With 2018 coming to a wraps, today I bring you a different post to normal, and look back over the past year's suburban highlights and lowlights.
This is the first annual Completing Sydney Awards. I've decided to affectionately name them the Golden Ibises in honour of our most majestic bin chickens.
But first, a summary of the past Completing Sydney year.
This is the first annual Completing Sydney Awards. I've decided to affectionately name them the Golden Ibises in honour of our most majestic bin chickens.
But first, a summary of the past Completing Sydney year.
2018 Quick Stats
- Suburbs completed this year: 51
- Most suburbs visited in one day: 10
- Kilometres walked: A buttload.
- Transport caught: 21 trains, 7 buses, 1 ferries, 1 car ferry
- Number of times I’ve been yelled at for taking a photo: 1
Eligible Suburbs
Here are the suburbs I've visited this year (in order)
Click to show suburbs (+)
The Rules
- 1. All rules are irrelevant
- 2. Bribes are kindly encouraged
- 3. I have no real criteria to picking a winner
The Awards
The Immaturity Award
This esteemed award goes to the suburb with the most giggle-inducing name. This year's winner took this out without breaking a sweat.
Winner: Pitt Town Bottoms. This suburb name is a solid provider of tee-hees without being outwardly obscene.
Honourable Mention: Sackville (heh).
The Punching Above It's Weight Award
This award goes to a suburb which should suck, but actually turned out to be pretty interesting.
Winner: Wiley Park. Despite its run down commercial centre, Wiley Park is actually kind of good. Here, I enjoyed seeing an amazing temple, a brilliant park (with people actually in the thing), a few interesting houses and even a glimpse of our city's lovely skyline.
Honourable Mention: South Wentworthville. Although South Wentworthville is as "nothing suburbia" as it gets, the suburb is full of cute houses making it quite enjoyable to walk through. Bonus points go to the drain I got stuck in and the DIY drug paraphernalia discovered in the local park.
The Ambassador Award
This category is for the best "effnik" commercial centre in a suburb. Sydney has a fair number of interesting suburbs with a large concentration of various ethnic groups. This was my favourite example.
Winner: Wentworthville. Wenty's a very cool suburb offering domestic South-Asian tourism. Go walk around a massive Indian supermarket, eat some curry and then wash it down with a mango lassi.
Honourable Mention: Bankstown. This suburb's Vietnamese hub is pretty great. Good food and unusual sights await the curious visitor.
The Wasting Everybody's Time Award
This fine award is awarded to a suburb which has no reason to exist.
Winner: Moore Park. Only 28 people live here. A stadium does not a suburb make. Knock it off.
Honourable Mention: Mount Lewis. You're like 2 streets and you're not even a real mountain. Just join Bankstown already.
The Bin Night Award
We all know that ibises love a good feed of garbage. Thus, this Golden Ibis is for the best thing I've eaten on this journey.
Winner: Bankstown. Deliciously fragrant noodle soup with a name I can't pronounce. Amazing.
Honourable Mention 1: Fairfield. Very fine Falafel, and very fine chips. Should call it Finefield.
Honourable Mention 2: Marrickville. Vietnamese pork rolls. I very much enjoyed burning my lips off. Thank you Marrickville.
There Was an Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe Award
A major part of this blog is strolling through residential streets. This award is presented to the suburb with the strangest house.
Winner: Brighton-Le-Sands. I call this the Darth Vader house.
Honourable Mention: Fairfield Heights. Pointy house.
The Sore Feet Award
This award goes to the biggest suburbs with the most "stuff". These suburbs take a lot out of me because they take hours to walk through and hours to write up. Often, though, they contain Sydney's best so they're a shame to gloss over.
Winner: Marrickville. This is the most "complete" suburb I've visited on this blog. It's got hippies, Greeks, terraces, history, grunge and much more. If you had to enter a suburb and couldn't leave, Marrickville is a top option.
Honourable Mention: Auburn. Between the gorgeous Botanical Gardens, the kebab-riffic city centre, the ornate mosque and the Krispy-Kreme-Mcdonalds-Megaplex this suburb is jam-packed with enough points of interest to wear out even the best knock-off sneakers.
The Wooden Ibis
This is the crappiest suburb I've suburbed this year. When judging a suburb, I look for interesting things to see and/or do. A suburb which finds itself under consideration for this category has neither.
(Dis)honourable Mention: Mays Hill. An impressive temple is this suburb's only redeeming factor. I'm including Mays Hill in spite of the temple because they've stretched their boundaries in order to capture the temple within the borders. We don't tolerate dirty tricks here.
The Platinum Ibis
Finally, the most prized award. This award is nothing more than my favourite suburb that this blog visited in 2018.
Winner: Paddington. This suburb is so jam packed with stuff I don't know where to start. Paddington boasts bushland just a few centimetres from the city, beautiful historic buildings, ornate terraces, fancy stores and cafes, and, best of all, the awesome Paddington Reservoir. As I said in the original post, if a tourist asks you where to go slightly off the normal tourist trail, send them here. A worthy victor.
Honourable Mention: Kyeemagh. This is a small suburb I had never heard of, but it really delivered. Between the beautiful market gardens, a place to catch fish while watching aircraft take off & land, the beach, and a fish-and-chip shop that doesn't charge extra for tartare sauce, this is an idyllic little pocket of Sydney.
Thank You
Congratulations to all this year's winners. To all the loser suburbs, try harder next time.
Finally, to this blog's readers I say thank you. This project is turning out to be a lot of fun, and I hope this is encouraging you to explore your own backyard too. Merry Christmas, happy New Year and I hope you're enjoying the holiday cheer.
If you're enjoying this blog and you haven't already, please consider subscribing by email, following on Facebook and/or following along on Instagram.
See you in 2019 for more suburban shenanigans!
Hi Yaz
ReplyDeleteI'm a relatively new Sydneysider and don't travel far off a handful of suburbs that comprise where I work, live and send my son to school. Thanks for an entertaining year of discoveries. Looking forward to the suburbs you're going to in 2019.
Be well
SSG
This was an awesome write up!
ReplyDeleteYou should submit this to some popular newspapers!
excellent article !
ReplyDelete