Tuesday 16 September 2014

Festival of the Winds - Bondi Beach

Yesterday me and Nicole visited the Festival of the Wind at Bondi Beach. Festivals of the winds is an annual event held every year at Bondi Beach arranged by the Bondi Pavilion in association with The Australian Kiteflyers Society.

Last year we were on the way down but it was impossible to get a bus down to the beach, after walking half way it started raining and we headed for a cafe next to the Queens Park instead. After our cafe lunch it was still raining so we headed to the cinema in Bondi Junction instead.

This year we had much better luck with the weather. It was the first really sunny day in months. But with the sun came the crowds, it was ridiculously crowded on the beach and around the pavilion. Except for kites there was entertainment, stilt walkers and much more.

It was a lovely day and I wanted to share so photos with you.


Read more about the Festival of the Winds here
http://www.waverley.nsw.gov.au/recreation/places_of_interest/bondi_pavilion/annual_attractions/festival_of_the_winds

Look at all those Kites

Alien kite

Crazy stripped man kite

Blue Whale Kite

Souther Cross Eureka Flag

We found Nemo! And his mistress ;)

Acrobatics Exhibit

Butterfly kite

Huge kite

Shark kite

Octopus and Egyptian themed kite

Such a beautiful day, plenty of surfers out having fun
Huge crowds on such a lovely day. 



Eastern Beaches

Read more Eastern Beaches posts here

Sunday 14 September 2014

Swedish Midsummer In Sydney

Midsummer

I just wanted to share some photos from our amazing Swedish Midsummer that we had in Centennial Park back in the day. Since I moved here I have gotten to know a handful of Swedish people. Some from work, some from the Svenskar i Sydney group on Facebook and some through Nicole's Swedish classes. So when midsummer approached me, Sigge and Mikael decided to cook up something Swedish and invited some Swedish friends and their partners. Unfortunately Nicole couldn't make it as she was on a work trip up the Central Coast.

Trying to be Australian casual we tried to organise as little possible. We decided on a place in Centennial Park and bring a plate style pick-nick. ( Knytkalas as it is called in Swedish. ) There was no rules that the food actually needed to be Swedish but I think many were inspired to bring something Swedish for the event.

A couple of days before me and Sigge went via IKEA and picked up herring ( inlagd sill ), hard bread ( knäckebröd ) and matured cheese ( Prästost ).  I made a pretty unswedish pasta sallad, but Sigge spent the whole morning making meatballs with boiled potatoes.

I can't remember what every else brought but it was a feast and great fun. We had a beautiful sunny day as you can see, remember that it was midwinter in Australia! It was a huge success and I am already looking forward to planning a Swedish xmas dinner :)

Sigge, Filip, Sofie, Michel and Mikael chilling in the sun waiting for Jasmine and Kenny to show up

Mikael, Michel and Sigge in the grass.

For such an unplanned event it was huge success and amount of food.

Amazing Strawberry cake by Jasmine

Michel and some really lovely home made Cider

Beautiful day in Centennial Park, remember it's Winter

One of my favourites spots in Sydney, Centennial Park

Michel had made kanelbullar!

As expected in Centennial Park we got some avian visitors.

Centinnial Park

Centennial Park is one of my favourite spots in Sydney. It's within walking distance from our Apartment in Bondi Junction so we got there quite a lot to run, look at birds or just hang out on our pick nick blanket and look at the dogs. 

One of the first posts I wrote, more than a year ago now was about Centennial Park. :)

Saturday 6 September 2014

Maroubra - Eastern Beaches

Eastern Beaches

One thing that I love when living in Bondi Junction is the Eastern Beaches and Bays. There are so many beaches, bays and little reserves along the coast which gives an almost  unending amount of options to visit and explore. Except for the more known beaches Bondi, Bronte and Coogee, there are plenty of smaller beaches.

This post is about our visit to the little less known of the beaches, Maroubra.

Maroubra

I had lived almost a year in Sydney before I heard people mention Maroubra. I suspect that it is just far enough away from Sydney to make most people not be bother to go there. Nicole and me decided to go there for a visit on a chilly but clear winter day. I was surprised by the long, almost empty beach and the unhurried streets and shops. Even in winter Bondi is pretty busy, at least the restaurants and cafes. Maroubra on the other side shows nothing of this, the streets were calm and the hand full of places to eat gave a little village feel to it. It felt like we had gone to a small coastal town a couple of hours out of Sydney and not just 10 km from the city center.

It was winter so we didn't go swimming of course. Instead we took a stroll down beach and then a lunch at a lovely cafe. We really enjoyed it and talked about going back in the summer.

Here are some photos from our winter visit. Click for larger version

Rough day, as is common in Sydney. :)

A strange Rubrics cube in the middle of the beach.

It's a long beach, about 1 km long. Which is long for a Sydney Beach.

Nicole enjoying the winter visit to the beach.

Turns out the rubrics cube was a ventilation shaft for the water drainage. 

Map



Eastern Beaches Series

This is my forth post about the Eastern Beaches. Read the rest of the series here