Last week also brought on a craving for some good Turkish food. I'm not talking about a kebab either - I'm talking about lots of little bowls of really interesting and tasty dips and stuff spread all over a table like I had in Turkey. It's been a long, long time since I had a good Turkish meal - like since about 1995 or 1996. That is a long time to go between nibbles.
It appears that most of Sydney's Turks are concentrated around Auburn, which is only about 10 -15 minutes west of here by car. Essentially you drive past the Flemington Markets (where I go most weekends), go a bit further down Parramatta Road and then turn left.
We need some new rugs around the house, and that area is also full of rug shops, so we made the trip on Monday. We had a look at some rugs, then went looking for food.
We were totally disappointed. The shopping area of Auburn is built around the train station, so you have half a shopping district on one side of the tracks and half on the other. It must be one of the few major town centres that has not had a Westfield Mall dumped in the middle of it either.
The two shopping strips are dull, dreary and very run down. The place really looks like a slum. The buildings are crying out for a coat of paint, and the streetscapes really need to be cleaned up. I don't remember seeing a single tree anywhere near the shops - it is just drab grey concrete, tarmac and bricks.
According to Domain, 40% of the inhabitants are Muslims, and the majority are Lebanese by birth (followed by Turkish). After driving all over the place, we stopped and hopped out and went for a walk. It was pretty clear that we were the most "anglo" people in the place by a long shot. Speaking English seemed to be very much an option. I don't think I'd want to be wandering around the place after dark.
We had a look at a few food shops, and none were that attractive, so we ended up driving home and having a sandwich. I have since done a bit of interweb research, and have found that there is a strip of good looking cafes and restaurants on one street - we actually drove down that street, but turned at a point where we missed all the cafes. Clearly, The Force does not work for me in Auburn.
I also had a look on Domain at property prices. I searched for what we are typically looking for - a 3 or 4 bedroom house (bugger the number of bathrooms). Around here (and for many suburbs around) such a dwelling usually starts at $700,000 and quickly goes up into the millions.
In Auburn, you can get a 3 bedroom house for a bit over $360,000, and prices don't appear to go over half a million.
Having been there, I can see why. It's a tip. You'd have to pay me to live there.
The interesing thing is that I went to the NRMA website to get a quote for contents insurance and the quote was about 40% cheaper than what we pay at the moment. I guess breaking and entering doesn't pay in Auburn.
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