Melbourne & Sydney.

When it comes to cities and night life, Australia's duo of Sydney and Melbourne both stand out above all others. And no, neither of them is the capitol. Having landed in Sydney at the start of my time here, and having lived in Melbourne for 4 months or so, I believe I've been able to identify the many subtleties that make the pair very different.

Sydney:

Sydney set my first impression of Australian cities. As like many other tourists and travellers before me, I found Sydney as my gateway to Australia. After some three hours or more of flying over desert on a plane from Hong Kong we finally crossed the Northern Territory, Queensland and started our descend.

Sydney itself is the largest of the cities in Australia, though not the capitol. That's Canberra, created to stop the feud of domination between Sydney and Melbourne for the title of Australia's capitol. It's a large sprawling city bathed in the warmth of the ferocious antipodean sun. It's size and affluence set it apart from many other cities. The CBD is dominated quite typically by dwarfing sky scrapers that rise up and block the sun from view while verandas keep the harmful light from scolding unprepared visitors.

Sydney is quite typical for a city that expects a great deal of foreign exchange with numerous hostels and hotels posted around, catering for all economic margins. Internet cafés and bureau's of change scatter themselves amongst it all. Sydney is a very rich place, I think it's best summarised by its 'garden islands'. Speckled through this iconic rocky inlet that has defined Sydney's geography are the islands. These act as places to escape to from the city: however, to get to one you need a boat. Needless to say Sydney attracts a lot of attention from people who love boats and yachts, the harbour tends to be crowded with sails struggling to tac into the winds and there is plenty of do in and around the harbour which is well within budget.

Again these little perks I witnessed in Sydney seem to sing for its wealth. Another point I recall clearly was walking along George Street, the spinal road into and out of the CBD, and seeing numerous men and women formerly dressed with blazing music from the sky scrapers above. Being unable to point out the party, I was made aware that Sydney has many roof top parties and are kept for a refined crowd. Make no mistake, Sydney is beautiful and there is plenty to do there, only I feel that in order to make the most of it, you may want to make Sydney your first point of call rather than your last; provided your bank account is willing to take a bruising.

In rebuttle, Melbourne seems to be the place to live as opposed to the place to vacate. It's well known for its tolerance and for its love of art. Much of Melbourne boasts artists of different mediums, something that I think is well reflected in the galleries of free street art one can find by detouring through the city centre to places such as Degraves or the suburbs such as Brunswick. Many new bands also experiment around the city, knowing that Melbourne attracts a large alternative crowd - mostly down to its acceptance of anything odd and quirky. I found that social groups tend to have blurred boundaries in Melbourne as well, few people seem to stick with one group, rather people share their tastes whether or not its considered niche elsewhere.

One thing I noticed about Melbourne is that its active areas, points where people tend to go to satisfy the urge of live music, exquisite food or an art show, tend to be in adjacent suburbs to the city centre. This equal spacing may lend to the simple fact that Melbourne has impeccable infrastructure; it's easy to navigate and has the worlds largest system of trams (so I'm told) that can be confidently navigated.

Melbourne also covets hundreds of hidden gems defining a homogeneous city centre of parallel streets. In Melbourne, if someone says to you "I know a good place down this alley," it's a perfectly reasonable statement not to be combated with pepper-sprayed. Also, when you visit, be sure to see the Victoria Night market, it impressed me greatly acting as a massive social hub in the dark, just north of the CBD, where live bands play and all sorts of vendors serve a mixed crowd of families and alternatives; it's a very ethnic and rustic summary of the Melbourne constitution of acceptance to the abnormal.

Both have many similarities which serve only as pro's for them both. Both have strong Asian influences and are thus welcoming to travellers with numerous hostels and net cafés dotted about. The overall effect is that, despite what people may think of Australia, everyone is generally very welcoming and accepting. Both cities are incredibly multi-cultural, which shows through fashions, trends and culture, so I presume the philosophy is everyone shares a minority with little visible tension.

In the end I can see why Canberra was built. It's just too hard to choose between Sydney and Melbourne; and though the former is more famous and tends to attract more people, the latter; by my standards is far more liveable, (given Melbourne's climate is a little cooler!). Everyone I have talked to has told me they prefer one or the other, there's an odd 50/50 split between the pair and it does seem that the ambitious money makers flock to Sydney, while the creative sorts move to Melbourne. But, ultimately, people move between the two constantly and leave Sydney to Melbourne or vice versa for a holiday; so if they're attracting each others residents for vacations, there's got to be some familiar comfort in both of them.

Following this entry I may write in more depth about my time spent in Sydney and Melbourne as I did a few differing things in either that might inspire your travels a little. But as it stands my notes are senselessly organised and my memory is beaten and scratched from living in Brisbane: something I'll hopefully get too soon enough!

Anyways, enjoy them both! My prediction is they'll only get better. Australia is such a young country and rich country, destine for great things.

Happy travels!

Rhys.