Sophie, our local guide
Even if I came prepared with my Lonely Planet, the weekend turned out to be quite an experience thanks to the local advice and guidance provided by local colleagues and friends. Here are 5 plans to live Melbourne like a local:
1. Citybikes
Download the app Melbourne bike share, find the nearest station and unlock the bike. Just make sure you reach to the next station in less than 30min. There are many stops along the way, so you can take a somewhat long ride like we did and enjoy a morning sightseeing on wheels. Additional details here
2. Cooltural nightlife
Melbourne is a super artsy city, with a very interesting showbusiness scene. On Friday, we went to a stand-up comedy show which is part of the larger Comedy festival that takes place during April. We laughed till we bursted in tears, only paying 15AUD each. After that, we found a random bar where they were playing some kind of electro-live music (something between a hipster daft punk and a house vocalist that you used to find in Ibiza). On Saturday, I went to Regent Theatre - whose lights look like one of these New York theaters - to see Priscilla, The Queen of the Desert. That was a bit more pricey, but super worth it.
3. Aussie Fauna
Australia's extreme conditions and remote location have given birth to interesting evolutions, marsupials, like Kangaroos, Possums, Wombats and Tasmanian Devils who raise babies in the pouch, the cute Koalas - whose brain is a really really tiny ball swimming in liquid inside that big head, to be able to live on super low-caloric eucalyptus - and the weird monotremes, mammals that lay eggs. We got to see them in Healesville sanctuary, a natural zoo.
4. Brunch
Café culture is huge in Melbourne, maybe due to the rainy weather where you can go from 30 sunny into 15 rainy in the same day or just to its cool crowd, that needs some shelter and fuel to keep going. The thing is that there are more brunch spots than what you can count, spread all over the place. If you are into eggs, grab someone and drop by the nearest one - with a good rating, of course. My friends took me to Trunk, a lovely bricky spot with a super yummy menu.
5. Walk
Melbourne is amazingly safe, covered by trams and lovely lanes that are a pleasure to explore. I spent Sunday checking out some spots around the parts where I had never been but really, whether it is bar hopping from Fitzroy's Bourke Street (and all the lanes from it) down to Chinatown, street art tour at the center or walking greenery like Birrarung Marr, Carlton Gardens or St.Kilda Beach, the city is made for us walkers.
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