Manly Beach! (February 11)

Today I woke up around 8 because I slept with my earplugs (my new best friend). I did some things around the apartment and then got ready to go for Manly beach. My two roommates Minna and Suzy came with me along with Tash and her roommate Tyler and a girl from Tash’s building Anaelle. We all met at the bus stop at 11 where we took a bus down to Sydney.

 Natasha and Anaelle

 Minna (one of my flat mates) and Tyler

Me and Suzy (another one of my flat mates)

Once we arrived there we walked to the Circluar Quay where bought a day pass ticket and took the ferry to Manly Beach.

 Opera House during the day

 Heading out of Circle Quay towards Manly

It took us about an hour fifteen from the time we left our apartment till the time we arrived at Manly Beach. Today was the first day of the Australian Surf Open at Manly Beach (one of the main reasons we went down there). We didn’t realize that the first day was juniors so it wasn’t that crowded. We ended up going down to the right side of the beach where we laid out for a while and went swimming in the water. It felt so refreshing and nice although the water was very salty.

 Australian Surf Open

So beautiful not a rain cloud in sight . . . 30 mintues later it not so much

When we got out of the water our friend Lewis had met up with us. We decided to walk down to where the surf competition was happening to check it out and to grab some lunch. As we were walking down there this HUGE storm cloud started rolling in. We walked around for a bit this surf open was a lot like the one we have at home so I felt very at home. Manly beach reminds me a lot of Venice and Santa Monica. We ended up grabbing burgers and ‘chips’ aka fries at a little stand. The burger was delicious minus the bribri (radish) that they put on it. As we were sitting eating our lunch we started hearing thunder. We quickly decided we had to get back to our stuff because we could tell it was a matter of minutes before it would start down pouring. As we just got back to our stuff it start sprinkling. We didn’t want to take the ferry back because we had to walk some ways and we didn’t want to do it in the rain. We decided to go to a bar just as we were getting to the bar it started POURING rain.

There was a video of the rain but I cant get it to upload maybe ill try facebook
So our gorgeous beach day turned into a rain storm. We grabbed drinks and waited it out at this bar called Magic Millions Bar.

 My roommates and I after being out in the rain and having wet swim suits on

After about an hour it was dying down so we decided to catch the ferry before we had to wait another 30 minutes. As we got on the ferry the sun came out and it was back to being gorgeous. When we got off the ferry it was so nice we decided to stay down town and walk around. Minna headed back home but the rest of us stayed. We went into this building right outside the station where we saw a mini replica of Sydney

We decided we wanted to walk through the Botanical Royal Gardens. On our way over to the gardens there was a street performer, Jamie from Minnesota, who was uni-cylcing and ended up riding a 12 foot uni-cycle.

On our way to the Gardens you pass the Opera House so we stopped there took some pictures and laid down for about half an hour. It was so nice out and felt great to sit in the sun and watch all the people take their pictures. There were some pretty entertaining people there from all different places.

 sayings from the wall in front of the opera house

 parts of the opera house are under construction

After that we walked through the Botanical gardens. It was a perfect day to walk through it. The smells, the birds, the trees, the fountains, it was all so pretty. It was a relaxing scenic walk that we used as a shortcut to the bus stop in the middle of the city right near George Street.

My camera was dead so I wasn't able to get a lot of photos

On our way to George Street we stopped at a beautiful park called Hyde park. In the center was a fountain and then around it were benches and flowers.

Unfortunately we had just missed the bus so we had to wait about 30 minutes for the next one. By the time we got on the bus it was 7. We got home about 45 minutes later. I took a shower and then started to make dinner I marinated my chicken in garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil. While that was marinating I began precutting all my veggies so it would be easier to grab food on the go and have some snacks. I cut up my red peppers, celery, cucumber, carrots. I then made myself a salad. I planned on having chicken rice and a salad for dinner but we have no frying pans only pots so I was trying to be creative and thought I’d use the oven. After 15 mintues of trying to figure out how to set the oven and turn it on I thought I had figured it out. I had got it on and I was so happy until I realized it was blowing out cold air. Meanless to say I never figured out how to get the oven to work correctly and there are no lids for our pots so I ended up not cooking the chicken or the rice. So salad it was for dinner. As I was eating Anaelle and her roommate Lindsay from came over. The boys wanted us to go over to apartment 4 to hang out there and then head into the city. After finishing my salad I quickly changed we went and got Natasha and we headed to 4 which is a flight of stairs below my apartment. There we met 2 Norwegians one who is living here for a semester Joakim and his friend who is on vacation here for 2 weeks Marie. They were both very nice. We hung out there for a while then Tyler, Lewis, Joakim, and Marie decided to go downtown (it was 11 when they left). I was way to tired from the day and I think a bit of jet lag that I decided to call it a night and I went to bed.