360º VIEWS

the view from j's office on the 39th floor, nearing sunset.

the heads, where sydney harbor meets the pacific ocean

the anzac bridge with the blue mountains in the background

i don't know where this is but the pacific ocean is in the beyond

WE GO TO THE MOVIES TOO

we've actually been a few times since we've been here. but on friday night we saw CONTROL, the anton corbijn film about ian curtis from the late 70's band joy division. the subject of the movie was fascinating, although knowing the fate of curtis, i found myself morbidly impatient for the end. the best part about the movie was that it was in black + white and corbijn captured some beautiful and evocative shots of the gritty streets of macclesfield set against the rolling hills of northern england. you can tell corbijn is first and foremost a photographer as these shots have the feel of fine art stills. the music was good too.

COFFEE

as you may have noticed from some of the previous posts of our weekend brunches out, sydney turns the making and drinking of coffee into an art form. there is almost no such thing as a regular coffee here. the closest thing to black coffee would be espresso with hot water and is called a "long black". coffee with milk is a "flat white" and it's espresso with steamed milk and the teansiest layer of froth on top. lattes are always served in a glass - always - while everything else comes in a coffee cup and always with a saucer and spoon - always. and if there isn't a layer of crema, the creamy light coffee-colored foam on the top of the espresso, forget about it...that coffee's no good.

they definitely do "take-away" coffee here - and they have starbucks and that chain you always see in american malls, gloria jeans - so it's not beneath sydneysiders to drink on the run, but still. since i don't have anywhere i need to take coffee to, i find myself drinking an artful coffee while sitting in a cafe almost every day. i alternate between the latte and flat white, and between skim and whole milk - the latter being by far the superior accompaniment. after having observed (and photographed, as you see) so much coffee, i decided to take my appreciation to the next level and enrolled in "barista basics", a course on how to make perfect coffee. it was a 3 hour class on what the different types of coffee drinks there are and how to make them, with special attention given to foaming the perfect milk. the class was in the middle of a weekday and it was full. plus they offer it nearly everyday. i read that cafes send their employees to it for barista training. and, there was a second session - which i didn't attend - on how to artfully pour your milk. as you can see, creating a leaf, heart, or some other swirly pattern in your milk froth is essential when making coffee. and although (because i didn't take the second class) i didn't master froth art myself, i truly appreciate it in a cup of coffee served to me.

favorite cafes in sydney so far:
LILIBLACK
KAFA
WALL CAFE

GODT DANSK

the best thing on australian tv is a danish show called "unit one".

WIENERSYDNEY

last night we decided to brave the rain and (relative) cold and have a cozy dinner out. we skimmed over various listings - time out sydney, eatability.com, the surry hills urban walkabout guide - and finally decided on an austrian place called CAFE ZIMT. i had passed it earlier in the day and noted its cozy-factor so it seemed perfect. and it was.

we mostly had the restaurant to ourselves. while we usually would have walked away from an empty eatery, the candlelit tables and pillowed window seats drew us in (along with our desire to get out of the rain). our bottle of byo wine was promptly opened and we poured over the menu, finally settling on the wiener schnitzel (for j) and bratwurst (for s). let me tell you, this place gave us the warm fuzzies. it was like going to dinner at your austrian grandmother's house (if you had one) - only your austrian grandmother is a gay man called christian who listens to show tunes.

oh, and then there was the coffee and grandma's...i mean christian's famous chocolate-hazlenut cake.

all and all a lovely night out.

HOLLYWOOD

last night we were a little restless in the after-work hours and decided to take a walk. we strolled through hyde park for a while and then carried on to surry hills. we thought we'd walk passed a couple of bars and restaurants in the area that we'd read were good, just to see. one of them was the afore-pictured HOTEL HOLLYWOOD (see post: sydney deco) which, in the daytime, looks deco cool but also a little scary and abandoned. we went in for a drink anyways and much to our surprise, by night, it is a charming and vivacious little pub. by charming i mean kitsch with a twirling disco ball, etc. and smelling of stale beer, but vivacious because there was a good amount of people and a great little blues band playing in the corner. (for those in boston, think b-side lounge only actually old and divey) anyway, the band was called "black sea blues" and they had one member who played guitar, wore tambourines on his shoes, and could make the kazoo sound like a saxophone. needless to say they were great entertainment. so we've decided, being that it's only a 5 minute walk to from our apartment, hotel hollywood may be our new "local".

WHILE WE'RE ON THE SUBJECT

of architecture, that is...outside the city center, residential architecture in sydney is mostly made up of these incredible victorian terrace houses. some are painted bright colors, some have these revivalist details, like arches and columns, most have beautifully ornate iron balconies, and others are just funky. i want to live in one. here is a sampling.

SYDNEY DECO

art deco is alive and well in sydney. see for yourself.

NEW TOWN

for the past week or two now we've been able to leave the apartment for a day of exploring without bringing a map or guidebook. we have a feel for where things are and how generally to get there. we get lost from time to time but that's all part of the process of discovering a new place. so today we embarked on a map-less and guide-less walk to newtown which is essentially the last frontier of the immediate city suburbs we had to explore. we didn't have a planned route, just an idea of how to get there. so we set out and found ourselves on some empty and sceneless streets. we had to cross a small highway. about 20 minutes into our walk, we were on a side street, questioning our direction and why that part of the city seemed so deserted when we heard it...the clinking of coffee spoons and clanking of dishes. the low hum of conversation from a distance. we nearly kept walking but then looked up to see a cool little sign that read CAFE GIULIA, we were hungry and needing coffee, so we went in.

the crowded cafe was a long galley of a space bookended by a huge street facing window and a sunny outdoor patio. it was all pea green and kitchen chrome with the requisite chalkboard menu and paintings on the walls. the grill was sizzling in the open kitchen and the counter-top was filled with freshly cut fruit and pureed vegetables, yummy breads, and artfully prepared brunches. it was both grungy and gourmet at the same time and the latte was delicious. by far the best cafe we've been to. though we are not technically tourists, everything is still new. so finding places like this, off the map, makes us excited to be in sydney.

oh, and they played belle and sebastian on the stereo.

FAME

i've now had three people here tell me that i look like "that actress from the very popular american tv show". yeah yeah.


on another note...we have discovered a bar that is showing the red sox games so hopefully we will be sunday breakfasting over game 6. go sox!

YOU ASKED FOR IT

so here it is...



maybe you can tell the difference.

THE BEACH

although we can’t really rub it in since we love fall and crisp weather, the coming of winter and all the requisite layers of clothing, coats and scarves, etc. it was a lovely spring day in sydney yesterday and we walked to bondi beach from our apartment. there was definitely an “oh yeah” moment in the day where we truly understood why sydney’s quality of life is statistically ranked high. beautiful weather, proximity to the ocean (did i mention that we can walk to the pacific ocean from our apartment – granted it took a couple hours, but still), delicious food, outdoor markets every weekend, and good coffee! if only this country wasn’t so damn far away. i heard a british comedian on tv talking about a recent trip to australia and he said “they shouldn’t call it australia they should just call it ‘far’…no wonder no one ever comes back, they can’t be bothered.”

here is some more of our weekend – which in addition to bondi included a festival in surry hills, coffee and tea at COFFEE, TEA or ME, and ricotta hotcakes(!) at BILLS paddington – in pictures…

NOODLES

under the perilous flying fox (read: giant bat) filled skies of hyde park, we ventured out last night to participate in sydney's NIGHT NOODLE MARKET. it's part of GOOD FOOD MONTH which is this month and is similar to restaurant week, only it lasts a month and has many more events, such as this one, as well as fairs, festivals, and talks. night noodle market consisted of many tents run by local asian restaurants, selling noodles and other dishes for cheap, with a big communal sitting area. it was really fun and festive and we plan to go again as it lasts for two weeks.

we got to thinking that if boston had an event like this, you would have to pay to get in. plus, they wouldn't have a beer and wine tent. hmmmph.

RAIN CLOUDS + WINE

we've finally seen some cool and cloudy days with a little bit of drizzle here in sydney and it was kind of a nice change. despite the drizzle, we managed to get out and about again this past weekend and crammed in much activity, including a night out drinking with some locals, a marathon walk from the cbd (central business district = where we live) to glebe (university area) to balmain (lovely suburb on the harbor), and a day out in the hunter valley winery area, two hours north of sydney.

not much to say about drinking with locals other than they were j's coworkers, it was fun, but it meant not getting out of the apartment until the afternoon on saturday. we went to some cbd/chinatown nondescript bar that gives discounts to EY employees, for some reason, and on top of that was having a promotion on some beer which meant they were free. needless to say, we needed a morning to sleep in.

once we managed to get out, we hit some grungy but good cafes in studenty glebe, got lost a little, and then found the long road that led us to the charming suburb of balmain which now, given the choice, is definitely where we would want to live. it's filled with small restaurants and cafes, a good independent bookstore (pretty much every neighborhood here has it's own indie bookstore..it's nice), gourmet food shops, bakeries, a butchershop, and a produce market. it is also basically on a peninsula in the harbor which means many beautiful views. and there's lots of parks and a pool (see below).

sunday we got up extremely early to catch the boutique vineyard van which took us on a long drive over the hawkesbury river, passed a town called brooklyn, through lots of farmland, and into the disneyland of the hunter valley wine country. we hit 3 small vineyards that are "cellar door" wineries which means you can't buy their wine anywhere but there. we learned a bit about the wine-making process and about tasting and came home with 3 bottles of white - semillons and a chardonnay (yes, a good chardonnay) - as that is mainly what they produce in the hunter, except for shiraz which we weren't that impressed with. all in all it was great to get out of the city for a day.

what's in store for this week, you might ask...a barista class! more to come on that but i'll leave you with this:

THE APARTMENT

so here it is. our hotel ro...i mean apartment. it's actually quite comfortable and we've added a few of our own touches so that it is beginning to feel like home. we're not sure what to do with the fake flower arrangement since there's not much storage space and we've already put one out on the balcony with the moths. note the missing dining table as it is currently far too messy to photograph as we have repurposed it our desk/work table/found object repository.

closeup of our fabulous targét australia bedding and bath rug:

in addition, i thought i'd include last night's dinner, cooked from this cookbook. it is poached chicken with asparagus salad but it's not really a salad at all, just asparagus spears over potatoes with a lemon parsley drizzle.

LONG TIME NO BLOG

ok, not really but sort of.

so we are now mid-week in our second week here after a long and full weekend. the weekend started with brunch at an awesome place called THE BOOK KITCHEN where we had eggs prepared in various delicious ways and toasted banana bread with butter (which seems to be a thing here). we walked off breakfast by exploring the neighborhood of surry hills, which reminds me of brooklyn a bit, and continued on a marathon trek to the posh neighborhood of woollahra, where we came across many gourmet food shops including a WHOLE FOODS! (not the real kind, but damn close), and a place called JONES THE GROCER! continuing our tour of the eastern suburbs, we traveled down the great oxford street (for shopping), stopping at the paddington market (of the flea variety) as well as various other places, and ended up home with a pair of trousers and a bag full of gourmet cheeses.

sunday brought us to a whole other set of neighborhoods, including potts point where we brunched on more delicious eggs and sandwiches at a place called SPRING ESPRESSO. it is part of a row of little cafes that cram tables onto the sidewalk of a pretty tree-lined street. we decided that given a choice, we’d like to live in this neighborhood, due to its proximity to great cafes and the water. the rest of the day was spent at the art gallery of new south wales, where we bought a a small print by an australian artist named jeffrey smart, the royal botanical gardens which is definitely the best spot in sydney (so far), and then drinks and chips at the opera bar (our new ritual).

to end the 3-day weekend, we were determined to spend a quiet day at manly beach which is a beach in northern sydney that is a lovely 20-minute ferry ride from the harbor. it was beautiful but far too crowded as everyone else in the city had the same idea. so we ended up spending the day in the botanical gardens again and it was just as lovely and relaxing.

p.s. sydney is having a moth infestation. we can’t open our windows.

p.p.s bizarre and potentially dangerous animal sighting #1: flying foxes.