Melbourne tours taught me to love

sightseeingMost people tend to have fond feelings towards the city they grew up in – not me though. Melbourne has always been a strange and hostile place for me. First of all, the weather is so erratic that my weak immune system can’t handle it. From hot to cold in twenty fours hours is just not right. I never got used to it even though I grew up here! Secondly, Melbourne is so arty and pretentious. Give me fast food and prime time TV any day, suburban shopping malls and local soccer clubs. I just don’t understand all of the abstract sculptures they put around town,  and that stuff they call ‘street art’ – looks like plain old graffiti to me. These attitudes are starting to change however since I did some proper sightseeing. Melbourne is slowly becoming less arcane after all.

I can see why the tourists love it here. Even people from interstate probably feel like they’re somewhere in Europe, what with our cobblestone laneways and Italian restaurants. I recently did a sightseeing tour of Melbourne’s ‘alternative’ locales and it was quite the eye opener. Prior to that, I didn’t think things got much better than takeout burgers and fries, but then I was introduced to a real chocolaterie and a weirdly decorated restaurant with the S word in the title (- okay it’s ‘Satan’ if you must know). I’m starting to see a little of what people mean when they talk about the higher pleasures. In Melbourne, sights are just the beginning.

Call me humble but owning a gabled home in the suburbs was my dream. Put the missus and kids in there and viola, you’ve got your life made. I never thought there was much beyond red bricks and weatherboard, that was until I saw the magnificent sights such as Raheen and Como House. How has such luxury existed in my own city without my even knowing it? I guess I haven’t been getting out enough.