I Heart Melbourne

There are so many things to love about the city of Melbourne, that one little blog entry would be no where near big enough to list them all out and do the city justice. But here's a few things I fell in love with all over again, as Luke and I trampled the streets and road the free tram in Victoria's capital over the past few days.

There's the weird, wacky and just plain far-out artwork that's incorporated into the city landscape at every chance. This little beauty below was called "Cow Up A Tree" (Well, duh) and was created by a local sculpture. You can see it on the water front in the new up and coming area surrounding Melbourne's Dockland suburb (It's tres trendy and the perfect spot to grab lunch on a sunny day).

The funky architecture that just screams fun and would make me want to head off to work a whole 30minutes earlier each day (that is 1. If I were cool enough to work in one of these brightly coloured buildings and 2. If I ever decide to go back to work again at all, cool buidling or otherwise!).

The beautiful glimpses of the past, hidden around every city corner. Melbourne mixes the old with the new like a pro - looking out at a 100-year-old church while sipping your soy latte in a tiny little book cafe, wearing your new stripped scarf hand knitted by an up and coming fashion designer is soooo Melbourne.

But now, just when I thought all my Melbourne Christmases had come at once when I discovered the awesome boutique Meet Me At Mikes on Bridge Road during my last Melbourne visit, today my crush on this lovable city has tipped the scale. Why, you ask? Well... I just spent a day at Melbourne's Australian Open.

The crowd, the international tennis players, the excitement, the celebrity spotting, the hard plastic seats that turned our bums numb after just one set of the ladies quarterfinal. It was all amazing. I really enjoy watching the tennis - it seems to have become a summer ritual of sorts and this being my first Aussie Open, I wasn't sure what to expect from this prized Melbourne sports event. But even though we were sitting about as far as you can get from Bec Hewitt's reserved spot, we found ourselves getting caught up in the on and off court action (there were some unusally vocal Frenchman in the crowd that put on a show all of their own).

You can watch the action on centre court, wander around the outside courts and see the up and coming youngsters hit a ball at about 150km an hour, watch some live music, line up for yonks for a free massage in the Garnier sponsor tent or find a piece of grass in the sun, get an ice cream and watch the big screen (with Melbourne's city scape in the background).

So unless you have a couple of hundred bucks to spare to get along to this year's Aussie Open finals on the weekend, think about booking a trip to the tennis next year for something different. It's a great excuse to explore Melbourne all over again and you really never know who you'll bump into...

Yours in beautiful Melbourne,

Odette