"Wake up and get over here". It was my friend Bonny. I had been planning to spend my weekend in Newtown, and check out the local scenery today, but I knew that Bonny would know what was going on in the area, so I got dressed, grabbed my roommate Alana, and headed up to Bonny's North Newtown home. "You're late" was the greeting we got as we walked through the door. However, within the next 10 minutes Bonny, Alana, Bonny's roommate Eliza and I, were all sitting on the 422 bus heading towards Circular Quay. Bonny used to be a tour guide there, so we were all grinning from ear to ear, and talking about any crazy idea about the future that popped into our heads. It felt so good to be out exploring the city that we live in.When we got of the bus, we headed straight into the Rocks and Bonny started talking to us about all the places that we would go that day. Our first stop was what seemed to be an empty old sandstone building. We walked in, and walked downstairs, straight into the basement. It was so colourful that Eliza and Alana (who had not been there before), just stood and stared for about five minutes. We had entered the Puppet Shop at the Rocks. Puppets of all sizes, from finger puppets, to life sized marrionettes lined the entire shop, and our inner children burst out as we started to look around. There was every kind of puppet imaginable; animals, people, traditional Indonesian shadow puppets, and south east Asian warrior puppets, but all of us agreed, that our favorite puppets on display were the masquerade animals. There were animals of all shapes and sizes, dressed in Victorian style masquerade gowns, suits and of course, masks.
After we managed to drag ourselves out of the store, we continued to walk down George Street deeper into the Rocks. We entered a small shopping center, and found ourselves out the front of Sticky, a store that sells candy. The exiting thing about this store however, is that the candy is all made right in front of the customers. It's a pretty amazing show. After buying some oversized musk sticks, and getting a free taste of Sticky's famous rock candy, we headed out the back door, smack bang into the middle of the Rocks Markets.
We wandered through the markets, drinking homemade lemonade, and looking at all the unique and quirky things for sale. Alana and I got really exited and ended up getting side tracked, and Bonny had to call us to see where we were. We met back up out the front of the Argyle Oracle, a new age shop set up in a terrace house. We looked around inside for about half an hour, before heading back onto the street, and up towards the harbour bridge.
As we made our way up, we came across a park, that was actually on the ruins of 8 terrace houses, built in Australia's early years. We sat around and talked, and just soaked up the atmosphere. Bonny had her camera, so we took some goofy photos, and listened intently as she told us the history of the place.
We then walked down some stairs and into the Argyle arch, a road going through an archway in the stone, that had been hollowed out by the first convicts. We came out the other side in a beautiful little area near Milson's Point, took some photos, and headed back through the arch.
We climbed the stairs to the top of the arch and entered the Glenmore hotel. We headed up to the rooftop bar with our jug of beer, and eagerly awaited our wedges with sour cream and chilli sauce to arrive.
After sitting and soaking up the atmosphere of the pub for about forty five minutes, we headed back down into the Rocks for some dessert. La Renaissance Patisserie was amazing! We bought a croissant (the best in Sydney, so I'm told), and four of the most delicious little cakes I have had in a long time, and took them down and ate them by the Quay. After we had devoured the cakes, we all sat together in the sun and started to giggle. I am still not sure if it was because we had been having such a perfect day, or because of all the sugar we had just consumed. Bonny of course, took this opportunity to take some great photos.
After the four of us had lounged in the sun for about 20 minutes, we got up and wandered lazily to the bus, talking about all the fantastic things we could do in the future. On the bus, Bonny and Eliza pulled a thermos of homemade chai out of thier bag, and we ate musk sticks and drank chai all the way home.
After we arrived back in Newtown, it was time to get the house in order, so Alana and I headed home to clean up a bit. After the cleaning, we headed down Wilson Street to the Carriage Works. Eliza and Bonny were already there, and they showed us around the warehouse, where poeple were preparing for Underbelly, an arts and music festival that will be held this Saturday. There were some amazing exibitions such as a house being put together indoors and a band playing music in time with images projected on a screen. It should be an amazing show.
After we had looked around, Alana and I headed home for a dinner of garden salad and marinated tempeh, followed by a couple of glasses of Champagne.
We then headed out down the South end of King Street to Saint Peters. We arrived at a party known in the area as Déjà Vu, a chilled out music party in the middle of an industrial area. That means no noise restrictions! There were fires lit in 44 gallon drums and everyone was sitting around listening to the live bands and talking. It was great fun. After a few hours of talking and intoxication, we walked back to Newtown for a couple of colourful cocktails before bed.
It was such a great day, and we saw so many different sides of Sydney. There is definately more to come!
Rocks and Rolls remains copyright of the author Tommyboy, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.
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