The guy was wearing skinny black jeans that clung to his calves but sagged at the crotch, tied up with a belt that looped below his proudly displayed polka-dot boxers. His jacket was made of blue corduroy, and he wore a small straw pork pie hat atop his artfully messy hairdo. As he walked past us down Collins, he was debating with his equally eclectic friend where they could find the best espresso on Centre Place.

Toto, we're not in Tassie anymore. After a week in the wilderness, the metropolitan delights of Melbourne were both a surprise and a relief - 'There's actually some culture down here!'

Melbourne is often considered to be a more European City and Sydney more an American one. The laid back feel of the place and frightening number of coffee shops certainly bear this theory out (I can understand our hipster friend's espresso dilemma), but wandering around the boutique shops, museums and skyscrapers I found it hard not to think of Melbourne as being like New York, with trams.

Like New York, Melbourne is made up of lots of different little neighbourhoods. We had a great four days strolling around the sandstone civic centre, chic Collins St, edgy Collinwood, arty South Bank and chilled-out beach-side St Kilda. My favourite area was Carlton. Just north of the university campus, it used to be the run-down Italian quarter but has now smoothed out most of its rough edges and is virtually wall to wall with busy cafes, small restaurants and bookshops. A whole afternoon disappeared on us just sitting in the wonderful Tiamo coffee shop.

Also like New York, Melburnians are more than a little fitness-obsessed. On our first day in town we got up early and caught a tram from our hostel in St Kilda into the centre. As we rattled north, we found that the entire population of Melbourne had got up before us and was already hard at work enjoying the winter sunshine – running or cycling in packs, playing footie or strolling around the parks, rowing up and down the river. To top it off, when we arrived at Federation Square there were a couple of hundred happy healthy people being led in a warm up before a half marathon.

So between the active lifestyle, museums, coffee shops, restaurants and seemingly healthy work/life balance, Melbourne ranks pretty high on our 'Liveable City' Index (much to our parents' alarm when we phoned home). In fact the only bad thing about Melbourne was where we were staying. City prices and a ludicrous exchange rate ruled out all reasonable accommodation, so we ended up staying in a hostel above a pub by a main road in St Kilda. Actually, the place wasn't that bad (it was above a pub - handy) but our fellow residents turned out to be some of the most unpleasant we've come across so far: A gang of 18 year old horrors from Northern Ireland, they didn't actually seem to leave the hostel at any point during our stay, preferring to hang out in the halls, gorging themselves on junk food, alcopops and cheap wine then bawling and brawling till 4 in the morning. At one point, one of them brought out a pair of bagpipes – seriously – and marched around the corridors playing until he was told to shut the fuck up.