Balmain

Balmain

• 20 Jul 2008

Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny. After a quick shopping trip, a load of washing, my 8.00 a.m. body combat class at the gym and a petrol refill ($60!!!) I was on my way to Balmain. Sydney has been hosting World Youth Day this past week and major road closures are in force all around the Eastern suburbs and Central railway station. It made getting to Balmain an interesting exercise. I allowed plenty of extra time as I'd have to drive through the city, something to be avoided on a Saturday morning. The roads were a dream with hardly any traffic so I was there in no time.




I arrived early for my lunch so camera in hand, I roamed around Balmain. Balmain is a dog lovers paradise. There were pooches everywhere of all shapes and sizes and the bank seemed to be the local gathering place.



Balmain was an old working class area characterised by it's sandstone cottages. It's a longtime since it's been working class and most of those cottages have been renovated and sell for exorbitant prices. As it was lunch time and market day, Balmain was busy. After lunch I strolled down to the markets, held in the grounds of St. Andrews church to have a quick look and walked back to my car through Gladstone Park.















I drove down to East Balmain and found rows of lovely old sandstone cottages and an historic cottage - Clontarf cottage. I went a bit crazy taking photos and took almost 100 in 11/2 hours. I'm a bit worried with my holiday coming up. If I can take 100 photos in 90 minutes, how many photos will I be taking when I'm in France, Portugal and Spain??

Jillian