Most Liveable City in the World

Two days in Melbourne, and we know we like it. After Sydney's beaches and harbours, the cafes, graffiti and endless local events of Fitzroy are oddly, comfortingly familiar. We feel like we're back home...except it's winter!

The last couple of days have been ones of mellow discovery. We walked down Johnston St., past tattoo parlours and ludicrously expensive hipster furniture stores. Jakob chanced upon a beautiful grey bowl spangled with bright blue; the glaze explodes in the kiln, creating brilliant splashes of colour. At a reformed convent, we met Mickey the donkey, fed grass to huge horses, enjoyed nunnish pastries and bought used books. Over brunch with our old/new friends Gil and Leena, we got a vivid sense of how easy it would be to settle into a pleasant life in Melbourne; which only grew with visits to its library, parks, cafes, and museum. 

The award for Strangest Experience is a tie between the giant anime-manga convention in city hall, swarming with moon-faced teenagers dressed as blue samurai or frilly-skirted heroines, and the gimmicky-but-delicious liquid nitrogen gelato we had for dessert tonight: billows of icy steam revealed a Frozen Hot Chocolate with cinnamon marshmallows, flash-frozen caramel tendrils and a syringe of molten ganache.

With the girls fast asleep, we wonder whether it was the right thing to bring them so far. They're having fun, but miss their friends and family back home. It might be a few weeks until we hit our stride; we've been in the country for less than 10 days and it feels like forever. Meanwhile, we'll just keep indulging them with passion fruit and squeezy yogurt and giant Australian avocadoes.