Melbourne, Australia - Week 4 (Mel-bun)

Hello Family and Friends,

This is our last week in Melbourne. I hate that we are leaving because we have really enjoyed it. Prahran is a great neighborhood and Atlas is doing very well at his daycare. He has even added some new English words to his vocabulary.

Atlas pushing one of his daycare friends on the swing.

Food: A

A beautiful dessert at Blossom Thai in South Yarra

I can count on one hand the places we have eaten that we didn't like. There were too many amazing food options to mention them all. The only reason that Melbourne doesn't get an A+ is that we never found any good pizza. Also, New York style Chinese food was very hard to find. Now I know that New York style is a total bastardization of Chinese food, but I love it! The closest that we found was Malaysian food. Of course it would very American of me to be eating Malaysian food and call it Chinese. Other than that Melbourne has the most delicious food variety. When it comes to freshness and quality of ingredients it wins hands down. I'm going to say it; it even beats New York as far as food goes.

Service: B-

Service is decent. There are some systemic differences that we don't care for. For example, they just bring your ordered food items when they are ready. Your appetizer can arrive after your main meal. Brett feels this is a timing issue. They always bring water straight away to the table once you are sat. However, the water is rarely cold and no ice (or lime/lemon) is offered. Also, it is more often than not that you pay at the counter and not at your table. With most establishments no tipping is involved, but the restaurants do charge a 15-20% surcharge on weekends and holidays. Price on the menu is what you pay as tax and service charges are included.

In home convenience: B

Food delivery is easy enough with Uber eats. We also ordered something off of Amazon and it came within the week and a day early. There is no next day shipping as Australia is far from everything (but itself). I sent a small package to my mother-in-law and it took about 8-10 days and cost more to ship than the item that was inside. It is not like Medellín where everything comes to you.

Neighborhood Walkability: A

I think we took an Uber 3x the whole month we were in Melbourne. If we needed to go further than our neighborhood we took the tram. There is a market, grocery store, pharmacy, eateries and daycare all within walking distance. There are no major event venues or large malls within walking distance, but it is an easy ride on the tram to the CBD (central business district) for those activities.

Pollution: A+

Melbourne has the best tap water I have ever had. Neither Brett nor I have had an allergen irritations from the air pollution or lack thereof. There is a good breeze most days. Even the Pacific Ocean doesn't smell as fishy here. There is a very robust adoption of electric vehicles. No real complaints when it comes to cleanliness.

Pueblear: B+

Notable places to visit are a plane or train ride away. However, the cost is very reasonable. Australia is as big as the USA so there is plenty to explore on the mainland. This is important because Australia is far from everything except itself.

People: A-

People are nice. They call you "darling". When you say "thank you" they say "no worries". I really tried to include this phrase while in Melbourne so that I could sound more Australian, but I never quite got the hang of it. There is still some undertone of racism as people will say that Melbourne isn't as Australian feeling as Sydney. We figured out through multiple conversations that means that Melbourne has too many cultures from outside Australia for some people and doesn't have warm weather beach. For me I didn't see any black families (mom, dad and kids). I saw black singles, but no black children. It could be because the neighborhood we are in is a lot of young, hippy type professionals. So not a lot of families in Prahran in general. At Atlas daycare there is only one other little black girl, but his daycare also didn't have very many Asian children considering the number of Asians in Melbourne. This maybe due to him going to a (costly, but only option for visitors) private daycare instead of a public daycare.

Safety: A

There are always randos in a city. When we were at the Queen Victoria Market, this one homeless guys showed a lot of aggression and ran at these two girls while they were having some ice cream. He physically invaded their space and the girls moved away. Our tour guide called security and she seemed fairly rattled by his behaviour. Other than that, no issues. I even rode the tram alone, without Brett or Atlas, and felt completely comfortable.

Driving: B

Brett successfully drove on the opposite side of the rode and we all lived to tell about it. Two lane roads can sometimes be a little narrow. They use white stripes to divide two way traffic instead of a colored line which can be a little confusing. As a result (and because of the dumb tourists like us) there are a lot of signs telling you to drive on the left side of the road.

A children's bike park teaching kids early the rules of the road.

Infrastructure: A

Everything is clean and everything works. Brett says everything is fine and that is big coming from him. There are some accessibility issues such as every tram isn't handicap accessible. There is a metro but it is very limited. They are in the process of expanding it.

Graffiti is where it should be. Elevators are in obvious locations. The streets and sidewalks are clean without trash and gum.

Maybe pulled out $100AUD from the ATM (and left the country with half of it) because everyone took tap to pay and there was almost no need to tip.

Melbourne is both a great place to live and visit. The biggest drawback of Melbourne is the 17 hour time difference from family. We are a day ahead. It makes Melbourne feel even further away. Still it takes number one spot for places we could live, for now.

Next we are off to kill a few weeks in New Zealand while we wait for family to join us in Japan!