Tag: Balmain

Things I’ve discovered

  • Glebe Market:  A huge market of food and vintage clothes, among other things.  It’s in the Glebe neighborhood, which is eclectic with lots of restaurants, cafes, and specialty stores…and a giant mall.
  • Balmain:  More spread out than Mosman, but with more to offer and closer to the city
  • Kangaroo and camel are tasty
  • Australia’s biggest horse race, the Melbourne Cup, is always on the first Tuesday of November at 3 p.m.  It’s basically their Kentucky Derby.  No, I don’t know why it’s on a Tuesday in the middle of the afternoon, but many stores shut down at least long enough to watch the race, although some close for the afternoon or indeed the entire day.
  • The New South Wales Writers’ Centre:  I signed up for a creative non-fiction writers’ conference here last weekend and found out that this place is not all that far from where I now live in Balmain.  Cool place (with free WiFi!) that is offering space to those participating in NaNoWriMo (which I sort of am, but in a very non-committal way…)
  • Powerhouse Museum:  Like a science museum with a lot of interactive exhibits, clearly meant for kids but worth a visit for anyone.  I went mostly to see the exhibit about the Beatles’ sole trip to Australia at the beginning of their illustrious career.  I also enjoyed the Playing With Light exhibit.
  • The David Jones department store in downtown Sydney is huge and is what most every American department store wishes it could be.  Also, I want to move into its Foodhall.
  • None of the malls I’ve been to here make any sense to me.  They are big and difficult to navigate and sometimes flow seamlessly into other malls.  For example, The Galeries, the QVB, the Strand, and the Westfield shopping center downtown are all essentially in the same place.  And one of the two David Jones stores was an astounding 8 floors. Also, why must people walk all the way around the world to get to the next escalator?
  • I really wish I’d brought more long-sleeved shirts.  We may be going into summer here, but there are still plenty of days where I wear my North Face jacket unabashedly.

In actually exciting news, I’m going to see the Great Ocean Road in two weeks!  Look it up on Google Images and you’ll understand why I’m excited.

Until next time…

My month in Mosman draws to a close

On the up side, I have a place to live come Friday.  Actually, I was supposed to move out Thursday but my host and I were both confused on the date.  He agreed to let me stay an extra night for free since I brought back beer on Saturday after I won a six-pack at one of the last Sydney Craft Beer Week events.  Win-win.  Anyway, on Friday I’m moving to Balmain, a really cute area of town that may even have a little more to offer than Mosman (not just the fact that it has three Indian restaurants to Mosman’s 0) even though the demographic makeup is largely the same (older people and yuppie families, all white–something I hadn’t really bothered to think much about until one of my hosts in Balmain mentioned it).  I had never been before until I went to check out this spare room at a house last night, and since I got to town a little early, I decided to walk around for a bit.  I really liked what I saw, so I’m pleased that I will be living there.  I’ll be renting a room in the house of an older couple who also rent out a room to a 30-year-old French woman, so maybe not ideal, but with Balmain being so close to the city, I should be able to just jet back and forth with no problem (have I mentioned how much I love taking the ferry?  No traffic jams on the water, and the scenery is unreal).  And hey, I’ll still have a room to myself!

But all this makes me a little sad about leaving Mosman.  I had mostly gotten the hang of the bus routes around here.  I get recognized at one of the little cafes in town.  I’ll no longer have easy access to the best tiramisu I’ve ever eaten and an inexpensive sip of good bourbon (also home to the spiciest thing I’ve ever eaten).  I won’t walk by the tailoring shop on the way into town and be able to gaze at the gorgeous dresses in the window.  I can’t just catch the bus to Balmoral Beach and be there in 10 minutes (not that I’ve been there since I went the other week, but hey, it’s nice to have that option).  I’ll miss the nice IGA 15 minutes’ walk away.  Getting mail from my PO Box will require a couple hours’ field trip, although hey, mail is nice (hint hint 😉 ) and it’ll be good to have an excuse to come back to the area.

And then there’s the matter of how much I’ll miss this apartment.  Waking up to be able to see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge from the living room window has been pretty amazing.  Plus, the view from the roof is hard to beat, especially during fireworks shows.  Also, I got to live mostly alone, although even when my host was here, it’s been fine.

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So Mosman, I’ll miss you.  But I’ll be sure to visit.