My last Australian adventure... for 2011!

For my last chance to travel around this beautiful sunburnt country, I headed south to Melbourne--not only to enjoy a break from the hot, humid Brisbane summer, but to round out this entire amazing Rotary experience with the girl I started it all with! Katie Stjernholm was a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar from a Rotary Club in the LA area and studied abroad to Melbourne, Victoria at the same time as I studied abroad to Brisbane, Queensland. We met at our Outgoing Orientation back in February 2010. Talk about coming full circle!

Melbourne was very noticeably different from Brisbane. Not only was the climate shockingly different after just a mere 2 hour flight, but Melbourne is significantly larger than Brisbane (Brisbane has a population of about 600,000 while Melbourne exceeds a population of about 4 million!). Most unique to me, though, was that Aboriginal influence was seemingly nonexistent in the downtown center of Melbourne, although I was only there for one weekend. Every street and building in Melbourne is named with a European name, which contrasts the streets and names of most places in and around Brisbane that are exotic, Aboriginal tongue-twisters. Though Melbourne was absolutely stunning with some of its monstrous historic buildings, I enjoyed living amongst Brisbane's more present native, authentic Aussie culture. However, I greatly appreciated all of the beautiful European architecture, as you can see below!

Some of the beautiful architecture around the city:

(Some similarities between Brisbane and Melbourne-- they both have a popular little hangout area called "South Bank")

The University of Melbourne was a beautiful juxtaposition of the classic, old English university look plus modern, cutting edge city:

The true "loo with a 360 degree view":

 Melbourne's nightlife, eateries, and awesome little revamped alleyways were all so "hipster"!

 We braved the cold arctic winds (literally, ARCTIC winds-- only Tasmania stands between Melbourne and Antarctica!!) to enjoy a summertime rooftop cinema:

This is a famous bakery window in the city. Yum!

 We took a sunny yet windy day trip to St. Kilda by tram:

Melbourne has its own Luna Park in St. Kilda, very similar to Sydney's!

We ended the trip with a dinner date to Chinatown where I sampled some of Melbourne's quintessential steamed dumplings. My verdict on them: cheap and delicious!