The western suburbs of Sydney aren't exactly grand or exciting. Tourism is non-existent and the prevaling industries are animal husbandry and turf farming. It's the suburbs, just with horses.
The best thing about living in western Sydney is that you can easily access the culture of a big city and the adventurous outdoor activities of a mountain town. Sydney is an hour's train ride to the east, and the Blue Mountains are an easy hour's drive to the west. It's a bit like living in Arkansas, but with easy access to New York City and Boulder, Colorado.
Saturday- art in the city. We took the train into the city to see an exhibition of Anish Kapoor's sculpture at the Museum of Contemporary Art. Anish Kapoor is most famous among US mid-westerners for sculpting the Cloud Gate (or "the bean") in Chicago's Millennium Park. The exhibition was huge- spread over three gallery floors- and included all of the artist's most famous work.
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| Sky Mirror- a huge mirror reflecting the sky outside the MCA. |
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| My Red Homeland. A large metal arm slowly but continuously changes the shape of red wax. The installation is huge, and very impressive. I resisted the temptation to jump in. |
Sunday- mountain biking. After filling up on city culture, we drove a short way up to the foothills of the Blue Mountains and rode bikes in the dirt playground of Yellowmundie park. It's been some time since either Carrie or I rode dirt, so we rode slowly and crashed a lot, but we still managed to have a good time.
I wanted to squeeze in some rock climbing this weekend as well, but the fire risk was so severe that all of the National Parks in New South Wales (and hence all of the good climbing areas) were entirely closed. But, dozens of great climbing areas hosting thousands of routes are just 1-2 hours away.
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| Carrie and Markus, cragging at the Dam Cliffs last weekend, Blue Mountains |
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| Carrie, high on Flake Crack, Mount Piddington, Blue Mountains. |
While I don't love the western Sydney suburbs, I do love the accessibility of the city and the mountains.
