A weekend of Sydney-ing around

One of my favorite parts of studying abroad in Australia is being able to wander around Sydney. It’s a bit surreal to be able to hop on a bus essentially whenever I want and roam all over Sydney. I always have some fun little adventures around Sydney and this weekend was no exception.


I spent my Saturday running all over Sydney with my roommates Courtney and Natalie. We spent the first half of the day going to a couple different markets in Sydney. The first one is called the Rozelle Markets in Balmain which is right up the road from our school in Drummoyne. We walked around there for a while and then headed onto Paddy’s Market. We never have any trouble spending our money at Paddy’s which is right by China Town near Darling Harbour and has EVERYTHING imaginable. Souvenirs, clothes, and knick-knacks galore!! Courtney and Natalie found some great deals in souvenirs for their families. Paddy’s Market has everything that all the expensive city stores have for a fraction of the price. I love Paddy’s! It’s a tourist’s dream considering the insane Sydney prices.

After we shopped til we dropped we walked back through Darling Harbour where the Blues and Jazz Festival was going on. There was a stage set up literally in the middle of the harbor with live music as we walked by. There were a few stages set up all throughout Darling Harbour with free live music. We took a ferry over to Luna Park when it was dark and the park looked incredible all lit up. There was a wedding going on when we were there and the newlyweds were riding the Ferris wheel. Courtney, Natalie, and I couldn’t resist riding it and it was so worth it. Once we reached the top of the Ferris wheel the night view of the city was gorgeous. The Opera House looked like it was right under the Harbour Bridge, two of my favorite Sydney views.

We eventually wandered over the Harbour Bridge to the Australian Hotel where they serve gourmet kangaroo, crocodile, and emu pizzas. Some other American students met us there and some of the girls and I split a kangaroo pizza. I was a bit hesitant to eat kangaroo especially after being in the outback and seeing them hopping across the bush, but it was really good! It tasted like a chewier version of a beef steak. The sauce was made of native Australian berries so it was a sweet tangy flavor. A couple of the boys got crocodile pizza which is a white meat and they said it was good too.

Sunday morning my four roommates and I had a little mini-road trip with our host dad, Wayne. He took us about an hour up to the north side of Sydney where our favorite Australian television show, Home and Away, is filmed at Palm Beach. Home and Away is a pretty cheesy Australian soap opera but we can’t help ourselves, we love it! Home and Away has been going on for around forty years and almost every famous Australian actor or actress got their start on the show.

Palm Beach is a quiet isolated part of Sydney that had rocks on one side and a cliff with a stunning light house on the other. It was chilly but there were still some die hard surfers out catching some waves including a fifty-year old lady! There was a little café across the street and a little bit down the road the Palm Beach Markets were going on. We stopped and looked around for a bit and the markets were really interesting. There were a lot of homemade clothes, scarves, hats, bags, soaps, and house wares. They had a little playground area set up and vendors selling coffee and food. The vendors were all local and it was a really chill atmosphere. I think if I lived in Australia I would want to live in a more isolated part of the city. Sydney is such a huge sprawling city and every part of it is different.

We walked around Palm Beach pretending to be Martha, Hugo, Romeo, Nicole, and all the Home and Away characters and then after went walked around the market we headed back down the coast. We stopped at a couple other beaches to look around and had our lunch, “banana sangers”, or sandwiches at a beach that Wayne used to surf at when he was younger. On his he put bananas, butter, and sugar. We snuck some peanut butter on ours! We drove down a bit further and stopped at the Hubbard Diggers club and got potato wedges for a snack. The restaurant was right on the water and we watched the AFL game for a bit.

We headed back home after we ate at the club and we were home in time for us girls to go to St. Andrew’s Anglican Church where we’ve been going to the 5:30pm service called Fix Church. I really like Fix because the age group is upper high school, college students, and a couple young married couples. Everyone is very welcome and opening and I really really like the messages every week. They have been both interesting and challenging. It’s been interesting because of the cultural differences and the different teaching style. Challenging because each message makes me leave thinking about a change I need to make it my life.

After the service there is always “supper” for everyone to talk and hang out. Supper is sometimes actual supper like soup and bread or sometimes it’s just doughnuts and cookies with coffee. Last week it was Fix Church’s 9th “birthday” so there was a birthday cake and a little party. There is a strong sense of community and we’re never standing by ourselves for very long before someone from the congregation comes and strikes up a conversation with us. The pastor, Josh, always has some American trivia questions for us which can be pretty humorous. He e-mailed me wanting to talk about the differences between American and Australian churches which could be a really fun conversation!

In case it wasn’t obvious enough, Australia is still completely wonderful and my three weeks left here are going to go by way too quickly.