“World’s most liveable city”

Four weeks left. That’s what’s left to enjoy what we can in Australia and the worst part is we fell in love with a place we can’t live. We’re good at falling in love with things we can’t have easily.

We got to see all the big cities in Australia besides Perth. Sydney was the worst. I shit you not we saw a parking garage in Sydney that was $52/hour. So when we went to Melbourne for the first time we weren’t expecting much better. We actually ended up in 5 o’clock traffic the first time, which I wrote about here, so that was awful.

Eventually we found cheaper parking spots (Costco is free) and learned that there’s a free tourist tram that takes you around the heart of the city while a recording of a guy tells you all about it. You can’t actually hear the guy because people are talking too loud or the brakes are busy screaming, but it’s still a nice gesture from the city.

We learned more about the city, and how generous it is with its people. We spent more time there, and we realized that it’s not a bad city. The docks by the ocean don’t even smell like fish which is weird, but I’m not complaining. Eventually our minds changed and it was a good city. After that, it became a great city. A place you want to show Mom and Dad. Then, it was great, it was beautiful…

and then we fell in love.

We spent our last day there a few days ago and it was the first time I’d felt that sad about leaving something since the last time Sebastian and I said goodbye to each other at the airport. We soaked it up while we could and even though I didn’t have my camera and I hate my cell phone’s camera, I couldn’t stop taking pictures. I felt like a mom taking pictures of her kid before his first date or something.

One thing I didn’t expect to see was a bunch of naked people riding their bikes around the city.

Seriously this picture looks like it was taken with a disposable camera from 1992. How can a cell phone camera even be that bad? That is just sad.

I also did not expect to see the human version of the really really tan seal from the Spongebob episode.

I mean..

Is it necessary?

We ate our last meal at Costco and walked around a place we want to live one day, the Docklands.

One day we will live in one of these apartments, we said. We sat on a bench and looked up the prices. $400,000 for a one bedroom apartment. Okay. Maybe one day we won’t live in one of these apartments. We’re going to keep dreaming.

We enjoyed the views while we could. Even looking back at the pictures reminds me I’ll be dead inside without this place. I would still be dead inside with it probably, but a lot less dead.

In my last post I stated we’re trying to go back to school and get our degrees. The reason is so we can come back to Melbourne and live here again. The only problem is that I don’t want to be so far from it for so long. I’d rather go to school here, but Australia is a lot like America. School is expensive.

Of course the most gorgeous sunset had to happen while we were there. I’m 99% sure it was telling us not to go.

We actually saw a ton of people walking somewhere and we weren’t sure where they were all going. What’s there to do but follow them?

Well it turns out they were all walking towards the stadium for an Adele concert. So I guess we kind of accidentally went to an Adele concert. We sat outside and listened and I avoided the conversation about leaving. I would finally be happy in this city and I’ve never felt that about anywhere I’ve been to or lived in.

Some more sad news is our flight leaves on April 20th (lol) from Melbourne and we’re planning to go on the 19th to enjoy it while we can. Also you have to show up 10 hours before an international flight because airports. Just airports.

We stayed as long as we could. We were camping only 20 minutes away and had to get up at 5 AM to drive 4 hours but we didn’t want to leave. Oh also here was our view inside the stadium. It looks a bit like a dog cage at a pound now that I see it in a picture.

Eventually night came, telling us we should go. Plus that stadium holds at least 50,000 people so we weren’t about to wait for traffic coming out of that.

If there’s anywhere in this country, or this Earth you should not miss, it’s Melbourne. No wonder it’s consistently ranked “most liveable city”. I’m emotionally attached to this place and I didn’t know that was actually possible. I thought people just stayed places because they were tied down with jobs and kids… but apparently you can love a city.

Too bad we can’t live here.

Yet.

I love you, Melbourne. I love you, Docklands. I’ll see you again from a window of one of your expensive apartments one day.