Life Down Under: My Weekend In Sydney

Time is quickly moving along here in Australia & we are busy with school, work, basketball, church, school camp etc. Time Out for Women tofw.com came to Sydney this August and I saw that as a great opportunity to get out of the cold of Melbourne & be uplifted by the sunshine & Spirit in Sydney. A lot of women from our ward at church made travel arrangements to attend TOFW. It was so fun to run into everyone in the airport & on the plane, the sisters here are very sweet, good LDS women. My fearless friend Tracy & I ran around Sydney all weekend. We drove the inner suburbs of the city (Darlinghurst, Surrey Hills, Woollahra) with no idea of where we were going, nor did we realise that the streets often times run only one way...something about no right turns maybe...I still don't know after spending the weekend there. Tracy & I share a love of all things food related (eating, cooking, kitchen shops, quirky restaurants, chocolate... you get the gist). I had heard that Donna Hay was closing her brick & mortar store in Woollahra & she was happening to have a prop & moving sale the very day we were in Sydney. We decided to head over there, not knowing if it was to be a bust or not. Turned out to be pretty good! Her shop is darling, too bad she had to close it, but the good news is her stuff is still available online at donnahay.com.au. She actually ended up being there in person & we had a photo taken with her!

Tracy, our new bestie Donna Hay & me

Donna Hay store

She was lovely & I am so impressed at the Aussies, they just don't seem to be wrapped up with fame as much as Americans are. We got our goodies & headed back to TOFW (I won't tell you about our parking ticket in Woollahra) to hear from Laurel Christensen, Sheri Dew & Hilary Weeks. It was amazing & we sang new verses of the song The Sisters in Zion (same tune as As Sisters in Zion) with all the sister missionaries, so powerful & beautiful. The next day we went to the Sydney Jewish Museum sydneyjewishmuseum.com.au for a free tour & heard from a dear 89 year old woman named Lottie Weiss who has survived the Holocaust. She re-tells her story every Sunday from 10:00am till 1:00pm. She showed us her tatooed arm with the number 2065 on it from the time she spent at Auschwitz. She told us about her family of 8 & how she became the only survivor. Miracles allowed her survival. The experience was touching, heartbreaking, horrifying & inspirational. I bought a mazuzah because we always had one on our door when I was a kid. I've been digging around in our family history again & have found some new discoveries on my Dad's Jewish line, I feel like a detective & LOVE IT! I'm always trying to unearth information to help me find my ancestors & seeing the maps at the museum has helped. I found the town that my Great Grandfather Joseph Snyder was from in Poland. Now I can possibly find out what happened to the family he left behind after he immigrated to the USA in 1896.

Sydney Jewish Museum

Novogrudok is the town my Great Grandparents Ida Pernick & Joseph Snyder are from

Kings Cross Sydney

After the heavy emotions felt at the museum we headed over to bills.com.au for a yummy late lunch, followed by the best gelato ever at Messina gelatomessina.com. Mmmm, I recommend the Salted Caramel, delish! We quickly headed over to Surrey Hills to the Sydney Antique Centre. They had lots of stalls with vintage clothing & antique furniture, we did not have enough time to explore the centre properly!

Sydney is a beautiful city with so much to offer. We didn't even hit the beaches, or the Blue Mountains, or the zoo, and unfortunately we never did get to run into Hugh Jackman...I guess I'll have to save that for next time! If you want to see more of Sydney check out our April 2012 post.