Flying High: Mascot

This next suburb is best known as the home of Sydney's Airport. This is

Mascot

Mascot is a rare suburb in that I have no idea what "region" of Sydney you'd classify it as.

Is it Southeast Sydney? Well, it's more west of the city than east. Is it the Inner West then? That's a bit of a stretch. Wikipedia says it's in the city's "Inner South" but I've lived in Sydney my whole life and have never heard that term before (sounds like something real estate agents made up). I guess that means it just sneaks into my completely arbitrary definition of South Sydney.

Regardless, Mascot is very close to the city, only five minutes by train from Central, which is how I got in today.

Being part of the privately delivered Airport line, the station has a slightly different aesthetic to the rest of the network, and even funny fonts!

When you get off the train at Mascot, things are immediately chic, shiny and modern, with plenty of glass and a very generous amount of new apartments all around the station.

If you cross the road, you get deeper into the real-estate catalogue that is this part of the suburb, with a small retail precinct forming the centre for an entire village of apartments.

A lot of people don't like these types of developments, but I don't mind them. We live in a city of five million, and so a stack of apartments across the road from a train station five minutes from the city makes sense.

Add in the local shops at your doorstep and it makes for a much more environmentally friendly way to live.

Plus they have this adorable Korean store, so that's something.

Stepping off of my soapbox, I continued away from the station, and onto a street with more apartments and some offices too. Interestingly, the street is named Coward Street.

Here's a hot tip. If you've got a bit of time to spare to get to the airport, you can save about ten bucks per person on the airport train by taking the train to Mascot and then changing for this bus just around the corner from the station, like these savvy savers here. The bus you want is the 400 or 420 and it goes to both the domestic and international terminal.

Also on Coward Street, albeit a little up the road, is this internet cafe with a gourmet dining menu. Why don't more places have waffle fries? They're such an underrated chip.

I continued following Coward Street eastbound, past this mural

and someone loading an esky into their limo,

and landed in this park named Lionel Bowen.

This is a rather pleasant park with all the staples, such as sun chairs,

public barbeques, a kids playground,

a view of the shiny glass neighbours,

and even a sandpit.

The other end of the park is some more classic Aussie suburbia, with green streets featuring a mix of bog standard older brick houses

a few cute painted options,

and this one which which I appeared to stumble upon mid-way through its change from Dr Jekyll to Mr Hyde.

Also of particular note in residential Mascot is this refrigerator farm,

as well as the pretty but lower-key Mascot Memorial Park.

This led me onto a main road. I usually avoid walking on the main roads on these escapades, but this particular main road - Botany Road - is a nicer example, with crunchy orange autumn leaves,

and some interesting heritage buildings,

one of which is just the cutest.

If you follow the road a little bit further up, you'll hit the suburb's main commercially-bit.

"Downtown" Mascot isn't too bad a place, with plenty of food offerings attracting a lot of foot traffic (or is it food traffic?)

Of particular interest is this car accessories store with a big wide mural painted on the side. This mural is covered with pictures of kids, animals and planes, an apparent celebration of multicultural Sydney and Australia's first zoo in nearby Port Botany.

On this painting, I enjoyed these children smothering an elephant,

as well as this Ansett Air plane.

I had an appointment back by Mascot Station so I said goodbye to the suburb's commercial centre,

and headed on my way.

This bit of the suburb features an absolute hodge-podge of houses,

and a minion who is no longer of this world.

This residential street spat me out onto a main road at the other side.

For this post, I'm not going to go all the way to the airport (just check your friend's Facebook feeds to see pictures of Sydney airport), but this road is the biggest indication so far that we are just a few blocks from the airport.

This is where most of the airport hotels have set up shop,

as well as the Jaguar-Range Rover corporate office. It's great to see that the floors of the office have been put stacked with the same level of quality control as your average British car.

Another, more industry relevant, office of note is just around the corner, with who else but Australia's flag carrier Qantas.

A few more steps,

and I was back where I started, in time for my appointment.

So what was my appointment? Being filmed pretending to walk around Mascot in a goofy intro for my interview on Sunrise! Woohoo!

Mascot: <Insert crude joke about the Mile High Club here>.