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"The music scene is awful. The food is strictly Greek/Italian or Viet/Thai. Nobody has heard of Tapas. Curries are almost impossible to find. And French food might as well not exist".
I had to come on here and dispute this point made by Gags. I know it is not and important issue but it is just plain wrong. There is cuisine from every part of the world here: Italian, Greek, Vietnmaese and Thai but also Indian, Sri Lankan, Japanese, Turkish, Spanish, Jewish etc. etc. I could go on and on.
Curries impossible to find - I think not. I live in the suburbs of Melbourne and within a 5 kilometre radius there are four indian restaurants. Not as many as London but plenty of Indian restaurants around.
Nobody has heard of Tapas - excuse me but tapas has been around in Melbourne for over 10 years. I was eating tapas in restaurants here well over 10 years ago and it might not be Barcelona but it is definately around.
As for the music scene being awful - well every Friday there is a lift out in The Age newspaper which has pages of what's on re. music and there is something for everyone. The Melbourne Jazz Festival is on right now and there is real live music scene. I suppose it depends what you are into.
Gags also said something about people urinating in the stairwell of his apartment. He must have been living somewhere pretty dodgy and public urination is definately something that is not acceptable here. It is much more common in Europe - Paris etc. where you often see men urinating in public. I have never seen anyone urinating in public in Melbourne.
Gag said there is massive problems of drug abuse (especially Crystal Meth and Heroin) - highly exaggerated I think. Heroin use has actually decreased dramatically over the past few years. No worse that the U.K.
Gags seems to have lived the lifestyle of a single, young Guy living in a flat in perhaps a not so nice area. The average family coming to Melbourne living in a decent area would not experience what he is talking about. Yes, there is grafitti and it is a problem but I feel safe in my area and most areas of Melbourne. If you are hanging around the city at 3.00 in the morning on a Friday night with all the drunks then of course you will see a different side of the place just like most other places in the world. I take my kids to the city often and we have never run into any trouble. Of course every large city has it's problems and Melbourne is no exception.
I don't think people should present their somewhat blinkered observations as facts as they are one persons opinion and one persons experience. People make generalised statements about Australia based on their experience in a new estate on the Gold Coast or a suburb in an isolated city like Perth when their experience might have been totallly different had they lived somewhere else in Australia. Australia is a huge and varied country. The difference between say living in a suburb in inner city Melbourne would be the complete opposite of living in say Cairns or the Gold Coast.
Good luck to all those coming to Australia and especially Melbourne.
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