Northcote. Lovely!

The good folk of Northcote welcome us with a local protest...

Northcote is very cool.

Did I mention that one of the things I love about living in Melbourne is that no matter how long you've been here, you keep discovering new things?

Northcote is one of them.

Of course I'd always heard of Northcote. And I assumed, after visiting my aunt several times in the nearby suburb of Thornbury, that I'd pretty much been to Northcote. I mean, Thornbury is only just a bit north of there, and it still has High St, so what is Northcote but Thornbury with a few more hipsters?

Oh how wrong I was.

Firstly, Northcote is on a hill. If you've seen the flat glory of Thornbury and most of the north west, you'd admit that finding a hill in that part of Melbourne is quite remarkable. And it is pretty. Lots of little old houses, lovely shop fronts, cute little second hand stores and cafes with awesome food.

So, of course, I decided that I wanted to move to Northcote!

Northcote is, admittedly, full of hipsters. And hippies, and seriously friendly people who don't appear to be familiar with the concept of irony. I guess irony is the refuge of us eastern suburbs folk who suspect there are much cooler places to be that we aren't yet aware of…

We were lucky to chance upon the opening of a festival in High St… Northern Exposure. This featured lots of fun and unexpected street art.

This fire hydrant played music to us via the attached synthesiser...

We also had the chance to see a couple of bands at a very quirky cafe with cute little tables and cute little tablecloths. They served crepes and mulled wine. Awesome.

Northcote should definitely be a stop for any hip-seeking tourists, and for those of you who live in Melbourne and haven't been there yet, go! Just don't move there, I want to be able to afford the rent...

Fabulous vintage fabric store down the road in Westgarth...

The lovely Westgarth cinema... even the bathrooms are pretty!