Exploring Australia#7 City of Melbourne or I'm in love my friend!

"I’m in love, my friend!" – that what one of my favorite book characters was saying, very emotionally, in War and Peace bbc series. And I've been saying the same sentence too many times in the last couple of days - I've spent them in Melbourne and it is just a fantastic city. I was thinking about it this way: if Sydney is more like Moscow then Melbourne is more like Saint Petersburg and that's basically it - no more words needed because of St. Petersburg is my biggest city-crush ever.

Melbourne is a big city - around five million people live in there. However, there is that feeling of space in there. Not that many buildings, not that crowded.
And the atmosphere is just right: there is so much of street art and most of it is a very good one, so many nice cafes and themed bars. Melbournesiders claim, they have the best coffee in the world) It is indeed very good. Our free city tour guide even made us swear that we are not visiting Starbucks ever again and, oh well, I did that willingly:)

People are very friendly. I was extremely lucky with my Airbnb host Jess, she is an artist and I had the best stay ever with her. I came at night, 1 am and at 1:30 we were celebrating the Saturday night with her friends.

And I was so very amused by the fire in the middle of the city. It is real and it smells like woods and many people are gathering around there. I feel such small things are those that make the atmosphere in this city being so special.