This article is from Sydney WeekendNotes for Wednesday the 24th of December 2008

Paddy's Markets are housed on the bottom floor of a multi story shopping complex in Haymarket next to the Sydney CBD.

In a city which lacks anything to compare to the Queen Victoria Markets in Melbourne, Paddy's markets is unfortunately the best we've got. And that makes me want to cry.

Rather than invite gourmet food retailers into the complex the owners have for some unknown reason packed it full of hawkers flogging knick-knacks to tourists. Here you will find the highest concentration of stuffed marsupials per square metre on the planet.

Redeeming features include the occasional fruit and veg stall, as well as vendors selling cheap clothes which do not feature a boxing kangaroo.

If you've not been before it's worth the trip just to wonder at how so many people can make a living flogging tack to travellers, and maybe pick up a really cheap pair of boxer shorts, or a new pair of runners.

Then after you have got your head around the wonders of capitalism make your way to the nearby China Town on Dixon St (some irony there?) and hoedown on some excellent Yum Cha.

Then when you go to sleep at night try not to have nightmares of hordes of evil koalas escaping from Paddy's markets and running rampage through the city with chainsaws and wearing hockey masks.


Why? There is something really cute about a koala in a hockey mask.