Sydney & Manly adventures

As far as my flight halfway across the world, I got lucky. When I boarded what I thought was going to be the most painful flight of my traveling life, to my surprise I had an entire row to myself. Score! I slept the entire 15 hours, and woke up in Sydney where Kelly met me at the gate. Kel booked us 3 nights in a beach town called Manly, a beautiful place just a 30 min ferry ride from Sydney. A good home base.

We headed straight to Manly upon arrival, and spent the first day shopping and wandering around all the cute little boutiques and side streets of this quaint town. Our first dinner was amazing, an upstairs Thai restaurant where we had our own window nook to sit in. Thai food is everywhere here b/c of the proximity to the country, and it was DELICIOUS! We retired early (after a few episodes of L Word, a new obsession) so we would be refreshed for exploring Sydney.

In the morning we hopped on the ferry and headed to the city. The weather was iffy, raining on and off all day. A few downpours, but luckily we were able to catch dry patches while wandering around. We explored the Botanicals, as per Zacky’s recommendation, and saw huge bats and parrots everywhere.

We ventured to China town, which we weren’t too impressed by (but saw a really cool sculpture),
then found a lovely pub “Scruffy Murphy’s” that clearly I felt we had to stop in for a brew. One brew turned to two, and then we made our way back to the harbor via the FREE shuttle. LOVE public transport, shout-out to Jess my transit guru ☺

Before we departed Sydney we spotted an ice bar, and decided we had to see what it was all about. AMAZING. Yes, a bit pricey to get in, and I was shocked and annoyed at the 30-minute time limit, but really a person can’t handle much more in -5 degrees. The cost includes rental of ridiculous coats and gloves and a choice of one of their icey themed beverages. This place was cool, in all senses of the word, and the delicious drinks were served up in a glass made of ice. Ridiculous. Ice sculptures everywhere, koalas, the opera house, hearts, hanging ice cubes, and a bar fully made of ice. Well everything was fully made of ice, actually. We danced around to Kanye (they seemed to be playing all Kanye, guess they really like him, I sure didn’t mind) and tried to keep our toes from freezing off. Met two women from Berkeley and dance and froze with them for a bit. Small world…

After ice bar we hoped the ferry back to Manly, and 5 minutes into the 30 minute trip Kelly realizes, oops where is my cell phone. After frantically looking through her purse we decide it must still be at ice bar, and we decide to go back to look for it. Alas after 4 ferry rides we call the phone and find out it was in Manly (she must have left it in the ferry bathroom), so alas 2 hours worth of ferrying concluded our night. At the time, not so funny, but of course today I find it pretty amusing. Shout out to Kelly’s blonde moments.
Today we head for Bondi beach, a main beach of Sydney that has its own reality show. Should be cool, hopefully the weather improves, which by looking out our window it looks like it has.

Auzzie here I come :)

Tomorrow I leave on a jet plane to Sydney, Australia, for 2 weeks. I will be visiting my close friend Kelly Bass, who is attending University on the Gold Coast. We will be meeting in Sydney to explore for 2 days, then heading to her stomping grounds to see a bit of Kelly's Australian life. I am so excited! We will be trekking up the coast to see the Great Barrier Reef, and hopefully discovering many other natural wonders along the way. Looking forward to an excellent adventure!