Melbourne

Melbourne is a sexy, cosmopolitan city located in the state of Victoria, Australia. If Melbourne were personified she would be gorgeous, aromatic, and a'la mode, sipping on a mocha. Its Australia's fashion capital, not to mention the centre of the arts, culture, shopping and food. And yes there is a 'friendly regional rivalry' between Melbourne and Sydney. And as others have had stabs at the worlds most liveable city, I'd like to provide some real defence, as un-biasedly as I can: * Melbourne actually got to be a capital for a while (1901-27), sydney never did. In fact the High Court of Australia was only moved to Canberra in 1980. * I'm sure many love 'footy' and rugby, yet Football (aka soccer) is the world game and played by the world's masses, making both these sports quite insignificant in regards to any 'claim of superiority' by either city. * Melbourne hosted the Olympics nearly half a century before sydney, and still holds bigger and more significant events, eg Melbourne Cup, Australian Tennis Open, Grand Prix etc, plus a stack of other art/food/fashion festivals already mentioned. * As a city there actually is some marvellous architecture, too much to mention, though some already has been. The Opera house is a gem however, but I'm rather over the bridge. Melbourne's city planning is undoubtedly superior to sydney, and everyone knows it, with its roads and streets, esp in the CBD. And let's not forget Melbourne's intricate transport system. It's modern yet also charming, with so many sleek cafe's and 'eateries' tucked away in its laneways. Our tollways have E-Tags, which sydney should invest in. Stopping to pay on the freeway? Plus the congestion to follow, its ridicilous. Not forgetting the road lanes, which are dangerously small. * The rest becomes rather trivial, but what the heck- the Harbour Bridge's fireworks-its been done, no-one cares. Melbourne has the taller office building (Rialto Towers) and residential tower (Eureka Tower), yet sydney still has the tallest structure in general (Centrepoint). Melbourne's Crown Casino is larger than sydney's Star City and so is Melbourne's National Gallery of Victoria, compared to sydney's Art Gallery of New South Wales. And some of the lame things I've heard. Better beaches? We have some fantastic beaches, yet don't deny Bondi's superior popularity. At least our beaches are 'war free'. People also 'give shit' to Melbourne's weather. What is that, is that meant to be a 'call'? Does anyone even care? If anything it's never boring and sydney actually gets more rain. Someone even mentioned gang warfare what the hell? And I've heard of racial tension, but race hate gangs? Unheard of in Melbourne. 'Wogs' and 'Skips' generally get along very well here. And Melbournians raving on about what we have? Dont flatter yourselves Melbourne really doesn't need to prove anything to sydney.