I figured I’d make a very small start on figuring out which suburb will suit me down here. I assume the quickest way to do this is by tram and I head towards Flinders Street station, hopping on a tram along St Kilda Road.  I am aware that I’m not going in quite the right direction but I just figure I’ll head towards Toorak and then somehow get to Richmond in around about kind of way.

Fail.

5 minutes up St Kilda road the tram stops because of road works and the driver tells us we need to walk down the road to catch a connecting tram to get to Toorak.  When I start to walk to the connection I notice a huge monument and decide instead to follow the tourists up the hill to the WWII War Memorial.  When I get there I feel like I’m back in Washington DC! I’m certain Sydney has something equally as amazing and moving but I’ve just never been a tourist in my own town!  I snap a few photos but my iPhone doesn’t really capture the scale of it I’m afraid. I can also hear my mum’s voice in my head saying, ‘no one wants to see photos of landscapes, there has to be people in there too” so I pull out the tourist snaps thankful the rest of the tourists around me are doing the same thing, “say fuji!”

World War II Memorial

As I walk away returning to the track to the connecting tram I realise I’m probably going to get very lost and I decide to head back to Flinders Street and manage to find a tram heading to Richmond (much more sensible Peta).

The City from the Memorial

I make sure I’m taking mental note of the trip from the city given it may become a daily route should l pick Richmond as my new home. We pass the Rod Laver Arena, MCG & AAMI Park but the journey is a lot of railway lines and not really interesting.  Finally I hop off at Church & Swan Streets, recognising these from conversations I’ve had with Melbourners.  Once I have a walk up both sides of both Swan & Church I decide I really like it. There are lots of little pubs and bars which seemed to be pretty cool and trendy but not so that I would feel uncomfortable.  It’s by no means pretty and is actually pretty dingy looking at first glance but inside the facades things look a lot different. In my head I try to compare it to a suburb but nothing’s springing to mind. Most importantly I look at the people walking along the street. It’s not busy by any means but I note a lot of the cafés and shops are closed given it’s the Easter weekend. Generally people look right – I spot a few bars with people my age having drinks and they all seem like the sort of people I’d hang around. Just quietly I also spot some nice really cute guys  – they all look really fit & healthy and I’m reminded of a friend describing Richmond as “a real footy wanker place” to which I replied, “perfect”.