An afternoon in Balmain

On Sunday, T and I skyped with family for a long time in the morning. It was a great start to the day!

Then we took the ferry across the harbor to the cute little town of Balmain. Balmain has lots of cute shops and eateries, so we planned to walk around for the afternoon and take in the town. (This, by the way, was Toby's idea for the day, so he gets full credit for the fun we had.)

There is one main road that goes through Balmain, Darling Street, which is the road with all the shops. It seems that locals and tourists come out on the weekend to stroll the town, but it wasn't so crowded that it was miserable. Just pleasantly alive with people out with their families enjoying the day.

It was an interesting town: there were lots of beautiful homes and many cute shops, but all the exteriors looked a little dated - even the ones of the really nice homes. So even though its a very modernized, updated town, it doesn't exactly look like it. In some of the areas we felt like we were in Balmain 150 years ago, and in some areas it felt like we were in the 1970s. It was a very unique town!

We started our walk near the wharf, and I made us duck down a little road through an apartment complex that looked like it led to the water. We stumbled onto a little wall where someone had been enjoying some wine the night before.

Then we headed up the hill to the main part of the town.

A section of the main street

A traveling flower shop

Quaint bookstore

We gabbed some lunch at a little deli where the shop owners called everyone "love" and "darling."

A feta & spinach packet and vegetable tart - yum!

The cafe was great for people watching. We sat next to a man who came in with his mother for some lunch. He was wearing pajama pants his mother gave him, with his dead father's favorite scarf tied around his waist. It was an entertaining lunch to say the least!

This apartment had a beautiful pink blooming tree over the entryway

A sidewalk cafe with cute benches

I guess this is how you compromise on color choice

After we had our fill of walking around and poking into shops, we headed back down the hill to catch our ferry home.

For reference, our apartment is on the shore over my right shoulder

We both decided we would like to explore Balmain more another day - there are a lot of great looking restaurants we'd like to try! (And some cute shops I'll need to visit when I have some spending money!) =D

Posted with Blogsy