Sydney, Part 1

Sydney Antique Centre

All images were taken by me and are un-edited.

 In my previous post I mentioned that I was going to Sydney, well I'm home now! I only managed to comment on about two blogs while I was away, but I'll be doing more catching up soon. My visit to Sydney (with my mum) involved lots of walking, visiting vintage shops, exploring the culture, people watching, taking photos, drinking some wonderful coffees and chai lattes, eating fabulous food and of course, taking way too many photos of the Sydney Opera House and Harbour Bridge.

Living rurally near a small country town, I don't really get out much, so Sydney had me a little overwhelmed with all the weird and wonderful stuff to gawk at. The best way I could describe to my mum what I thought of it was 'there's always things to do and look at and there's always stuff going on.' I was so distracted by everything that most of the time I forgot to take my camera out (I ended up learning to just leave the strap around my neck and keep the lens cap off.) I wanted to see and experience everything Sydney had to offer in such a brief time - which of course, I unfortunately couldn't do. Sometimes I found it hard to sit still because I was anxious to take in as much as I could. Visiting places like these give that feeling that there's always more to do and see and more parts of the city to visit. But I still managed to have a wonderful time and some great experiences.

My mum's good friend Robyn was our guide around Newtown on our second day in Sydney, showing us vintage shops and streets with some amazing graffiti. As well as a community art project (sixth image) which she told us about, it was photos of people - just people, doing all sorts of people stuff in black and white images. Some had had graffiti done over them or been ripped, which sometimes created an interesting effect. It was certainly very entertaining to look at all the beautiful images and graffiti she showed us. We had dinner one night at an Italian restaurant and ate some of the best Tirimisu I've ever tasted. Another day we explored a market where we picked up breads, olives and several cheeses to take to her place for a delicious evening snack.
Other days it would just be my mum and I, wandering about King st (Newtown), getting confused about which bus we were catching to get to Surrey Hills, taking the ferry on the darling harbour after a delicious breakfast and a look at the exact replica of The Endeavour (third image), or riding the train into the city.

The city was definitely one of the highlights of my visit, I was constantly blown away by the beautiful architecture, shops and people. We visited art museums and walked around the streets pointing out the amazing things (which was everything we saw) as well as looked at all the fancy shops, including a Burberry store - no, scratch that, museum which had about six security guards. You could definitely tell we weren't from there, as we took so many pictures and stared at everything with wide eyes (and we also may have rode the escalators and went around in the revolving doors for fun.)

Another highlight was when we visited The Sydney Antique Centre (last five images) in Surrey Hills on the last full day of our visit. It was packed with gorgeous little vintage and antique stalls full of some incredible furniture, jewellery, clothes, etcetera. The entire place was an absolute visual feast, I saw some of the most exquisite vintage pieces: seventies green maxis, floral embroidered sixties robes, fifties autumn leaf cotton dresses, sheer forties overdresses, thirties silk bed jackets, twenties satin heels and antique beaded mourning gowns. Although I didn't buy anything (despite some really good prices) it definitely had my head filled with inspiration, I could have spent a week there looking at all the gorgeous things and eating the delicious food served at the Cafe.

Although I enjoyed my time at Sydney immensely and felt a little melancholy when we were flying back home, it's good to be home with my family and and the beautiful rural sky - there was something very surreal (and a little discomforting) about not seeing the stars in the city.