This week I've come to appreciate Melbourne again. I used to spend a lot of time in Melbourne, as a school kid haunting the Pickwick Papers Bookshop in the Degraves Street entrance to Flinders Street Station, going up Swanston Street to Space Age Books where we pored over the second hand comics in their plastic covers - well you can see why I'm attending AussieCon. Anyway, some things have changed since then. Both of these bookshops are gone, for instance. Young and Jacksons is still there though, as is the iconic front entrance to Flinders Street with its landmark clocks.

"The Clocks" has always been a meeting place for Melbournians. "Let's meet at the clocks" is probably the most widely used phrase in starting out a night in Melbourne. The biggest change, however, is in the three or four blocks radius from the clocks. Degraves street is now a sea of cafe's as are many of the other lanes that were once dingy little rat runs for those of us making our way to and from trains and work. Walking up Swanston street you can find a vast array of restaurants from every corner of the globe, although particularly from Asia. Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indonesian and Japanese restaurants nestle between tacky trinket shops and tourist traps and cheap eats abound.

Probably the biggest and best change has been around the river. Southbank was a start, but the Crown complex has added both tack and glamour in almost equal amounts. You could forget that there was in fact a casino in the centre of the complex, especially if you are a foodie. A prime example is Giuseppe Arnoldo & Sons - a high class Italian restaurant that just has to be experienced. The food, the service, the atmosphere all combined to provide a unique and very enticing dining experience. It was one of those evenings that even though I was on my own I didn't want to leave. And for me that is a truly outstanding experience.

So if you are in Melbourne for AussieCon (or any of the other many conferences on in Melbourne) take the time to wander around this truly great city. There is great architecture, great food, great people and it is all accessible.