The Greatest City in the World?

There is a chance playing online poker may become impossible in the United States. Obviously, this would completely alter my way of life. I have considered many options for investigation were this doomsday to arrive. One possibility would be to move outside the United States and try to continue playing online for my income, assuming the online poker industry is still functional without American business. I think there are many different places I would enjoy living - at least temporarily - in each hemisphere. I have never been to many of these places, such as Vancouver, Britain, Costa Rica, and myriad tropical islands, and would likely do so before choosing a new home. But it's hard for me to imagine a more suitable location than Melbourne, Australia.

It has occurred to me that Melbourne might be the greatest city in the world. It is the finest big city I have ever visited. Certainly this could never be a factual statement. It is an opinion. But Melbourne satisfies every quality a person could possibly desire in a city. It really has it all, with no shortcomings (other than the flies - if you have a problem with flies, then you might have a problem with Melbourne). Consider the city's strengths -

• It's beautiful. I've never been to a prettier big city. The architecture is modern, colorful, creative, vibrant. It's a pleasure to walk around the city during the day or night.

• The ocean. Technically, Melbourne isn't really on the ocean (it's on a humongous bay with a narrow mouth opening to the Bass Straight and the Tasman Sea). But it feels like it's on the ocean. You get that ocean smell, the cool summer/warm winter ocean climate, you can go to the beach, go sailing, whatever.

• It's in Australia. This is a good thing. There's not much to dislike about Australia or Australians. And there's no tipping in Australia (don't come if you're in the service industry).

• The climate is superb - think San Diego.

• There is great ethnic and cultural diversity amongst both the residents and the visitors.
  
• There are great restaurants in great neighborhoods throughout the city. Any kind of food from anywhere in the world - you can get it in Melbourne. Fresh seafood, too.

• The surrounding area is rich with excellent leisure options like penguin watching, wine touring, and The Great Ocean Road.
  
• It's not super expensive. We calculated the cost of staying in a ridiculously nice condo in Melbourne, and it was less than MasterJ pays for his ridiculously nice condo in northern Indiana.
  
• The place is mad for sports. They absolutely fiend for sports. They host the Australian Open. Melbourne is the epicenter of Aussie Rules Football (a surprisingly entertaining game vastly superior to rugby). Something like half the Aussie Rules teams are from Melbourne. Aussie Rules is like the NFL of Australia - the people, especially from Melbourne, are wildly passionate about the game and its rivalries.
  
• The night life is quite spirited
  
• They host the Aussie Millions, which I consider one of the five greatest poker tournaments.
• The girls. My goodness. I could write a whole blog entry about this. Actually I could probably devote an entire, separate blog merely to the women of Melbourne.
  
• The public transportation is excellent. The traffic isn't that bad.
  
• New Zealand is just a short plane flight away. Tasmania too, or by ferry.
  
• It's light out until past 9 PM during the summer.
  

Now if they can just do something about the flies.