Melbourne Regions - Inner North
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Carlton
Academia, little Italy in Lygon street, Royal Exhibition Building, and the best Possum-parks, also home to the Nova Cinema, one of Melbourne best "art house" venues, see first release movies for A$6 before 4pm on Mondays ($8 after 4pm, excluding Public Holidays).
Across the road from Cinema Nova you can find Readings bookstore, which has an excellent notice board for finding share accommodation in the area.
Collingwood
A funky suburb just north of the city. Great cafes and outlet stores. Plenty of high rise low income public housing gives this suburb a grimy inner city edge. Running parallel to Brunswick St, this area has seen much less of the urban redevelopment taking place in inner city Melbourne.
Brunswick
Brunswick with Sydney Road being the longest shopping street in Melbourne, a busy street packed with cheap restaurants selling all kinds of cuisine & is home to a few huge 2nd hand clothing stores.
Brunswick East is also home to CERES Community Environment Park, which is an internationally recognised model of a sustainable society spread over 4.5 hectares & regularly has weekend music gigs, plenty of workshops, organic food markets, a cafe & regular tours of their space.
Fitzroy
Fitzroy is (or perhaps was) the alternative district of Melbourne, but recently rising rents have seen many locals having to move out to surrounding suburbs such as Northcote, & Brunswick. The main street of Fitzroy is Brunswick St where you will find a huge array of bars, cafes, restaurants, & clothing stores.
Nightlife
Brunswick St, Fitzroy
Another very good area to go out at night is Brunswick street, in Fitzroy.
Brunswick street is a hub of bars, food and people. Bar Open has live music, beers and more. It's nothing special (if you're a yuppie) but is open late and good for a conversation with a stranger. Black Cat has a high rotation of art shows and open DJ decks during the week. With undercover outside seating and heaps of friendly kids, it is sure to be a good trash fest. It is not to be confused with the Night Cat, where they have fantastic live music over the entire weekend. Salsa, Funk, Jazz and anything else to get you and your partner dancing. First Floor is the hip-hop hub of Fitzroy. Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday are good nights for parties there. Live Hip Hop, Dj's, bangin tunes and booty. On Sunday nights they host the players ball, with resident Dj Miss Butt playing fat bass. During the day, Brunswick street offers interesting fashion stores and has a real creative vibe. Grab breakfast(all day) at Babka's Bakery, tiny and always busy, but excellent food.
For live music close to Brunswick St you also have The Evelyn Hotel in north fitzroy & the legendary live music venue The Tote can be found on Johnstone St, in nearby Collingwood.
To get to Brunswick St, Catch the tram #112 (West Preston) from Collins street in the CDB or tram #86 (Bundoora RMIT) from Bourke St & get off two stops before Smith St, Collingwood.
Smith St, Collingwood
Smith Street runs parallel to Brunswick st, and whilst not as popular still has similar venues along it. Shops, cafes, and restaurants. There is Veganwares, a vegan shoe store, where the staff there actually are the ones making the shoes. There are also some organic vegetarian hippie shops and restaurants. The restaurant, Gluttony has quite a reputation for great food & makes an awesome breakfast. Whilst Bar-Bukka has some interesting bands playing world music. There is also the Lambs Go Bar venue tucked away just off it on St David St, a warm venue with tight corners and lovely thick stone walls. On the corner of Smith & Gertrude St you'll also find Alia a cosy little bar playing lots of great techno/electro/breaks by local crews til the early hours & next door Sendito Funf which has a great outdoor beer garden hidden out back.
To get to Smith St catch the #86 (Bundoora RMIT) from Bourke St & get off anytime after Gertrude St.
Gertrude St, Fitzroy
Gertrude St connects Smith & Brunswick streets on the upper end. It also contains some great little restaurants/cafes & has more recently become popular for large amount of small galleries exhibiting local work & groovy fashion stores full of goods made by melbourne designers & craftsmen.
To get to Gertrude St catch the #86 (Bundoora RMIT) from Bourke St & get off anytime after the tram turns at the old Melbourne exhibition centre into Gertrude St.
