I *heart* Melbourne

Oh dear, it’s happened – I knew it would – I LOVE this city! I’ve been in Melbourne for a week now and I’ve really enjoying the vibe of the place, the cafes, bars, festival parties – Ok so I am on holiday and thus increasingly inclined to enjoy myself, but it’s just so European compared to Sydney! Like an Antipodean New York or something.

Federation Square in Melbourne


So we landed last week – it takes a couple of hours to fly here from Sydney – and Christina and I stayed with some of her friends in Richmond – Felicity and Dave. They have a gorgeous black Labrador called Chewy and a sleek Persian cat called Obi – absolutely adorable and hilarious in equal measures. Chewy thinks he’s a cat and Obi things she’s a dog – they are so cute together. Pics on Flickr as soon as I get back to Sydney.

So I’ll save the full write up of the festival for when I’m back, but I’m rationing myself to only one or two films a day rather than the four or five I stomached in Adelaide – I am recovering from my own film festival, after all! But I’ve seen some great movies, and enjoyed the MIFF hospitality at its best – helped I’m sure by the fact that the lovely Tom Chadwick and Asha Holmes of LFF fame are organising the events and PR respectively (connections, baby). It’s been great hanging out at festival parties and not working – I can actually chill out and chat with all the filmmakers and guests, which is much more difficult when you’re running around trying to organise everything and do a million things at once.

What I love most about Melbourne is that if you follow your nose, you can just come across loads of amazing little laneways, with cafes, bars and boutique clothes shops, and the vibe is really chilled out. Everything stays open all night, things feel more ‘indie’ than Sydney, with its chains and swanky bars, oh and of course the quota of hot guys who aren’t gay or married is far more in my favour than in Sydney – hurrah!

I’m taking loads of pics of this fab city – will do a big flickr update when I get back on Sunday. Have been to the Pixar Exhibition at ACMI, can’t wait for the Guggenheim exhibition at the NGV, and am just about to dash off to the Ian Potter gallery now for some more art – as the saying goes: If you want culture go to Melbourne, all that matters in Sydney is a harbour view.

cx