In front of the Victorian columns of the State Library, two teenagers push knee-high chess pieces across the pavement. Students lie in the grass, a street musician tests his guitar.

Sarah Schmidt steps out of the listed building and puts on the sunglasses. "Of course the reading rooms and rare books inside are treasures," she says. Often enough, the author has studied and written material here. "But this forecourt is the real reason the library is the heart of Melbourne for me, it has always been a meeting place, a place for gatherings and protests," says Sarah Schmidt, who has been living in Australia's second largest city for more than 25 years. "When in 2003, Melbourne's biggest anti-war demo started, downtown almost exploded in front of people."

Melbourne in the morning: between skyscrapers, avocado toast and espresso scent

On this hot morning in the last vacation week, Victoria's capital is just waking up? on. Glass skyscrapers show like slender fingers in the blue sky. Employees disappear with coffee cups in the elevator shafts of the offices, through open shop doors cool air conditioning cool the footpaths with. In the side wing of the library, we fortify ourselves with "Mr. Tulk? With espresso and avocado toast." There is always a writer sitting here, "says Sarah and looks discretely in the whitewashed café, today meets the blonde Australian herself the quota.

© Emily Waeving

Her debut "See what I've done" appeared in early 2018. A haunting tale of a murder case that occurred in Massachusetts in 1892. The couple Borden was killed with an ax and their daughter Lizzie was suspected of the crime. At the same time he tells of a family that has lost love, of constraints, neurosis and brutality.

The fact that her work is in the bookstores today, the 38-year-old seems to surprise with a penchant for the scary almost themselves. "I wrote 16 versions," she says. In addition to working on the manuscript, she was a librarian, became a mother and moved at least half a dozen times within Melbourne.

"If you live in one place long enough, the city map becomes a kind of emotional map"

"Wherever I go, almost everywhere, something reminds me of a moment or phase of my life," she says.

We walk through the labyrinth of old and new buildings of Schmidt's former university. The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology? one of the eight universities of the city? was at the end of the 19th century, first a college for workers. Behind the towers and battlements of the old building jostle Melbourne's glass facades of the 1980s and architecture that combines recycling and renewable technologies. The university is located in the middle of the CBD, the Central Business District, which is by no means only a business.

A city that offers everything - at any time

Almost a quarter of the 4.5 million inhabitants live in or near the city. Narrow streets liven up the espresso air and restaurants, plane trees and eucalyptus trees line wider streets. Apart from offices, student apartments, hotels and apartments pile up above designer shops, galleries and restaurants. While Sydney or Perth are largely dying after office hours, Melbourne is awake until the wee hours.

© Emily Weaving

A few blocks south of the library, Asian food stalls prepare for the onslaught of hungry lunch guests. The West's oldest Chinatown was created during Australia's Gold Rush in the 1850s, with a museum, historic buildings and Chinese pharmacies still reminiscent of it. But above all, the scents of Asian cuisines lure into Little Bourke Street. "Shanghai Street Dumplings are the salvation in every too-long night," reveals Schmidt. "Especially if you live on a student budget."

Melbourne - a European feeling down under

? Melbourne was created in 1835 as a grid - a geometric grid of lanes and streets. The latter are so wide that there is still room for the tireless trams between cyclists, cars and buses. The rattling trams, but also the art scene, buildings like the almost 150-year-old Town Hall, Victorian churches and the damp-cool winters, Melbourne owes the reputation of being "Australia's most European city".

In Bourke Street, we are looking between street cafes and art graffiti in Sarah Schmidt's favorite book store Hill of Content. "The selection is top notch," says the author, confessing, "One day I went out with 15 books here."

Around the corner sits the Princess Theater with domes and stained-glass windows in the second-empire style. Schmidt loves the musicals that are played there, while at the same time serving her Gothic inclinations - in the opulently decorated building haunts Federici, the spirit of a Mephisto actor who died on stage.

Carlton - a trendy district with a gruesome past

Past the Greek Quarter we stroll into the former working-class and present-day trendy district of Carlton - another reason for Melbourne's European reputation. From midday, on Lygon Street, pizzerias, cafes and Italian restaurants are all about the joy of a piazza. Australia's passion for espresso and latte macchiato was born here.

Under wrought iron balustrades we run slalom between waiters balancing spaghetti over the sidewalk. "Because of these smells, I used to go home every night," says Sarah, who at the time, however, ate student food instead of Scaloppine.
Of course she knows the creepy stories of the neighborhood except the pubs.

In 1949, a murder was committed on Dorrit Street, for which Jean Lee was the last Australian to be sentenced to death.

"Your" murder case was discovered by Schmidt in a secondhand shop very close by. "I had never heard of the story, but since a text about the famous ax murder came into my hand, I dreamed of Lizzie Borden - every night!" Sarah Schmidt stops in front of a row of two-story terrace houses, at the house number 401 it points to a wrought-iron balcony. "Up there, I started to write down Lizzie's story, first of all to free myself from the nightmares," she says. A long process. "That's over eleven years ago!"

A city, two worlds

It is 32 degrees, dry heat, no breeze. We get into Tram 96, which connects the trendy district of East Brunswick with the beach suburb of St. Kilda in the south - and at the same time separates two worlds. In the north, small fashion studios, designer workshops, vegan markets, yoga studios, and an endless selection of cafés, pubs, and restaurants characterize the hip Fitzroy, Brunswick, and Carlton areas. Six kilometers south of the city, palm trees line beaches and promenades, while yachts, joggers and sea breezes characterize Melbourne's exclusive waterfront playground.

"Once I drove at the urging of friends to the terminus St. Kilda, right up to the bay." The customer review has been automatically translated from German. Sarah Schmidt makes a face as if it were a kind of test of courage, then she laughs: "When I arrived, I immediately turned around again." The weightless shallowness of the beach suburb is clearly not her case.

The National Gallery is so much more than a dusty museum

Instead, we get off track just beyond the Yarra River. An endless waterfall flows over a huge glass wall, behind which hang the treasures of the National Gallery of Victoria, Australia's largest public art gallery. "If I get stuck writing, I'll walk past the paintings until some image intrigues me, sometimes I look at it for hours until something clicks and I can keep writing." We stroll through the cool rooms of the gallery, teeming with visitors.

© Emily Weaving

365 days of culture, sports and festivals

Opposite donate the giant trees of the Botanical Garden shade, in cafes on the shore, spectators of the Australian Open. The tennis tournament has made the city a little fuller than usual. "But Melbourne is always running a festival or sporting event," says Sarah Schmidt. She likes that as long as a seat in one of her favorite restaurants remains free. Back in the lively Fitzroy we let the day end at "Marios".

On the walls there are drawings by artists from the neighborhood, the pasta tastes like southern Italy, the neon sign reminds of the 80s.

Melbourne's multicultural youth passes by in front of big windows. Opposite, the evening sun paints the leafy facade of the Eckkneipe pink.? "City planners like to think of something new," says Sarah Schmidt and tells of the Southbank, a drawing board district on the river, in which just the tallest building in the southern hemisphere is growing into the sky. "I prefer organically grown neighborhoods, but fortunately Melbourne still has a lot of it."

Melbourne: 10 insider tips from Sarah Schmidt

© Martin Haake

Stay

• Hotel Lindrum. In the middle of the city overlooking the botanical garden, luxuriously modern rooms behind the historic facade. The service is so attentive that you feel like the only guest. Double from 130 Euro, 26 Flinders Street, City, Tel.0061 / 396681111. www.hotellindrum.com.au
  

Experience  

• State Library, Mr. Tulk. Huge historical library with reading rooms, good bookstore and café. 328 Swanston Street / corner of La Trobe, City Café Mon. Thu 7? 17, Fri to 9pm, Sat / Sun 9am to 4pm. www.mrtulk.com.au
• Hill of Content Book- shop First-class bookstore on two floors with knowledgeable booksellers and good selection. 86 Bourke Street, City, Tel. 0061/3 96 62 94 72. hillofcontentbookshop.com
• Trades Hall & International Bookshop. Historic trade union house with painted foyer and interesting second-hand shop in the basement. Opposite reminds the 8-hour column of the victory of Melbourne's stonemasons, who fought in 1856 the 8-hour day. 54 Victoria St./Lygon, Carlton. //nibs.org.au
• Princess Theater. Splendid theater building from 1853 with opulent decorations and in-house spirit: since 1888 haunts Federici, who died on stage as Mephistopheles. Especially musicals are played. 163 Spring Street, Melbourne.marrinergroup.com.au/venues/princess-theatre
• Royal Botanic Gardens 39-hectare park and botanical collection of plants from around the world in the heart of the city on the Yarra River. Birdwood Avenue, City. www.rbg.vic.gov.au
• National Gallery of Victoria. Australia's oldest art museum with an excellent collection of international, modern art and special exhibitions. NGV's Australian Art and Aboriginal Art is opposite in the Ian Potter Center, Federation Square. Admission free.?180 St. Kilda Road, Tel. 0061/3 86 20 22 22. www.ngv.vic.gov.au
  

Bars and restaurants

• Milk the cow. In the long bar you will find excellent wines and spoiled for choice between 180 cheeses from all over the world. Daily. from 12 o'clock. 323 Lygon Street, Carlton, Tel. 0061/3 95 37 22 25. milkthecow.com.au
• Super Normal. Asian-inspired, fine dishes with wine, sake, whiskey or cocktails. Inevitable: the New England Lobster Roll on homemade brioche. Fair prices, daily from 11 o'clock.180 Flinders Lane, Tel. 0061/3 96 50 86 88 supernormal.net.au/supernormal
• Marios. Cult Italian with excellent pasta and hearty breakfast menu. Take a break and let Fitzroy's street life pass large windows. 303 Brunswick Street, Fitzroy, Tel. 0061/3 94173343. www.marioscafe.com.au

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