Friday 23 January: Melbourne

Having been in Melbourne for a few days for work, we started our holidays with an evening out for drinks with a group of social enterprise people that we both know. Melbourne is completely different from Sydney in its pub & going out culture – and much more like what we’re used to at home. In Sydney, licensing laws have historically meant that it’s difficult to open anything other than a fairly basic ‘beer shack’ (and they all have the ubiquitous ‘pokies room’ – an even bigger shed filled with games machines, which are huge money-spinners for the pubs, but obviously not for the punters). Melbourne, on the other hand, has a really vibrant, lively pub and club scene – it makes me think of a slightly diluted version of New York (not that I’ve been!). This evening we went to a place called Cookie, which was on several levels, including the rooftop (but there was a massive queue for that!). After a few beers, and as the numbers dwindled, K and I grabbed a quick dinner with another guy, James, in a really busy Chinese place, where James assured us the fried dumplings would be to die for – and he was right! It was the kind of place we’d never have known about without him and it was exactly what we needed to soak up the beer!