Bondi Beach

You know what's even better than shoveling snow and knocking icicles from the roof? Going to the beach. I knew one of the first things I'd be doing here was going to involve a trip to Bondi Beach (though there are other beaches close by I hear are just as good or even better...I'll let you know). It was eighty something degrees out and we had nothing going on. Easy decision. 

Something I found out about myself on this trip is that I've been putting sun block on incorrectly my entire life. I kind of got harassed for it by some "friends". Apparently you're not supposed to completely drench yourself in it to the point where it's non-rub-inable. I'm going to have to blame my sunscreen overuse on the lingering paranoia i had after only recently getting over the extreme burning and peeling that resulted from my trip to the great barrier reef. I'm not willing to take any chances anymore. Sticks and stones people. 

This beach-going experience was pretttttty great. It wasn't like Hampton Beach for those of you from back home. There weren't a bunch of wangsters walking around with their pants halfway down. There were no dirty, smelly people asking for cigarettes. Basically the beach at home will never seem quite as good now that I've gone in Australia (Cape beaches are a possible exception). I personally really liked the atmosphere at Bondi. Some people said it was a bit too crowded for their taste, but I'm pretty much used to that. It was hot the day we went. No doubt about that. We warmed up a little further by playing some frisbee. But soon enough we were in the water (which was not very warm but easy to get used to). 

The waves. Just huge. Waves like I've never experienced in my life. It's no wonder there are so many surfers at this place. It's a great feeling to see a wave twice your height coming at you and knowing that soon you'll be thrown around the ocean like a rag doll with no control over any part of your body other than your panicking brain. The ocean water invaded my nose and mouth on quite a few occasions. It was awesome. I was literally washed up to shore by these massive waves. No control over where I was going. So much more fun than the water anywhere I've ever been.

Me baby. Me.

Some of us do stupid things like go into the water with our bus passes in our pockets. I'm not a finger pointer. Luckily today wasn't my day to be stupid (except for the sun block). My bus pass was safe and sound up by my towel. I left the water and headed up there knowing that I needed to eat some delicious Australian beach cuisine some time soon. After roaming along the roadside cafes and restaurants for awhile, me and Luke ended up at this cute little food joint called McDonald's. I think I've seen them in the states but I'm not sure. Visions of the Hampton beach McDonald's now flood my head. BUT this one was better. I mean, the meal itself wasn't, but the 30 cent soft serve ice cream served me well. Delicious. 

We walked the beach some more and came across a little skate park. I was thinking about reliving my 8th grade skate fad and hopping in the bowl to show off my skills. I think I can still get the rotation on a kick flip. That would have sent the crowd that had gathered into a complete frenzy so I left the skating to the amateurs that day. There were some decent skaters. This is a great spot to skate too. I had to get some pictures of the skating with the beach in the background. It took me about 76 tries but I did end up with a few photos that are good enough to not get laughed at. 

More lounging on the beach occurred shortly after this. I'm proud to say that even though hours were spent in the blistering heat, I was not touched with even a spot that resembled a sun burn. I didn't get a spot that resembled a tan either though. Again, I did lather it on pretty heavy that day. But we could only stay there so long. We decided to take a walk to the cliffs that we saw off in the distance. There ended being a nice little path that we could walk along that provided us with photo-op after photo-op. 

We weren't allowed to do this.  Though I don't know who would take the time to do the YMCA dance and point their feet towards each other in such an emergency situation. 

It's usually these kinds of beautiful places where you can find some of the best homes in the world. This was partially true here. But these homes weren't like the ones you see on Cribs. Here, we saw a couple of excellent homeless residences that had million dollar views. Props to these homeless people for somehow convincing the city that it was okay for them to live on a cliff near a touristy area. I can't seem to load these photos right now. Just know it's the tightest homeless crib I've seen in some time.

We kept walking and got even more good views and even more good pics to accompany them. From up there, we could scope out the surf action pretty easily. A few days after we'd gone to the beach, we turned on the news to find out a Bondi surfer had been attacked by a great white shark. I'd show you some surf pics but again, I'm not able to load them right now. Internet issues continue to haunt me. 

Anyways, THATS what I need to accomplish next. Not getting eaten by a shark, but surfing. Learning to surf is one of my major goals and I'll have you know that I'm getting on it and will hopefully be able to share that experience with ya'll here. From the sunny city (not a real nickname for Sydney, I made that up),

Luke