Sydney Weddings

One of our hobbies in Sydney was taking photos of people taking wedding photos. Sydney is one of the most scenic cities I’ve seen, and there are just so many great spots to serve as your matrimonial backdrop. Argyle Park in the Rocks is a common spot.




So are the Botanical Gardens.


And just outside the Domain.




Balmoral is lovely.




As were these spots near the beach in Terrigal.




Of course, there’s nothing wrong with iconic either.


(The last shot, probably my favorite, was taken by my partner in crime, Becca.)

North to South

I’ve posted this photo from the North Head before, but it’s one of my favorite views so it’s worth another showing, especially so it can be compared to this shot from the South Head:


I took this from The Gap at Watson’s Bay looking out at the spot at Manly where I took the first one a month earlier. The Heads mark the entrance from the ocean into the harbour. (A map for perspective.) There’s also a Middle Head at Balmoral, which I realized I also have a photo of.


I didn’t go on the Middle Head, but you can see it here from Awaba Street. To the left is North Head.

Thrilling, I know. I guess the point of this is just to show different angles of Sydney. During my time there I saw so much, and now I'm going back and really recognizing how much ground I covered...sometimes not even on purpose.

A Photoless Visit to Dulwich Hill

The above photo, just to catch your attention, is from a corner in Newtown after my walk through Dulwich Hill. I don’t have photos from Dulwich Hill because I felt out of place with my camera. The neighborhood isn’t touristy at all, but my little digital camera is.

Why did I want to walk around the humble westerly neighborhood? The New York Times told me to. Well, it didn’t tell me to, but it convinced me to. (Newspapers are good at doing that.) I’d read an article called “In Dulwich Hill, Sydney, Finding the World in a Few Blocks,” and hey, if that’s where the world is, that’s where I’ll go.

Believe it or not, I think I found a good chunk of the world. I must have heard four or five different languages just as I walked down Marrickville Road. I got off the bus in what would probably still be considered Marrickville and made my way to Dulwich Hill. There’s nothing flashy about either part of town. It’s no Paddington or Balmoral. It’s a working class area with a diverse immigrant population. The streets are lined with discount stores, butcheries, Portuguese chicken shops, Greek cafés and Lebanese patisseries (with more unassuming pastries than Balmain). There’s even an Egyptian restaurant. Very few chains to be found.

A prime example of the authentic local feel came when I stopped in Eumundi Smokehouse (several Sydney food bloggers seem to be fans). A man was browsing the sausage selection when the woman behind the counter asked, “Were you here last week?” He said yes, and she said, “Yeah, you bought two of the hot Spanish pork sausage last week and left them on the counter. What do you want today? I owe you two sausages.” I thought that was great.

The houses along Marrickville Road were single-level Federation style with small front yards, compared to the Victorian row houses on the narrow streets of Darlington, Chippendale, Redfern and other areas near campus and around Sydney. The area reminded me of West LA where I lived with my parents in a tiny house when we first moved to California. Both have a lot of immigrants and working class people. The businesses meet needs without any additional flash.

I bought a scarf and sweater for $9 total at a second-hand shop, which if I was in the cooler Surry Hills neighborhood would be called vintage and double or triple the price. Same distinction between West LA and Melrose in Los Angeles.

I’m not going to romanticize Dulwich Hill like the New York Times, but the neighborhood had a good feel to it. Lots of life. Real life, at that. It's always refreshing to get out of the Uni bubble...to conveniently relate back to the main photo.

The Balmoral Lifestyle

I’ve made it a mission to explore areas of Sydney outside the tourist/uni student bubble. I have a list of neighborhoods still to check out. But with autumn rain clouds hanging overhead for more than a week, not to mention a few thousand words worth of research papers due, it’s been harder to get out these days. Finally on Sunday, I set aside a few rainless hours to visit Balmoral, an area of North Sydney brought to my attention by Not Quite Nigella.


I noticed a few things about Balmoral (pronounced BAL-moral, not bal-MORALE, as I originally wanted to call it). First, everyone smells like coconut. Second, everyone has kids under age five or is pregnant. The area is beautiful and so are the people, their modern houses and snazzily dressed kids.


I wandered through the hilly residential streets with my friend Becca, admiring the homes and thinking of Malibu. We eventually found our way to The Esplanade on Hunter’s Bay. As per Not Quite Nigella’s recommendation, we stopped at the Bather’s Pavilion Kiosk to grab a snack, which we ate on the small headland park, surrounded by young couples and their kids.


Ah, the Balmoral lifestyle.


In town we saw several children’s clothing and maternity wear shops. Becca and I stopped in a few home stores to look at kitchen gadgets and gourmet non-perishables.

I decided Balmoral would be a fantastic place to get married, buy a house (like this one) and then make tarts and babies for the next few years. Of course, I’d have to find that coconut scent everyone was wearing.