From The Hills and For The Hills- Sydney Metro Norwest

The Hills to Macquarie University/Chatswood- what once seemed almost tiring and bothersome has now with the development of the Sydney Metro, become a quick, easy and convenient.

Macquarie
At Macquarie University station, you’ll find that two exits – one leading to Macquarie University, and the other leading to Macquarie Centre (keep your eyes peeled for the signs).

Macquarie University
A short 5 minute walk from the station, Macquarie University is the birthplace of Wi-Fi and is home to the popular Macquarie Uni library- Macquarie University library, if you haven’t heard of yet, is a popular study location for students from all around, offering 5 levels of quiet study space. Narrowing into the end of each school term and university semester, you’ll find the library packed with both high school and university students, studying for their finals, but during the holidays, the library is quite vacant and becomes a nice place to finish that old book you were reading or story you were writing, undisturbed. Other things to see/visit whilst at this university are Wally’s Walk, a large path within the university that is lined with magnificent London Plane trees, and ‘Ubar’, the university’s multi-function bar, campus cafeteria, and social entertainment grounds.

Macquarie Centre
On the other side of the station from Macquarie University, is the Macquarie Centre, home to famous Macquarie Ice Rink and Sydney’s first H&M, Sephora, and Uniqlo stores. Here, you’ll find more than enough things to do- from a Timezone with claw machines, video games, and prizes, and great cafes that offer great food and coffee, to countless retail stores for you to have your next shopping spree, you’ll find countless ways to spend your time at this shopping centre.

Chatswood
The final stop on the Tallawong to Chatswood line is Chatswood itself. A major residential as well as business district, Chatswood is another place where you’ll find all your favourite shops, cafes, and restaurants.

District Dining
Just above the Chatswood station, is the food destination of District Dining, where traditional Asian food market meets fancy food court to offer you an atmospheric Asian food court. Here you’ll find only reputable Asian restaurants such as Ippudo, Pepper Lunch, Akira Sushi, and General Chao.

Hawkers Food Lane
Another food lover’s destination to Asian food, Hawkers Food Lane is an Asian Marketplace inspired food court located on the 2nd floor of Chatswood Westfield. This place offers cuisines from China, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, India and so many more, all in the same place, providing the food lane with its vibrant colours and various decorations and design.

Flower Child Café
Perhaps one of the most Instagrammable cafes in Sydney, Flower Child is an outdoors garden inspired indoors café located just a floor above Hawkers Food Lane, that offers great and beautiful food and drinks, and coffee roasted from the famous ‘The Grounds’. Here, we ordered a Cappuccino, Lychee and Mint, Prosciutto and Asparagus Soldiers, Flower Child French Toast, and a Pistachio cake. All of the food and drinks were not only amazing to eat, but also to look at, with vibrant colours popping from each and every dish, making the experience of consuming our meals all the more enjoyable.

Pros and Cons
My use of the metro from Castle Hill to Macquarie University and Chatswood was extremely easy and convenient, and it’s something I will be definitely be using more often in the future. The only confusing and slightly irritating aspect of the metro would be the misalignment of the times displayed at the station and on the Trip View app perhaps caused by constant delays and early trains, but as the times only differ my a maximum of a few minutes, it was something I was able to look past.

Overall Experience
As I had ventured into the large suburbs of Macquarie and Chatswood all in one day, I felt that there were a lot of things I would have loved to have done and explored but just didn’t have the time to. Luckily, as the two suburbs are just a quick Metro ride away, I know I’ll be able to frequent my visits to these suburbs more in the future.

Reference:
https://www.mq.edu.au/business_and_community/property_and_facilities/esd_ecologically_sustainable_development/what_else_we_do/build/macquarie_university_library
https://www.mq.edu.au/about/campus-services-and-facilities/food-and-drinkhttps://www.strikebowling.com.au/locations/strike-macquarie
https://www.westfield.com.au/chatswood/story/4EJWiDe5K808YKGwK8skCM/hawker-lane-guide