To get to Newcastle, we had to leave at eight (too early for a sleepyhead like me), and after two and a half hours driving, we arrived in Wallsend. This was probably one of the best areas we visited, with four charity shops on the main street and two others near by. While on this stop I bought this gorgeous brown bag for $2 !! I had wanted a brown bag in a satchel-style for a while so I was amazed by my luck.
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| my lovely new bag, with red silk scarf from my package partner Jasmine :) |
Next stop was Mayfield, where there was a Vinnie's and a Salvo's store to check out. As usual, the Salvo's was huge and filled with some pretty good stuff but as I said previously I was in no mood for frivolous purchasing as I am broke and running out of wardrobe space!
In Mayfield we stopped for lunch in and exotic restaurant called Subway, and while walking in my bag broke. I was completely devestated as this was my absolute favourite bag that I used every single day! Mourning my loss, I swapped all my belongings into my new brown bag.
After lunch we drove on to Islington, where we made a brief stop at a Vinnie's we were driving past. There was heaps of cool stuff in this Vinnie's, mostly because unlike most other Vinnie's there was a whole room full of furniture! I love love looovvvveee second hand furniture so I had to be forcibly dragged away. However, I did manage to snag a $1 brown belt to match my new bag.
We then made our way on to the centre of Newcastle, where I was surprised to find it was much more city-like than I had expected. Having been on exciting road trips with my family stopping in practically every town in NSW at some point or another, it is shocking that I can't ever remember seeing the city of Newcastle (probably due to the relatively new highway by-pass..) In the city we stopped at an amazingly cute little retro shop, similar to those you might find in Newtown except about half the price for most things! I was really tempted by so many things in this shop, particularly a large collection of beautiful vintage bags. Luckily, I restrained myself and only bought one, a $5 woven beauty.
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| New woven bag, the gold oval says made in Italy (v. fancy) |
Around this point, my companion/driver started to get a bit cranky because he hadn't gotten enough sleep, so we ducked into one last Vinnie's in Hamilton (unsuccessfully) before heading home for a longggg sleep.
After a couple of days of using my brown bag and having not go with half my clothes, I realised that I couldn't go on without a replacement for my favourite black bag. I knew what I had to do. The following Saturday I raced to my favourite local op shop to rummage through their enormous crates of bags and managed to find TWO perfect replacements, and of course I had to get them both as they were only six dollars each! Now I can sleep soundly knowing that even if one of my replacements dies, even they can be easily replaced haha.
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| Two newer bags on the left, sad broken bag on the right :'( |
So yes, that concludes the end of my Newcastle story and further adventures.. I think that basically what I have learned from my trip is that Newcastle op-shops aren't really any better or cheaper than Sydney's ones so next time I will not waste the five hours it took to go there and back! However, it was a good experience and with the exception of my companion getting all irritated towards the end of the day it was still fun. Next time I think I will try some smaller towns as I have heard good things about those...
Until then I will have to just keep my faith in the power of my local op shops to conveniently bring me what I want!
xx Elly
