors to australia, piero had been wowed by sydney’s gorgeous harbour, enviable weather and world-class city beaches. like many brisbanites (and countless others who grow up in a city which is not their country’s biggest), i’ve always been weary of sydney’s brashness but loved melbourne’s more subtle charms of style, reserve and understatement.
in the end, we reasoned that as brilliant as melbourne was, its offerings were similar but on a smaller scale to what we-had-and-were-leaving-behind in london. sydney, however has one trump card that london (god bless it) and melbourne just don’t have: fantastic weather. after seven years of random weather, we wanted sunshine.
fortunately, choosing to live in one of our preferred cities hasn’t ended our love affair with the other, especially when it’s only a one hour flight away. last weekend we took advantage of the short distance and flew south to melbourne to stay with our friend jayde.
the weekend reminded me of exactly why i love melbourne. the funky cafes burst with character while serving up first-class food, the people appear to be effortlessly cool and stylish, and the city itself is picturesque while being small enough to saunter around in a half-day. i found myself wondering, should we have chosen melbourne?
and then it rained. and then it was cold. and then it rained again. and i remembered exactly why i was so happy to be in sydney .
like many visitors to australia, piero had been wowed by sydney’s gorgeous harbour, enviable weather and world-class city beaches. like many brisbanites (and countless others who grow up in a city which is not their country’s biggest), i’ve always been weary of sydney’s brashness but loved melbourne’s more subtle charms of style, reserve and understatement.
in the end, we reasoned that as brilliant as melbourne was, its offerings were similar but on a smaller scale to what we-had-and-were-leaving-behind in london. sydney, however has one trump card that london (god bless it) and melbourne just don’t have: fantastic weather. after seven years of random weather, we wanted sunshine.
fortunately, choosing to live in one of our preferred cities hasn’t ended our love affair with the other, especially when it’s only a one hour flight away. last weekend we took advantage of the short distance and flew south to melbourne to stay with our friend jayde.
the weekend reminded me of exactly why i love melbourne. the funky cafes burst with character while serving up first-class food, the people appear to be effortlessly cool and stylish, and the city itself is picturesque while being small enough to saunter around in a half-day. i found myself wondering, should we have chosen melbourne?
and then it rained. and then it was cold. and then it rained again. and i remembered exactly why i was so happy to be in sydney .
some of the great places we visited that get the patata-seal-of-approval are:
- madame sousou cafe for a fabulously parisian brunch
- shou sumiyaki sake bar and grill for a cook-it-at-your-table japanese bbq
- de clieu cafe for the most amazing bacon and eggs i've ever had
- charcoal lane - a high-quality, aboriginal-themed mission australia restaurant that is all about enabling aboriginal and disadvantaged young people to gain work experience
Those photos on the de clieu cafe link are amazing! And I so wish I was able to have some of those eggs. Brekky is the best! Glad you had a great time. I surely do miss Melbs :-)
ReplyDeletede clieu was amazing! i think it was my fav of all those places.
ReplyDeleteOoh sounds good! We're going to Melbourne in May... we'll have to check out some of those places.
ReplyDelete