My travel checklist for Melbourne contained many things when it should have said only one: pound the city pavements. Traditional guides will tell travellers to venture to Yarra Valley, Philip Island, and the Great Ocean Road among others (all well and beautiful in themselves) but locals will lure you into cafés and to come, sit a while. While staying in might seem like missing out, it seems that over the years, the people have made the streets of Melbourne the sole institution, the main feature.

Laneways - that's what they're called. Where entrepreneurs of all kinds set up shop, daring to release their inner creativity and vision, hoping to cater to the niche and the crowd. Where paperback bookstores, jewellery boutiques, art galleries, barber shops, chocolate connoisseurs stand side by side, offering services and stories...

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