Friday 7th March
Today I went to Manley on the ferry, which also doubled as doing a boat tour of Sydney Harbour.
Despite the name that Bondi gets, I actually think Manley as a suburb is a lot nicer. The beaches are fairly similar, although I'm not really a fan of the beach, but I thought the places to sit out and eat were a lot nicer. Except for the seagulls, which were fearless in landing on the tables and eating from the plates. They were clever enough not to eat from your plate until you were finished, but once you looked away for even a minute they would swoop in.
As the weather wasn't that warm when I got there, I didn't sit on the beach, but decided to go for a ramble up on the old headland. I saw the WWII gun placements which were put in to defend Sydney. I think we missed the Battle of Sydney in history. Seriously though I would never have realised they thought they were going to be bombed. Beats Ireland which was bombed even though we were neutral. Apparently they did do some recon flights over though, so I guess the guns got some use. And I only learnt later there was an attack on Sydney Harbour by Japanese subs.
I did say the weather wasn't warm, but it was once I got up on the head, so I came back down again, and it got cold again. In fact it then began to rain, so I decided to head back across the bay. Although it didn't rain for long it got quite choppy on the way back, but again it was great for the views.
That evening I met my cousin John for a few pints. Except pints in this country have shrunk to schooners. Means you seem to spend a lot more time at the bar. Although we didn't know it at the time, there was a big electrical storm, with the rest of the rain, while we were in the pub. The clue was the rugby match from the stadium up the road on TV, it was quite wet, and the picture froze for a few minutes after a lightning strike.
After John departed I walked home, but as my path home took me past the infamous Coogee Bay Hotel (CBH) I had to go in. The queue of people showing their passports to get in was quite long, but for some reason the bouncers thought I might have been old enough. All I can say about the CBH is that it reminded me of Coppers on Leaving Cert results night. It was pretty weird. Met a few other Irish but they were all kids. Eventually I made it home, after talking to a nice local girl for a few hours.
Today I went to Manley on the ferry, which also doubled as doing a boat tour of Sydney Harbour.
Despite the name that Bondi gets, I actually think Manley as a suburb is a lot nicer. The beaches are fairly similar, although I'm not really a fan of the beach, but I thought the places to sit out and eat were a lot nicer. Except for the seagulls, which were fearless in landing on the tables and eating from the plates. They were clever enough not to eat from your plate until you were finished, but once you looked away for even a minute they would swoop in.
As the weather wasn't that warm when I got there, I didn't sit on the beach, but decided to go for a ramble up on the old headland. I saw the WWII gun placements which were put in to defend Sydney. I think we missed the Battle of Sydney in history. Seriously though I would never have realised they thought they were going to be bombed. Beats Ireland which was bombed even though we were neutral. Apparently they did do some recon flights over though, so I guess the guns got some use. And I only learnt later there was an attack on Sydney Harbour by Japanese subs.
I did say the weather wasn't warm, but it was once I got up on the head, so I came back down again, and it got cold again. In fact it then began to rain, so I decided to head back across the bay. Although it didn't rain for long it got quite choppy on the way back, but again it was great for the views.
That evening I met my cousin John for a few pints. Except pints in this country have shrunk to schooners. Means you seem to spend a lot more time at the bar. Although we didn't know it at the time, there was a big electrical storm, with the rest of the rain, while we were in the pub. The clue was the rugby match from the stadium up the road on TV, it was quite wet, and the picture froze for a few minutes after a lightning strike.
After John departed I walked home, but as my path home took me past the infamous Coogee Bay Hotel (CBH) I had to go in. The queue of people showing their passports to get in was quite long, but for some reason the bouncers thought I might have been old enough. All I can say about the CBH is that it reminded me of Coppers on Leaving Cert results night. It was pretty weird. Met a few other Irish but they were all kids. Eventually I made it home, after talking to a nice local girl for a few hours.
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