Melbourne, Victoria: Often cited as the world’s most liveable city by a periodically published list on the Economist. Well, I guess staying three days is not quite long enough to confirm that, but we can imagine why it regularly ranks so high in this rating. Free public transportation inside the city center, plenty of green areas, apparently not so bad weather all year long (except when we were there 😛 ), its proximity to the sea are all on the plus side. And there are probably many more things we haven’t experienced yet.

For us as travelers, a city is always an opportunity to sit back, relax, eat out, shop, have a drink and just stay a couple of days in the same place. And Melbourne offered plenty of great shops, restaurants, bars, cafés, cinemas and everything we haven’t had during our stays in different campsites along the way. The city’s vibe during Christmas time, strolling along car free inner city streets, the street artists, the stands selling all sorts of sweets, Santa and his little and big helper, all added to our experience.

We even managed to meet with Francesco and his family who currently live here, have a lovely dinner with them at a restaurant by the river, and get a sense of their first hand experience at living in arguably the world’s most livable city. (And slowly discover the not so nice things about living and working here – for us Europeans  – half a world away from home…)