It’s not a country but I loved Melbourne so much, it gets its own summary.

There is so much going on in Melbourne. High end, low end, creative, outdoorsy, indoorsy. I really has a feel that you can have a go at whatever you fancy. With of the course the added benefit that in between everything you will eat will be utterly fabulous (see Melbourne food blog).

Something that I thought summed up the amusing and creative side of Melbourne businesses.
A simple petshop in a corner street in the depths of the suburbs, with a banksy style window front.

In particular the northern area of Fitzroy and the surrounding areas had so much to offer and so much amazing street art that it blew my mind.

I remember one of my earlier trips abroad when I was a teenager, photographing (on film!!) graffiti in Amsterdam. I think I probably ended up with about 10 photos which I thought was amazing. Here, you don’t even need to go looking for it and it varies from old skool graffiti to the murals, simple tags and layers of flyers and stickers all create a bright and colourful landscape against the many old buildings. It just works!

The city centre can be a little bland in parts as they so often are, but you just need to turn a corner, go down an alleyway, hop on a tram for a stop or two to find something interesting. Similarly as you head out into the outer suburbs it takes on a very sensible and same as everywhere else look but then don’t all cities in newer countries or that have ever grown.

I think the measure of a place for me is just a simple feeling. Do I feel happy just simply walking down the street? A simple inner satisfaction or contentedness. I feel it in Brighton, I feel it in New York and I have now felt it in Melbourne. I have just adored it and I am gutted that we couldn’t stop, get some work and stay here for a couple of months. And I just wish it was so darned for away from home. I do hope it’s not my last ever visit though. Hasta La Vista baby!!(Hopefully) I’ll be back.

And as an added bonus, we are leaving Melbourne with a few additions to the family. You may know that for this trip Mark had a ‘dive and tattoo’ budget so he could partake of two of his favourite acitivies while away. Well, we found an amazing tattooists in Fitzroy, ‘Dangerzone Tattoos’ almost on our doorstep and luckily as we were free in the week, Mark got fitted in by one of their uber talented artists, Dean.

His first baby, was some stick men musicians down his leg – cute aren’t they?

And his second baby, was, well, a baby. This is kewpie – an iconic retro image which I have always loved and while we were in Fitroy which had a cool bar/restaurant, ‘Deluxe Bimbo’ which has a massive kewpie hanging outside, we came up with the idea for the baby with headphones. Dean really came into his own and the tattoo is just gorgeous.

The bonus for me is that I have been lamenting the loss of all my stuff. Just not being able to look at my weird and wonderful things sucks so now at least I get to look at one of my favourite images everyday. It’s like Mark has become moving wallpaper. Result!! So now I need to hatch an ingenious plan to get him to have more of my fave things tattooed on him so I have lots to look at