TOURIST TUESDAY: SYDNEY PART SIX

This is my final post on Sydney, with some images of our B&B we stayed at. Brickfield Hill is a small, friendly guesthouse in Sydney's historic Surry Hills.

It took under 20 minutes by taxi from the airport to get there, which was great after travelling on a plane with a toddler. Crown Street, Oxford Street, Chinatown and Darling Harbour are all within easy walking distance, and so too are Sydney Harbour and the Opera House which can be reached by  travelling past historic buildings and through some of Sydney's most beautiful parks and botanic gardens. We prefer to walk, but if walking is not your thing, then the trains and buses are easily accessible to this lovely B&B.

Brickfield Hill is a four-storey terrace house built in the 1880's. When the depression hit in the 1890's much of inner Sydney, particularly Surry Hills, fell on hard times. Surry Hill was slow to get a revival, but it now hosts a diverse mix of post-war immigrants, students, city workers and families, and it has become one of Sydney's most appealing suburbs.  

Bar for almost needing a step ladder to get up on our bed, we loved everything about this place. Plus, we were also lucky enough to have the whole guesthouse to ourselves during our stay. So took complete advantage of it to take many a photo.

The Bedrooms do not come with a sleeping baby.

Nor do they come with a sexy half naked man.

The Lavender room normally looks like this.

View from the back of the terrace house.

 Sitting Room

Dining Room

This image was taken by Justin.

Just so it is clear, this is not a sponsored post, I am writing this because we got amazing and friendly service, coupled with a great B&B

TOURIST TUESDAY: SYDNEY PART FIVE

Our last day in Sydney, was a wistful day. Why is it the last day of any holiday is a little like this? Not wanting the journey and the adventure to end, but looking forward to your own bed…

We woke, to a Sydney blanketed in fog. As we wandered up to Crown Street, we passed several terrace houses I would love to see the inside of.

Would it be rude to knock on their door, and ask if I can have a sticky beak inside?

I had the best breakfast. I can easily say the best ever banana loaf/bread I have ever eaten. And trust me I have eaten a LOT of banana bread in my life time. I even contemplated getting a take home loaf.

The Café in question was FourAteFive. The décor is simplistic and there’s nothing overly pretentious, or so ‘hipster’ you do not want to enter with a child. There are no frills at FourAteFive; it’s just homely and casual with good food and warm hearts. The place was packed, but the service was prompt and super friendly.

After breakfast we set off in search of a few antique shops Justin wanted to check out. Found some great stuff, but way out of our price range. 

So we ended up playing on the swings and slide instead of shopping. The idea was to give Jarvis some down time, plus use up some of his energy before the flight.

It was then back to the B&B for a photo shoot of the place. Yes two photographers. Of course we had to take heaps of photos, but will show this fantastic B&B next week so as not to over load this week post with images. Oh I cannot wait to show you the images Justin took of Jarvis! 

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TOURIST TUESDAY: SYDNEY PART FOUR

One of the main reasons we went to Sydney other than to see Justin photos on exhibition, was to enjoy the Vivid Festival. Vivid Sydney: the largest celebration of light, music and ideas in the Southern Hemisphere.

Raincoats were donned, and we caught the bus to the Harbour. All issues of trying to carry a child under a raincoat without my beloved sling were forgotten as soon as we saw the lights.

Over 60 light installations were present; the city of Sydney lit up in a festival dedicated to light, music and ideas. Easily one of the highlights of this year's Vivid, was seeing the sails of the iconic Sydney Opera House light up. Sydney-based creative agency Spinifex Group used a combination of light projection, video mapping, and motion graphics to create Play, the hallmark event of Vivid.

Sydney's iconic Harbour Bridge was strung up with 100,800 individual programmable LEDs that constantly changed colours. Using a state-of-the-art custom-designed software program and an interactive touch screen interface, visitors at Luna Park boardwalk (from 6pm to midnight) were able to control individual sections of the bridge to light up, making it the very first time the public has been allowed to interact with the bridge in this capacity.

Vivid Light transformed the precinct into a spectacle of dancing water fountains, water screen projection performances and dazzling light and water shows. Jarvis was enraptured by the whole display. We ended up having to drag, a very happy, but sleepy baby off the piano to take him back to the B&B. I think we have a public performer on our hands.

Note: All of these images in this post were taken by Justin. It was too hard to take photos and to hold a toddler.

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TOURIST TUESDAY: SYDNEY PART THREE

Sydney, Sydney, I was never a fan, but you are won me over with your sunny days and your good looks. After the rain the night before, we woke to a beautiful, if not chilly day. 

We walked up to Crown Street and found a cute café, Fifi Foveaux's, Surry Hills. As soon as I saw the gnome stools I knew this was where I wanted to eat breakfast. Then I spotted the ruby wallpaper, perspex chandelier and groovy textured light fittings, and to top it off, Fifi is cheap, nothing over 10 bucks.

It was a good thing we all had a big breakfast, as the rest of the consisted of a LOT of walking. First destination was another component of the Head on Photo Festival at the Ultimo TAFE at the Muse Gallery.

How pretty is the TAFE?

Next, we walked to Darling Harbour. One of Sydney's largest dining, shopping and entertainment precincts, set on the waterside.

After Jarvis had a play in the gardens, we walked into the city centre. While I gave Jarvis a feed, Justin went and tried on some suits. This is when our sling got stolen. Justin put it on top of the stroller, turned to me to give me some water and when he turned back the sling was gone. (Very not happy).

From the city we walked to The Rocks’ cobbled laneways. It is the strip of land where European settlers chose to step ashore in 1788, The Rocks is essentially the birthplace of modern Sydney. Over the last 200-odd years, it’s morphed from a settlement of convicts, soldiers, sailors and street gangs to a thriving, modern precinct boasting a range of accommodation, attractions and funky bars and restaurants.

A yummy pizza was had for lunch, but I cannot remember the name of the restaurant, nor did we take photos as we were too busy eating.

With full bellies, we went to one of the major tourist attractions of Sydney. Sydney Opera House. According to Sydney Australia website, “experience Sydney Opera House - one of the world's most creative and busiest performing arts centres and greatest triumphs of modern architecture.”

Yes, I know he has a pole coming out of his head, but how cute does Jarvis look?

After so much walking all day, it was another long exhausted walk back to the B&B for a very much needed afternoon nap.

 So much walking!

TOURIST TUESDAY: SYDNEY PART TWO

I have had a week off from blogging due to sever Gastro, but now I am back and want to finish my Tourist Tuesday series on our visit to Sydney.

After the Botanical Gardens we went to the State Library of New South Wales, where for the first time, Head On Portrait Prize was exhibited along with several other shows. The Head On Photo Festival was on in Sydney from 17 May - 23 June 2013. 

Sydney's internationally acclaimed, Head On Photo Festival, is Australia's largest photo festival and the world's second largest festival. In 2013 the Festival significantly expanded its reach with over 200 events at 100 venues cementing itself in Sydney life as the premiere festival celebrating photography. It covered wide range of photography across all genres from photojournalism and reportage through commercial to fine art.

Justin entered the Head on Portrait Prize competition, and while he did not win, it was still very exciting to see his portrait on show in the State Library. Plus the State Librabry is any book lovers heaven. Wow!

After viewing Justin’s image at the State Library, and the others on show, we walked down to the Harbour and had lunch with one of the most spectacular views anywhere in the world. We also, took the opportunity to take photos of ourselves taking photos.

Weariness set in after lunch in the sun, so we trained it back to our B&B for a much needed afternoon nap.

Justin and Jarvis both enjoyed a nap, and boy! Both of them can snore! We woke up and walked up to Crown Street. Crown Street, Surry Hills is filled with restaurants and shops, and a convenient playground for the kids. Jarvis had a play in the park. When it got too dark to see, we crossed the road and had a delicious dinner at In the Mood for Thai.

The original plan was to head back to the harbour, after dinner, to see the Light Festival; however, Jarvis had another exploding bowel movement that ended up all over the both of us. Hmm, so no lights and no desert. Back to the B&B for showers and a spot of major hand washing.