Melbourne Weekend - Part I

Melbourne... pronounced "MEL-bun" by the locals. It's been on my short list of places to see since I've been here. Australia’s Labor Day is the first Monday in October, which gave me the first chance to see the country since I went to Cairns.

Nat, One of my friends and coworkers for my client on this project, recently got reassigned when she got a promotion a few months ago. She had to move to Melbourne with the new job so we have only been able to stay in contact through email over the past few months. Months ago we had talked about taking a trip to Melbourne in October to see the UCI Road Cycling World Championships, and it made it so much easier to work out now that she actually lived there.

Melbourne is an interesting, artsy city that resembles large cities in Europe more than it does to Sydney. It's cultural and artsy and they love their Aussie Rules Football - 9 of the 16 teams come from the Melbourne metro area. Everyone talks about the little pocket bars hidden down random alleys spread throughout all parts of the city. My American friend, Laura, gave me a deck of cards called Deck of Secrets last week of 52 recommended bars in the city. One side had a picture along with the address, phone number and a short description; the other side had a map. These turned out to be really useful throughout the weekend. On a side note, this company only has a few cities covered (and only NYC from America). I’ve never seen a product like this in the US – if anyone wants to start this up with me back home, let me know!

Nat picked me up from the airport and we went out to a few places on the cards on Friday night. She has only been in Melbourne for a few month so everything was still new to her as well. I got some tapas and dumplings at a place called Golden Monkey. As promised, it was on a side street and down some stairs. The restaurant/lounge was Asian themed and pretty dark so we only stayed for one drink after I finished my food. Next up was Cookie, which was on a main road and not as hidden. It was also very open and large inside and resembled a 1920s general store. The third place we visited was Sister Bella, which the card promised to be ‘grungy’. We turned down a side street and then had to turn again into a dead end alley, going past 20-30 dumpsters and trash cans. With our expectations lowering by the second, we weren’t surprised to be disappointed when we saw that the inside was a reflection of the outside. We didn't go to hard since we had an early morning ahead of us.  See Part II and Part III for more.