Paddington Markets (Oxford Street) and the CBD

Saturday I decided to ditch the rest of the group and travel solo. I was finally given a map of the bus system, so I decided I could do well enough on my own. Besides, getting lost every now and then is good for you.

I started the day off by heading into Town Hall to catch a bus down Oxford Street. Now, Oxford Street heads all the way out to Bondi Beach and I know I didn't want to go that far (A - I plan to do Bondi on another day, and B- I had no clue where these "markets" were on Oxford, so I decided to ride the bus until things no longer looked interesting, get off, and walk all the way back through the interestingness). I rode down Oxford for 30-35 minutes, and when I got off I was ready for Breakfast #2 (my meals in Australia consist of breakfast at 7, breakfast 2 at 9, and lunch at 2, no dinner). I stopped by a juice bar and picked up a ridiculously expensive "medium" (small) smoothie (this was not the last expensive drink I encountered this day - I almost paid $10 for an Earl Grey, no thanks). I then started my trek back to town, stopping in almost ever shop along the way. Every Saturday morning, Paddington (a district in Sydney) has a market that allows designers who are just starting out to sell their goods. Of course, it was ridiculously expensive. There was a very cute (very, very cute) artistic print that I wanted (4x6, 8x10 with the mat), but it was $130. Adorable, but I could have done it in Illustrator in 5 minutes for free. Disappointing, but inspiring too. I bought two scarves and no more. I've noticed that I'm wearing my black trench and a scarf everywhere, so all photos of me consist of these two things. I need more scarves, and I plan to find another (cheap) trench coat to switch up my photos a bit. I found some good shops though that I intend to return to at another point.

By the time I returned to the city, I was already kind of tired. I'm certain that this was at least a three mile walk so far, if not closer to four when you include all of the walking around in the shops. However, the stop I needed to go to in order to get back to the apartment was right next to Hyde Park. The trees in Hyde Park are absolutely beautiful. They are breathtaking and quite fantastic. I spent a great deal of time taking photos of them (not all of them were uploaded - I thought I would spare you the 40 pictures of the exact same kind of tree). I didn't realize it, but I was actually walking on quite the path through the park and ended up at a fountain, a memorial to King George IV and King George V, St. Mary's church. Behind these two things turned out to be the Hyde Park Barrack's Museum, which had a student entrance rate of $5. There was a special going on about the convicts and their journey to Australia, so I decided to go in. It was an interesting, but small museum. Not much to write about it. There are some photos posted on Picasa if you're interested. I'm happy I went; I found out that there were five Hanson's registered as convicts who came to Australia!

After the museum, I knew it was time for food. Seeing nothing around me that looked good, I started to head towards things that looked interesting until I found something to eat. Oh boy was that a mistake! I somehow ended up in the most expensive part of Sydney. This is where all of the high-end designer's shops were (Louis Vuitton, Salvatore Ferragamo, Burberry, etc.). This was interesting because in Minneapolis we don't have any of those shops, but at the same time, food was much more expensive in this part of town than other parts (and food is already quite expensive in Sydney)! This is where I managed to encounter a $10 cuppa tea. Yikes. Luckily I caught that one before ordering. I was also able to find a "designer chocolates" shop where chocolate bars were roughly $63, and a box of chocolates was $160 (in US: $39 and $128, roughly). Just like my mother says that I have an amazing ability to pick out the most expensive item in the store, I also have an amazing ability to find the most expensive parts of Sydney. :D

I eventually found Sydney Central, a congregation of 140 restaurants serving international cuisine. I had a Tropical Crepe, which consisted of ham, pineapple, and cheese inside of a crepe. It was pretty good - I prefer sweet, breakfast-y crepes though. After this, I tooled around a few more malls for a couple hours and eventually headed home.