Home and Sky

We've been some busy little Canadian Beavers in Sydney the past week! We saw all of the sky (from the sky at least), we hunted down our new home, we sampled fantastic food and drink, and we saw some incredible sights. I'm not going to write about everything today, but I will definitely fill you in on the most exciting news we have so far; we have a new home!!!

Our central downtown options

Like any big city, Sydney is a sprawling place full of smaller subsections. While there are lots of options further from the downtown core in the various surrounding suburbs, Rob and I agreed that we wanted to be close to the thick of things (without being in the thick of things!)

On our arrival to Sydney, we found ourselves in a hotel smack dab in the middle of the City Center (otherwise known as the Central Business District or CBD). If you look at the map to the left, we are right in the middle of the pink area, just above Hyde Park. We knew we didn't want to be somewhere quite so congested as it get insane with traffic and pedestrians during peak hours, but we wanted to be close enough downtown to be able to easily get there via public transport or even just walking.

While looking for apartments, we stumbled on this neighborhood called Pyrmont, which is just off of Darling Harbour. We loved how close it was to downtown, without feeling busy and hectic. There were great little shops and restaurants lining the main streets, and a couple of large grocery stores in the area, within easy walking distance. This was a huge plus. We looked a a number of places, but ended up settling on a fully furnished 2 bedroom apartment.

The pink box on the left is where our hotel is currently, and the right pink box is our new digs!

The first body of water in the above image is Darling Harbour, which I've already fallen in love with. I'm so excited to be living so close to a lovely body of water and going for runs across the pedestrian bridge and around the harbour. We are really happy with the place we are going to be living! We're moving into this furnished apartment on Wednesday, so we get to start really settling in after that.

A panorama shot of Darling Harbour

Darling Harbour extends northwards from Sydney's Chinatown, along both sides of Cockle Bay to King Street Warf on the east, and Pyrmont on the west. Cockle Bay is just one of the waterways that makes up Darling Harbour, which opens north into the much larger Port Jackson. Fun Fact: During the Great Depression, the eastern part of Darling Harbour (Barangaroo) was known as "The Hungry Mile", which referred to the waterside workers searching for jobs along the wharves. Doesn't sound so great, but hey, now it's mostly restaurants, shops, and other attractions including the Powerhouse Museum, the Sydney Aquarium, Madam Tussauds, Australian National Maritime Museum, and the LG IMAX theater, just to name a few.

The view of the CBD from Darling Harbour

Part of the Maritime museum (which we haven't been to yet)

After signing our lease for our new home, and buying some groceries, we take the pedestrian bridge (which used to be the Sky Train) back to the CBD

The Pedestrian Bridge

More of Darling Harbour

The Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre (which is currently being torn down right now, to be built up better) is a bit of an eye sore right now, but I'm sure it will get better with time.

 

 That's all for the moment! We've done much more, but I'll leave that for another post... just to keep everyone coming back for more! We went to the Aquarium, on a Sky Walk, the Art Museum, and much more! We also saw this crazy animal in the park coming out of the Art Museum, and had no clue what it was. But it was very friendly and wanted to walk up my leg.... it was the size of a small cat and had giant eyes.... anyone who knows what this might be, let us know!!