Melbourne vs. Sydney

So all throughout this country's history the two cities have been at odds with each other vying for the position of who is the fairest of them all. Actually it seems to be more like Melbourne is jealous of Sydney and wishing it was the ‘better’ city. I prefer Sydney myself. Melbourne and I didn’t really connect as much. Though I recognize that I've had different approaches to each city. It might also have been that the first couple of times I went in to Melbourne I wasn’t feeling very well and the one day it was quite cold and I couldn’t seem to get warm. That having been said, today felt better.

The big, commercial, pedestrian shop area doesn’t do it for me, filled with fast food joints and too many people. There are some nicer areas on the periphery…gardens and churches…they don’t use their waterfront very well at all though the Southbank is a little more upscale and modern. It seemed quite nice.
Federation Square is a highlight I’d say. It takes up a large city block. It is avant-garde modern style architecture which seems ugly at first but actually works. There is a nice contrast between it and the old buildings around it. The square is a nice meeting point. Today there were jazz bands playing on a stage because it turns out it’s the Melbourne International Jazz Festival this week. It had a good feel. The art gallery is on this square too and I visited the Sidney Nolan exhibition. He’s an Australian artist of the 20th century. I checked it out, along with a large number of students on school excursions. As an aside, interestingly enough, in the early days of the settlement of Australia (1850s onward) there was a group of painters called the Heidelberg School who developed their own sense of style that suited the landscape better. It’s a story that is very similar to our Group of Seven.

I also had a look at the Indigenous Art collection which was fabulous and a small collection on the fashion of black. It was neat to see different black outfits worn throughout the different eras, including a hideous evening gown from the 80s!

One of the things that Melbourne and Sydney both have in common, well actually the whole country does, is how expensive it is to eat out. And really how expensive it is to eat healthy. To eat a nice, healthy salad in a restaurant for lunch costs me $20. And that’s just the salad. It’s maddening because at the same time the government is aware that there is an obesity problem yet food prices are so high, in the grocery stores too. And McDonald’s and Hungry Jack’s (Australian Burger King) or Lord of the Fries are filled to the brim. Geraldine suggested that the government should give people a 10% reduction on their fruits and veggies grocery bill. That’s a good idea.

So back to Melbourne and Sydney; I prefer Sydney though Melbourne has some endearing bits about it too after all. It’s been kind of fun being a Melbourne commuter, coming in on the train from Lower Plenty where Phil and Geraldine live. That gives it all a different feel too.