I'm Back: Haberfield (3rd Anniversary Special)

In the words of the wise philosophers of the yesteryear, The Backstreet Boys, "oh my god, we're back again". 

I hope you made it to the other side of the latest instalment of this apocalypse in good spirits and good health. Now, cast your mind back to June, when I promised for this blog's 3rd Anniversary Special to spend a month going to the eight suburbs that you, the reader, most wanted to see. 

In eighth place (well - equal fifth - it turns out that when you do a poll with 300 options for a blog that gets a few hundred readers on a good day you get a lot of ties), you voted me onto a bus to the Inner West.

Haberfield

Haberfield is an Inner West suburb sandwiched between the Bay Run and Parramatta Road. After a Friday of working from home, I grabbed Mrs Completing Sydney and a pair of facemasks and we hopped on a bus to neighbouring Leichhardt, from where we were able to cross a foot- and bike-bridge into the suburb.

This bridge, part of the aforementioned Bay Run, gives you a pretty great view of the bay itself. 

Crossing the bridge, I was already chuffed to be back exploring this wonderful city.

Being a cycleway, this spot features biking directions to the nearest hotspots such as Hurlstone Park and Tempe Station, for some reason.

It also features this neat fishy wall,

where I'm not allowed to share links to crappier blogs than mine so that you think mine is great.

And an adorable sign reminding you not to pour industrial waste down the drain. 

We continued on the waterside path,

by the local rowing club - apparently owned by UTS,

and the traffic-heavy City-West Link Road. 

Here, we noticed that you can't really get from this bit of the Bay Run to the main bit of Haberfield. 

This meant walking a bit further than expected (albeit on a wonderful bit of path),

and crossing the road at one of those horrible cross-three-times-to-cross-once-because-we-couldn't-be-bothered-installing-enough-pedestrian-buttons traffic lights,

with a bonus feature of precariously narrow footpath as cars and buses speed by. For an area with such high pedestrian traffic, this crossing's a bit crap. 

Regardless, we made it across unflattened, and could begin exploring suburban Haberfield,

marked by this attractive brick path.

It turns out that the brick path is not the only attractive thing in suburban Haberfield,

the suburb is actually full of interesting older homes,

with Wikipedia telling me that a large portion of the suburb's homes are heritage listed. 

Spooky.

Continuing through, I ran into more attractive Inner West streetscapes, 

this house with palm trees,

and a significantly roofy boi,

as well as an interesting couple of shopfronts nestled in amongst the houses. 

Even the footpaths are fancy out here.

Speaking of footpaths, around here I found the footsteps of a very naughty dog embedded on one of the paths. 

As well as this leaf. Whoever's putting together the cement footpaths in Haberfield needs to rethink their approach.

Perhaps more interesting than a leaf's imprint on the ground is this, the most 1970s house I've ever seen. 

After a bit longer enjoying the Haberfieldian streetscape, 

I passed the suburb's church district,

in order to reach Haberfield's CBD.

I was very happy that you guys sent me to Haberfield for one main reason - Haberfield town centre is known for its plethora of Italian dining. 

Well, it would be rude not to. 

We chose to set down at a spot called "Papa" for its very nice outdoor dining section,

as well as its cool Italian (presumably) deli. 

Here, we enjoyed pizza with those giant globs of buffalo mozeralla that always taste wonderful, 

and an also wonderful seafood pasta. 

I figured I'd grab an Italian beer while I was here. When it comes to beer, my palate is entirely unrefined, so I can't tell you anything other than that this beer was perfectly ok.

Now, this place has dessert on the menu, but, importantly, they also have an entire patisserie under the same business. 

As such, we paid our bill and crossed the floor to ogle the cakes, gelato and biscuits.

Oh boy.

We couldn't help but enjoy some hot drinks with a chocolate finger and an orange almond biscuit. Everything was brilliant, with some delicious dark chocolate in the finger,

and an entire orange worth of flavour in the orange biscuit. 

With that completed, it was now time to take the short walk to Parramatta Road for the bus home.

On the way, we saw the local Donald's,

a... thing you may not touch,

and finally, the bus stop. 

Voters - you're off to an awesome start. If the rest of the month treats me as well as Haberfield has, I'll be a very happy chappy.

Haberfield: Not for those trying to cut back on carbs.