Melbourne. The city of four seasons in one day, of coffee shops on every corner, of bustling trams and lanes full of contrasting graffiti and cafes. After the train trip of a nightmare, we had arrived in this charismatic city and were glad that the YHA we were staying at was only just around the corner.

Checked in and keys given, we entered into our rooms. I was placed in a six share girls dorm, separate from the boys. I didn’t mind. In the space of five minutes I met Alexa, a young woman from Russia who was packing up to leave the next day, Emma, an Englishwoman who had been travelling around Australia for months, with still a couple of months to go and Anna, a girl from France who had been working first on a farm in Boonah, then doing an English course in Perth for the past year. I loved learning about their lives and what they thought of Australia.

As much as I wanted to continue listening to their stories, the gaping hole in my stomach was calling to me, needing to be filled. My brother and his girlfriend, who had been Melbournites for eight years, had given us a very extensive list of places to visit and things to see on our short visit, so we chose a place reasonably close by (dumplings!) and went for dinner. Melbourne was buzzing on this Saturday night and the atmosphere cheered our spirits. Our eyes sparkled with excitement as Chinatown engulfed our senses with bright lights, happy chatter and smells that promised an amazing experience for our taste buds.

We knew where we were headed though, a side lane off the main strip of Little Bourke Street that is Chinatown. Our mouths watered with anticipation as we saw the ‘Dumpling House’ sign on the street. We entered, ordered three plates of dumplings, and ate every last one, filling ourselves with the delicious morsels. Tired, but happy and full, we returned to our hostel for a needed good night’s sleep.

Of all the cities I have travelled to across the world, Melbourne is up there in my favourites. There is so much to do and see in this city and once you have a Myki card, it is reasonably easy to get around on the trams or trains. Our first day brought a long, leisurely walk around the city, exploring the graffitied lanes, which are characteristic to Melbourne. Breakfast was had at Jungle Juice, a fantastic bagel cafe on Centre Place. Centre Place reminded me of Dygon Alley out of Harry Potter and so I felt slightly magical as I walked down it. We continued our adventure and found ourselves walking past ‘Lightning Ridge Opal Mines’. One of my travel companions’ father was an opal miner at Lightning Ridge, so we decided to enter. We were greeted by a man in his fifties or sixties in slacks and a business shirt with no tie. His Snow White hair and his hands told the story of a labourer’s life. On his wedding band finger he flaunted a massive ring with a beautiful opal inside. He ushered us inside, eager to talk and eager to share with us his knowledge of opal. We were shown how to polish an opal, how to tell the value of opal and what the different colours represented. He then proceeded to lead us into another side room. To my utter surprise, instead of more opal the first thing I saw was a bearded dragon! He then proceeded to show us his spiders, his snakes (which he thought we would like to see OUT of the cage) and his blue tongue lizards! We left with his business card, with a list of things he recommended to do and see once we reached Darwin and most importantly with the memory of this strange and wonderful experience.

We walked on to Federation Square and decided to go into the free exhibitions of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. If you’re in Melbourne, this is one spot I wholeheartedly recommend. The set up and the exciting hands on interactive displays make it a great place for any ages to learn about the moving image and, more importantly, have fun. After a beer and a sausage at Riverland, (a bar below Federation Square and right on the river) we took the 96 Tram to St Kilda. St Kilda is where Melbourne showed its true self as a cold city, yet people were swimming! We huddled together, like the penguins we saw on the rocks on St Kilda pier and marvelled at their bravery. One travel mate contemplated joining them, but decided that it was a much better idea to get cakes and coffee instead. Acland Street in St Kilda is the perfect place for this. The shopping/nightclub/eatery stretch is famous for its cake stores and a trip to Melbourne isn’t a trip to Melbourne without going to one.

Our time in Melbourne, as you’ve probably realised, was very much focused around food and drink. We were fortunate enough to have my brother’s recommendation for a lot of the places we went to, which meant that they were all up to scratch. I did have a few favourites though. We had coffee and tea at Swtichboard, a tiny little cafe tucked away off Collins St, which literally used to be a Switchboard. In Prahran, Yellowbird was good for a refreshing drink after a morning full of shopping and we moved on to Borsch Vodka & Tears for some Polish food and vodka cocktails. Back in the city, Stalactites has amazing souvlaki (though I learnt the hard way that they give you a LOT of food!) and Trunk is great for breakfasts and crazy flavoured milkshakes (Golden Gaytime or Lamington!). As a converted shipping container, Section8 in the city has a great atmosphere and is perfect for having a few drinks after dumplings right next door! Ferdydurke, right next to Section8 on the other side is another cool little spot if you’re wanting to crack-on, on a weeknight. The place is small, but uses every corner effectively to create a comfortable space. As far as cafes and bars in Melbourne go, we only scratched the surface during our five night stay!

We did manage to do some other things beside eat in Melbourne, and these other things were mainly shopping, shopping and more shopping! Our second day in Melbourne was spent exploring the main shopping strip in Prahran along Chapel Street. We discovered a life size horse sculpture, that was actually a lamp, Nick found a Power Puff Girls Shirt that he desperately had to buy and I found delicious tea at the Oriental Tea House. The shopping didn’t end there; the next day we headed out to Victoria Market. We walked down aisle after aisle of stalls selling everything from fresh fruit and vegetables to Justin Bieber towels. The sheer expanse and popularity of the markets amazes me and it is refreshing to see the amount of people that are appreciating this type of shopping, rather than the easy accessibility of supermarkets.

After packing a lot in to our four days in Melbourne, we wanted to do something special for our last night. On Swanston Street, right in the centre of Melbourne there is a place you can climb up to the rooftop and have a few drinks while watching a film in old-school deck chairs. Huddled up in the wind, our last night was spent at the Rooftop Cinema watching the classic movie ‘The Fly’ with Melbourne’s tallest buildings in the background. Although the film was quite horrific, it was the perfect way to end our time in the quirky town of Melbourne.

Teen on a Train