The Goods Line

It was another cloudy, rainy weekend this past weekend, so not great for adventuring. But it did look like we were having a break in the showers on Saturday afternoon. So I made a break for it and caught the train down to Central to walk the new Goods Line.

The old rail line

The Goods Line is a new walkway in Sydney. It's built on an old, retired tram line that used to move goods from Darling Harbour down farther into the city where the railway started. This was back in the days when Darling Harbour was actually used as a port, so the 1800s into the mid-1900s. Since Darling Harbour was converted into an entertainment area and the shipping industry moved outside the city, the old rail line has just been falling into neglect. Until this year when it was revamped to make a nice walkway that connects Central Station to the Powerhouse Museum.

The Goods Line goes by the University of Technology Sydney, which has this interesting new building.

There are a lot of rain gardens built along the walkway too, which will be really nice once they all come in.

Some fun fountains for kids to play in.

And then by the time I made it to the Powerhouse Museum, the rain had started back up. Perfect timing for me to head to Paddys market before heading back home!

The produce at Paddys is always nice and cheap, but it means wading through the chaos of the market to get it. It's full-on, with lots of old Asian women elbowing their way through, and everyone at the stalls randomly shouting things like "Eggplant!!" or "Seven dollars!!"

Entering the chaos

I don't know what have the veggies are

But when I come home with a stack of produce like this for $23, I always think it's worth it!

Yay! Set for the week!

We ended the day with a dinner out to give T a break from studies. We went early, at least for Sydney dinnertimes. Which meant that we ended up in a dining room pretty much all to ourselves. Which is just how T likes it.

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Vino Paradiso

Last weekend there was a wine festival down at The Rocks. T was working super hard on his school project so he didn't have much spare time. I decided that meant more wine for me, so off I headed!

I took the scenic way, across the bridge and down through the heart of The Rocks to get there.
It was threatening rain, so there weren't too many tourists about.

Down at the wine festival, it was a bit more happening! The festival was spread out through the rocks into different areas. Each area was dedicated to different wine regions of Australia, so you could feel like you were on a wine tour of Australia.

The Barossa region of the festival - although I think pizza is universal

The festival was pretty high tech. You couldn't use cash to pay for anything at the booths. Instead you had to load money onto a card, and then the booths all had a little machine that took money off your card for each taste or pour. It made it pretty convenient, even though I definitely felt pressured to not leave any money on the card!

There were some cute stalls

There were hundreds of wineries at the festival, and I didn't have much of a plan. So I just wandered around and picked up a taste when I saw a place that caught my eye.

Another cute stall

I saw some things that I'd never seen before. Like this oyster girl, who was walking around doing portable oyster servings.

And Gelato Messina was there, too, with wine-themed gelato of course!

The wine festival is the first time I've never seen a giant line at a Messina booth

It was a really nice way to spend the afternoon, and after a few hours I caught the ferry home!

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Adventure to La Perouse

Last weekend was lovely and sunny. It was also the first Sunday of the month, which mean that the Blak Markets were on at La Perouse. So I decided to catch a bus out from the city and go check them out!

La Perouse is a suburb about 40 minutes outside the city center. It's on the coast and named for a French explorer (La Perouse) who landed there. It's quite close to Botany Bay, which is where Captain Cook landed in Australia, and La Perouse actually arrived just eight days after Captain Cook did. 

At La Perouse there is a small island called Bare Island. As they did all over, the British turned the island into a fort, so now you can go to visit the historic fortified island by walking over a small bridge. 

On average days, you can go through the fort and see some historic areas in it. On the Blak Market days, the fort tunnels turn into a marketplace!

One of the other interesting & historical things about La Perouse is that it was one of the first places in Australia to be reserved as a resettlement area/reserve for the Aboriginal people. There is still a very big Aboriginal population in the area, and the Blak Markets are specifically focused on Aboriginal crafts and handiwork. On market days, there are also live performances and cooking of native animals & produce, so it's a great way to get some exposure to the original residents of Australia. 

It was a ton of fun to meander through the old fort tunnels and see what kind of crafts I'd wander into. A lot of the sellers were tucked into tiny little rooms along the tunnels, so each corner brought something different. 

I didn't buy anything in my fortress wandering, but it was still fun to check everything out. After I left the island, I decided to do a short walk along the mainland shore and go to Congwong Beach. 

The beach was really nice and surprisingly empty for a Sydney beach. I thought about getting in for a a minute, but then I felt the freezing cold water and decided that I was probably OK!

I hung out on the beach for a little while, and then caught my bus ride back to the city. The next time we go to La Perouse, I'll go to the actual museum - not just the fort - and I'll bring a picnic so I can spend more time at the beach properly. All in all though, I consider my La Perouse adventure a big success!

Italian festival fun

We missed the Italian Festival last year, I don't remember why. But we had sooo much fun the first year that we were here, that I wanted to go back. We also remembered, however, how crazy packed it was that year too. So we decided to get there around 10, which is when it started.

T was very excited, of course.

Even though we got there pretty early, there were still a few people around!

The best thing about the Italian festival is the general atmosphere. There is lots of music and people seeming happy to be there. But the second best thing, of course, is the food!

Of course, because it's Australia, 10 in the morning isn't too early for the beer tent to be open!

We decided to skip the beer though, and just stick with a pizza. We ate pizza from a restaurant that has the Napoletana Classification, which basically means that the pizza is made in all these specific ways - like the dough is only kneaded by hand and can't be more than 35 centimeters in diameter, etc. I'll be honest, I couldn't really taste if all that was the case, but it was tasty nonetheless!

We didn't stay for too long, but our pizza and wandering through the stalls was so fun. Til next year!!!