People often talk about cities like New York or London as places where something is always happening. It’s part of their identity — constant motion, endless events, a kind of electricity in the air. Especially in New York, there’s this romanticised idea that you can bump into a friend or a colleague on the street without planning it. I’ve always found that interesting — the way people describe those chance encounters as if they’re an expected part of city life.
But lately, I’ve been realising that Melbourne has that same kind of serendipity — and in some ways, it feels even more special.
Unlike Manhattan, which concentrates people into a tight grid, Melbourne’s geography is more fluid. The CBD is compact and doesn’t dominate the social map in the same way. Instead, the city spreads out — into Fitzroy, Carlton, Richmond, Collingwood or the outer suburbs— and people tend to live, work, and socialise across a wider sprawl. There’s less gravitational pull into the centre, but there’s this quiet, ever-present hum across the whole city.
People do visit — not just for work, but for footy games, arts festivals, comedy shows, and all sorts of smaller things that don’t always get headlines but still pull people here. Just this week, a friend from Samsung was in town for a quick work trip. Nothing major, but it gave us enough reason for us to catch up. And while I was waiting to meet them, someone yelled out my name on the street – it was a work colleague I hadn’t seen in months — just casually walking down the street. It wasn’t planned. It just happened. And somehow that made it better.
That’s the part I love. Because Melbourne isn’t hyper-dense or overly centralised, so you don’t expect these moments. They sneak up on you. You think, “What are the odds?” And then you smile and go with it. To me, that makes it feel even more magical. In a city that’s you don’t expect to produce these chance meetings so often, it somehow does.
And maybe that’s what makes it feel more special here. In New York, it’s almost a stereotype. In Melbourne, it feels like the city’s pulled a quiet trick — brought someone back into your life just for a moment, just when you needed it.
There’s something quietly beautiful about that. Something that makes you feel a little more connected — not just to the people you know, but to the place you call home.