It seems Melbourne ain’t so bad after all.

In the past I have travelled to Melbourne for work and spent the bulk of my time between the convention centre and the Crowne Plaza hotel opposite. The one time I tried to go for fun, Melbourne experienced the biggest storm in 100 years. It had a somewhat gloomy flooding effect on both the city and my enthusiasm for it.

Most recently, I travelled down for a friend’s Halloween bash and Derby Day at Flemington, both very exciting activities in their own right. The difference between this trip and all the others was that I spent the whole time hanging out with locals in their suburbs, namely Windsor, Parkville, Brunswick and Carlton.

Sure, the weather is bonkers but by golly, the locals are friendly. Some girls at the races invited me to a Dan Sultan gig and loaned me their swipe card for the train, the other guests at the Halloween party gave me all sorts of philosophical relationship advice and my friend Lou took me to the best café of all time, Wide Open Road in Brunswick, and then we went to Carlton to look at $400 scarves and beautiful Italian cake shops.

The thing I noticed above all else was a sense of elegance, openness, professionalism and pride.

Sydney is all tits, teeth and dude food, whereas Melbourne is good shoes, family pasta recipes and a contained sense of mischief. I like it.