Sydney Trip (Part 3)

Wednesay, we went to the BEACH! We got up early and got on the Bondi Explorer bus and went through a few nice towns on the way, and got some great views of the city along the way.

(If I had taken a picture of the beach, I would insert here, but I did not take a single picture at the beach. Oops....) It was a fabulous beach!! It was very crowded because the schools were still on holiday. (I sound like such an Australian!) And it was a topless beach, which was interesting. I did not go topless; however. That would have been a little awkward with Mona sitting right there. And I think a sunburn there would REALLY hurt!! It was the sunniest day the whole time we were there, so we definitely picked the right day to go to the beach. I am really bad at putting on sunscreen, and this time I forgot to put it on my thighs, so I had some REALLY bad sunburn. (Like, I still have a little bit left and it's been two weeks.) But it was still nice to soak up the Australian sun! I did venture into the ocean, although not too far because there were all sorts of reports about shark attacks in Australia. (I think they were north of where we were in Brisbane, but sharks can still swim!!) The water was actually colder than I expected it to be, and the waves were pretty big and there was a pretty strong current. But I love being in the ocean! They were a nice breeze the whole time we were there, so it didn't get too hot.

The town of Bondi was a very cute little beach town, with lots of little shops and restaurants right on the water. We had lunch at a little cafe not too far from the water.

We headed back and the guys picked us up and we headed to the restaurant where Brad had the best Thai food he has ever had! It is called Satasia and we met 4 of the Australian employees and their spouses there. It was really cool to have an entire meal with people with Australian accents!!! We had SO much food, and it was all AWESOME!! I was boring and got Pad Thai, but I decided that it was probably going to be the best Pad Thai I have ever had, so I had to try it, and I was right. It was SO good!!! We got a lot of different dishes to share with the table, including Red Curry Beef, Calamari and Pecan Crusted Chicken. Yummy!!!

The locals were telling us all about all the different creatures and huge bugs and spiders they have there, like the Huntsman Spider and flying cockroaches!!!! I don't know if I could handle it!!!!! The huntsman spider is as big as your hand and furry. It's not poisonous, just very scary looking. And I guess the cockroaches are hard to get rid of. We even saw some really small ones on the wall at the restaurant (after we finished eating!) and they weren't phased at all. Mona got pretty freaked out about them.

Thursday was kind of cloudy and overcast. I couldn't get ahold of Mona. (We couldn't use our cell phones over there!!) So, I decided to hop on the Sydney Explorer Bus and take it around the city to see some different parts than we had seen before. We drove by China Town and Star City (the casino in Sydney). It was cool, and the driver was like Asian dude who was making all these funny comments to everything. After that, I went back to the Queen Victoria Building to do some more shopping. I just love that place!!!

Then, I took the bus over to China Town, where Paddy's Market is, which is just like a big flea market. It was kind of cool, but it was REALLY hot in there. It was mostly just t-shirts and jewelry and Asian purses. There is a Chinese friendship garden that was given to Australia by China to celebrate the bi-cenitiary. It was really beautiful and VERY peaceful. It was all about feng shui. It was pretty cool because it was kind of in the middle of everything!

Mona and I were hoping to be able to get some tickets to go to something at the Opera House, but we waited too long (like the day of, so I am not surprised) to get tickets to either Madame Butterfly or this comedy show that was there. But no such luck. The guys went out to dinner with the new manager and couple of other employees, so we were on our own. We ended up eating dinner at this place RIGHT on the water in the harbor by the opera house. I had this fish called Barramundi, which is local to Australia I think. It was REALLY good. Very fish, and not at all fishy. It was kind of buttery. I was proud of myself for trying something different! :)

Then the guys met us and we went to this really interesting bar called Minus 5 (meaning minus 5 degrees Celcius, which is about 20 degrees farenheit.) It was a very interesting concept!!! I had on a skirt and flip flops! But, they were prepared. They gave us all these really warm coats with hoods, glove liners and gloves. They also gave Mona and I some Ugg boats to wear. So, we got all suited up, and then they took us into this room where they gave us these buzzers that let us know when our 30 minutes was almost up. And they told us how to hold the glasses (with two hands) so it wouldn't slip out of our hands. And they made sure to tell us that if we broke the ice sculputres we had to pay for them. So, we headed in and they gave us a pre-mixed drink that was kind of like a screwdriver. It was pretty cool in there (literally, ha!!) They had tables set up with animal skins on the stools and some ice sculptures and a fountain. We just hung out in there and talked until our buzzers went off and we were out. It did get cold the longer we were in there, but my bare legs didn't get as cold as I expected! It could be the newest bar trend, but I don't think 20 above is as catchy as Minus 5!