One of my goals since moving to Sydney was to explore the city suburb by suburb, especially whichever suburb my current hospital is located in. With the major obstacle of driving taken care of (if I drive to the same place every day for 3 weeks, it becomes part of my ‘local area’), the relatively easy and more fun part of exploring can take place.
This weekend is Bankstown’s celebration of the Lunar New Year. There were night noodle markets last night and the festival today. So R and I took a leisurely 40 minute drive into the city centre to take advantage of the colours, food and entertainment. I got to the car park okay – shopping centres never disappoint me and found the festival with the help of the little blue dot on iPhone maps. My saviour.
There were flowers, red packets and lanterns everywhere. It was really pretty. I felt like I was in another country – signs were written in Chinese, Vietnamese, Lebanese, Greek. It felt magical seeing the contrast of old and new, east meets west. I had a blast taking photos – about 260 for a 2 hour outing. In my defence, I was mucking around with bracketting.
First stop was (of course) the Commonwealth stand where R picked up a piggy bank. These are so old school, very impressed he got one. They are a childhood relic for many Australian children of the 80s. Oh, the adorable little girl in the back ground had Dora shoes on, I tried to photograph them in a non creepy way but failed.
There were the most beautiful vegetable carvings and paintings on display. Below are my favourite dimsum – the barbeque pork buns. A steal at 3 for $5.
And then on to one of my favourite Vietnamese foods – the bread rolls. Again, $3 and they were out of this world. The bread was so fresh and the fillings tasty and generous.
There was a bewildering array of fresh produce – fruits, plants, vegetables. I went nuts taking photos.
Far too many photos for one post. I am now home, my eyes and belly full. Looking forward to writing a little over the next week about the remainder of my photos.
