Neighborhood Watch: The Rocks & Milsons Point

Another great sunny weekend day, so we decided to walk up to the Rocks neighborhood of Sydney and check out the Rocks Weekend Market. Our first night in Sydeny we walked up to the Rocks neighborhood and had dinner. We were completely charmed by the Victorian inspired buildings, relaxed touristy area. We decided to take advantage of the beautiful late summer/early fall weather and take our time walking through Hyde Park up to Clarke Quay and into the Rocks neighborhood.We meandered through the downtown area, which was quiet on a Sunday afternoon, allowing us to enjoy the architecture and beachlike feel of Sydney.We arrived at the Rocks Weekend Market a little overwhelmed by the market and decided to have breakfast first and then attack the market. Situated along semi-permanent covers that looked like the Opera House roof, the Rocks Weekend Market was more of a local arts and crafts market much like the Portland Saturday Market back home. In fact the newly built permanent home of the Portland Saturday Market also looks similar to the covers at the Rocks Weekend Market.We did like the festive vibe of the Rocks Market with music and vendors spilling out into other open areas.The Paddington Weekend Market had much funkier offerings and we weren't very interested in the arts and crafts seen at the Rocks Market, so we decided to walk up the hill from the market to get a view from the Harbor Bridge.Next to the Sydney Opera House, the Harbor Bridge is major landmark in the city and we were excited to be able to walk across the bridge and see the area on the Milsons Point area on the other side of the harbor. We had done the same when we visited New York City and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge.These bridges are gorgeous from a far and up close. Being able to walk across these historic landmarks made us appreciate our desire to connect and have accessibility to different areas of a city. Getting an unique, birds-eye-view of Sydney was also a major treat.

The view of Sydney Harbor wasn't so bad either.

From the bridge we got a glimpse of the spacious backyards of the row houses found in Sydney neighborhoods.Once we reached the other side of the bridge we were rewarded with additional magnificent views of Sydney's cityscape and a park area where people were picnicing and playing frisbee.We admired Milsons Point's beachy community on the north side of the Harbor Bridge. If you lived here and had this view wouldn't you be relaxed too?

Neighborhood Watch: Paddington & Darlinghurst

We decided to spend the day in a couple of Sydney's great neighborhoods - Paddington and Darlinghurst. The Paddington neighborhood boasts a great weekend market with vendors selling clothing, jewelery, bags, books, vintage items, housewares, some food and local arts and crafts. We came away from this great weekend market with some new clothes, jewelry and terrific souvenirs.Paddington's weekend market was a great reason to get up early and explore the western side of Sydney on foot. As we walked up Oxford Street we just let the streets decide which direction we would go. We were drawn to the lovely tree lined streets and stacked row houses and slowly made our way through the neighborhoods.These neighborhoods seemed like typical English style homes seen all over London, with short front yards, straight facades and lots of wrought iron.What else makes a great neighborhood are the local establishments tucked into the charming streets and Darlinghurst and Paddington definitely had that going for it.At one point we walked into what seemed like a local convenient store/deli looking for something to drink and what we found was an enormous food heaven selling the most delicious looking schnitzels, fries, pizzas, sandwiches, pastries, mac n' cheese slices (yes, slices). Unfortunately we weren't hungry, but we left wishes our neighborhood back home had some of the stores found in the Paddington and Darlinghurst neighborhoods, especially that store/deli!

Royal Residents

After returning from our ferry ride to Watson Bay and the amazing view of the Tasman Sea from The Gap Park we decided to walk back through the Royal Botanic Gardens, located next to the Sydney Opera House. Australia's close history with the United Kingdom can be seen everywhere, from the Victoria architecture to Queen Victoria's picture on the Australian dollar to the love of open garden spaces.The Royal Botanic Gardens stretch from the Opera House along Sydney Harbor down to Woolloomooloo Bay spanning down towards Hyde Park where our hotel was. This inner-city, urban, massive garden made us homesick for some of the gorgeous innercity parks our hometown of Portland has.Similar to the Royal Botanic Gardens we visited in Europe there were numerous themed areas focused on regional plants, open lawn areas, herbariums and ponds.Unlike the Royal Botanic Gardens of Europe there was no glass conservatory where tropical plants were housed. The tropical plants and animals were out in full view, living among the Sydney city dwellers and definitely the highlight of this gorgeous garden.It was amazing to be walking through the park, hear this strange sqeaking noise and look up to see these beautiful parrots! And even though we just spent 4 months in tropical lush SE Asia we were still in awe of the palm trees, tropical plants and amazing bamboo trees!The gardens had a Tropical Centre, Fernery and Palm House. As we walked up to the Palm House we looked up into the trees and saw BATS - lots of bats!Tropical, relaxing, amazing views of the city and harbor and smack dab in the middle of Sydney. A fantastic living example of how unique Australia really is.