Let’s Explore Paddington, Sydney!

Hey everyone, I hope you all had an amazing weekend! It’s great to be back today on this much cooler Monday. Let me tell you that it sure has been a hot and humid weekend here in Sydney. But I’m not complaining because I love summer!! I’ll leave my whingeing and complaining for the winter, which is my least favourite season. Anyway, thanks so much for being here today as I share a bit about my fun weekend exploring Paddington on Saturday and celebrating our anniversary on Sunday.

Saturday

I had been eager to visit Paddington for ages and I was determined to make this happen before the end of the school holidays. Paddington is a suburb in Sydney and it’s famous for its lively atmosphere, pretty streets, and historic terraced houses. Oxford Street runs through the heart of Paddington and is full of trendy cafes and boutiques. Additionally, the suburb is home to the well-known Paddington Markets, held on Saturdays which is full of handmade crafts, vintage finds, and gourmet food stalls.

I love Paddington and if I ever won a gazillion dollars ( it’s a very expensive suburb!) I would love to live there. But for now, I was happy to spend most of Saturday exploring with my fun friend who came along with me. We caught the bus from Martin Place and it dropped us almost in the heart of Paddington.

First up we stopped off at a cafe for a bite to eat.

The next stop was a quirky shop that sold vintage designer fashions, accessories and other random vintage finds such as old phones.

I found some bracelets made from guitar wire and thought they looked nice as a stack with my watch.

A gift and stationery store sold these funny cards.

We went in and out of so many shops that I lost count and then we reached the markets.

After the markets, we walked back along the other side of Oxford Street and discovered Paddington Reservoir Gardens. The reservoir was an important water source for the growing population in the 19th century and today it’s a beautiful heritage-listed site.

It was a fun Saturday visiting Paddington-there was so much to see and do and we sure did a lot of steps!

Sunday

Steve and I had plans to celebrate our 34th wedding anniversary last Sunday. But it was windy, rainy and generally a bad day to go anywhere. So we moved our plans to yesterday and it was the best decision because the weather was amazing – boiling hot but still amazing!

We decided to go to the Opera Bar and spend the late afternoon and evening there. We caught the light rail from Town Hall to Circular Quay. Then walked along the waterfront and made our way to the Opera Bar which is right near the Opera House.

I never get tired of these views!

The bar was so busy when we arrived but we were lucky and grabbed a great spot not too far away from where the band was playing. I don’t know if you can see clearly in the photo. But the giant shade umbrellas had these jets that sprayed a fine mist of water to cool everyone down. About every 5 or 10 minutes the cool mist would land on me and it felt so good!

Cheers to 34 years!

Hot chips and sauce to start with.

Then we ordered the cold seafood platter and it was spectacular! It had Sydney rock oysters, tiger prawns, salmon gravlax, scallop ceviche and crab rolls. Everything tasted so good!!

We stayed at the bar until 10 pm listening to the band. Neither of us was in a hurry to leave because the atmosphere was just too good and we were enjoying such a gorgeous night. The walk back to the station was so pretty with all the lights.

It was such a lovely weekend and now I’m heading into the final week of the summer school holidays. I’m still determined to make the most of every minute and hoping like crazy that the week moves along nice and slow!

I have a couple of catch ups with friends this week. Then I also need to get back to my mental to-do list. Because if I don’t then I won’t get onto them until the next school holiday break – I’m looking at you house blinds!

Thanks so much for being here and I’ll see you on Wednesday!

Linking up with Holly and Sarah