Melbourne

It is said that Melbourne is one of the youngest city in the world and at the same time it is the oldest inhabited one. That is may be true, but it is for sure Australia's second-largest metropolis after Sydney - at least considering its population and territory. Melbourne is a real metropolis: you can find there the alleys with real artistic graffiti sometimes, markets offering local and international specialties, as well as the international symbols of the business world, the skyscrapers.

Nearly one-third of the city's population is immigrants so the visitors can meet close to 180 different languages ​​and nearly 100 kinds of religions in the streets. From historical point of view Melbourne has grown into a metropolis in a few fleeting moments. This gave Melbourne the place in the Economist's 2011, "the world's most liveable cities "list and he also commanded much older and bigger cities behind him with its friendly atmosphere and life-affirming charisma which is typical Australian.

Melbourne in numbers

Population: 4,077,036 persons
Area: 8806 km²
Mayor Robert Doyle
Distances: Melbourne-Canberra 665 km, Sydney-Melbourne 876 km

Weather and geography

Melbourne is situated in the south-east corner of the Australian continent, at the coast of Port Phillip Bay. This natural harbor has also assured the upheaval of Melbourne and today it has become the most important international port of the country. Melbourne was pretty much surrounded by rivers, of which the most important is the Yarra, which also passes through the city.
Melbourne has a Temperate Oceanic climate. All four seasons are present in the lives of the people living here, although Melbourne also has typical indicators of extreme weather: frequent cold fronts that lead to rains and massive storms during spring and autumn. The summer can be quite rainy with frequent showers. Nevertheless Melbourne is well known of the summer days when the temperatures are extreme height: for example it was 46.4 ° C, in February 2009. The winter in Melbourne is slightly colder compared to the inner parts of the country, and although snowfall is rare, frost and fog are commonly present in winter.

Transportation

The key element of Melbourne's transport is the car. In the city with one of the world's major road network there are nearly 3.6 million cars that are used by the people live in suburbs mainly. Nevertheless the role of public transport is significant addition to car Visitors in Melbourne can travel by bus, tram, city rail, taxi, and of course by bike. As Protection of the Environment gets a very important role in Melbourne, so in the interior part of the city most of the traveller use the tram and bicycle paths that encompassing the town completely. The tram network is the largest in the world; its size can be well characterized by numbers: in 23 tram lines, with 1773 stops, nearly 500 tram-cars travel around the streets - according to surveys in 2010, 182 million passengers used the service.
In addition city rail, so-called City Loop, carries huge traffic on a daily basis, which connects the central part of Melbourne with the suburbs. It was announced by the city government in 2008 that first in Australia Melbourne will build the first underground subway system. Because Melbourne is a port, there are a number of ferry runs in the bay, and of course, the ferries launched from here to Tasmania as well. Melbourne can claim four Airports, the most important of them is the Melbourne Airport, which is one of the centres of the Australian airline Quanta’s and Australian Air Express.

Attractions and sights

Melbourne abounds in more and more beautiful sights to see, but only a few are listed below, of course, not in order of importance. One of the oldest and certainly the most famous market is the Queen Victoria Market in the heart of Melbourne waits for the curious visitors as well as the customers. The Queen Victoria Market is good not only for purchase, but regularly holds various gastro-cultural programs as well.
The St. Paul's Cathedral is an interesting sight of the city, built in the Neo-Gothic style situated in the heart of the city, opposite the Flinders Street Station.

Last, but nowhere near least, Melbourne Aquarium must be mentioned. More than 30 exhibitions and nearly 3,000 aquatic animals await visitors in the "zoo" that was finished in 2000.

Culture and recreation

Melbourne is usually mentioned as the cultural capital of Australia. A kind of intellectual image was developed around the city over the years, which of course still like to meet this. So there are plenty of top class cultural and sports institutions, libraries and museums in Melbourne. There are also many bars, cafes, shops and restaurants - which are recognized by the whole world - trying to charm their visitors with the authentic feeling of Australian life.

We know that the routes of the tourist maps are paved with dollar notes, still the owners of Melbourne shops, restaurants are trying to stay open minded and above all creative. It is important to them that their business shall be worthy to the cityscape and its atmosphere. Melbourne won at the second place the city of literature title from UNESCO that illustrates the appreciation of the culture and the important role of it the best. Melbourne is mentioned as the city of festivals as well, most notable among them the international art and film festivals. At this point it is worth mentioning also that Melbourne is the centre of the Australian Ballet and film production, and the Symphony Orchestra of Melbourne is world-famous.
The Australian Centre of Moving Image is the country's most famous movie theatre situated in the central business district (CBD) which is uniquely designed.
The cinema that shows the wide variety of films functions as a gallery and conference room also. The most important gallery of the city is the Ian Potter Centre: National Gallery of Victoria.
Australia tries to entice fans of the arts with exhibitions of modern and antique works renewable in every season and also with permanent exhibition of works from all over the world.