Well I made it to Australia safe and sound on Tuesday June 11th of 2008. And it is just so great here, I have done so much in the past few days. Today is Saturday and I have a little free time to get blogging. Actually, now it is Tuesday; I had some difficulty posting pics.
I have so much to say, I don't know where to start. I am staying my first week with my friend Benny, he lives in a 4 bedroom house in Manly Beach, about 6 homes/apartments away from the beach. Manly Beach is on the northern portion of Sydney, which is in the state of New South Wales (NSW). Benny shares his room with his girlfriend Sol. Sol is from Argentina and Ben is from Australia. Here's a pic of Benny and I. He has been awesome, he has his last 2 tests for his masters and work the week I have been here, but he still gets on the piss (drinks) with me. 
The other roomates are Diogo from Brazil, Tess from Holland, and Brogan from Australia. Brogan is away so they are letting me crash in his bedroom till Sunday. All the roomates are great, everyone has something to contribute. Sol has been so nice showing me around all week while Benny worked.
The other roomates are Diogo from Brazil, Tess from Holland, and Brogan from Australia. Brogan is away so they are letting me crash in his bedroom till Sunday. All the roomates are great, everyone has something to contribute. Sol has been so nice showing me around all week while Benny worked. So, after I arrived in Sydney Airport on Wednesday via Quantas, I took the train to Circular Quay to take a ferry out of the Wharf to Manly Beach. You can also drive, but the ferry is more direct and you get great views of Sydney Harbor and the Harbor Bridge. It cost about $20 for the train/ferry ticket. When I arrived in Manly my friends house is about a 15 minute walk, I tried doing it but my surfboards made my shoulders hurt bad after a while so I hopped in a cab. I brought 2 surfboards and skimboard in a surf bag, a big bag on wheels for my clothes, and a backpack. It was about 60-65 F when I got to Manly on Tuesday at about 11am. The surf was pretty good, about 2-3 foot and clean. I didn't have time to get in the water on Tuesday. After I dropped my things off I went for a skate to the beach and along the lagoon
, and found a skatepark just around the block. It was a concrete park with 2 steel half pipes. I then went back to the house to meet up with Sol, she showed me around town. Basically the downtown is a Corso, which consists of a wide walkway with retail shops, restaurants, bars, and banks on both sides. You can get anything in the Corso. 
Then there are shops and restaurants along the beach road as well. In Manly, there is a walkway along the beach and a separate bikeway along the beach. The bikeway wraps around the south end into a cove where there is great snorkling, the beach is called Shelly Beach. Just around Shelly Beach there is a great reef point that is a great surf spot, Fairy Bower.
Then if you continue south along the reef point you will hit the North portion of the Sydney Harbor, called North Head.
, and found a skatepark just around the block. It was a concrete park with 2 steel half pipes. I then went back to the house to meet up with Sol, she showed me around town. Basically the downtown is a Corso, which consists of a wide walkway with retail shops, restaurants, bars, and banks on both sides. You can get anything in the Corso. 
Then there are shops and restaurants along the beach road as well. In Manly, there is a walkway along the beach and a separate bikeway along the beach. The bikeway wraps around the south end into a cove where there is great snorkling, the beach is called Shelly Beach. Just around Shelly Beach there is a great reef point that is a great surf spot, Fairy Bower.
Then if you continue south along the reef point you will hit the North portion of the Sydney Harbor, called North Head.I was amazed at the prices of things here. Last time I was here, which was 6 years ago the U.S. dollar was a lot stronger, back then $1 (U.S.) got you $1.50(Australian); now they are basically equal, the US dollar is a little stronger. So with that dollar getting weaker and inflation rising here things are extremely more expensive than the states, I would say between 100-300% more. Some things are more expensive than others, like beverages. A drink at a bar is between $10-$20, a 2-liter bottle of coca cola is about $3-$4, a small bottle of water is $3, hostils are over $30/night, a six pack of beer is about $15, a case of 24 bottles of beer is between $40-$50. The Sydney area is probably the most expensive in all of Australia though. So my money is gonna go quick. I saved and brought a little over $10,000 for my trip (most of the money came from selling my truck) but I still pay some bills for things in the U.S. They pay a lot better here as well, I would say close to 100% more. For example, waitresses, waiters, dishwashers make about $16-$18/hr and retail store workers make about $20/hr. This is just from conversations with 2 or 3 people around town and in the house I'm staying in. I don't really like asking people how much they make.
Well on my second day, Thursday I went for a surf in the morning just in front of the house. The beaches are just amazing.
The sand is orange, the water is so clear you can see fish, kelp, rocks, and sand on the bottom surface. It is very crowded at this beach in the water. I went exploring in the town and did some searching for a car. I ended up finding an 88 Toyota Corolla for $1,200. It seems to go well. The guy I bought it from was bugging out when I took it for a test drive, I kept driving on the right side of the road. It's a big change driving on the left, your blinkers on the opposite side and the driving stick shift adds another obstacle.
The sand is orange, the water is so clear you can see fish, kelp, rocks, and sand on the bottom surface. It is very crowded at this beach in the water. I went exploring in the town and did some searching for a car. I ended up finding an 88 Toyota Corolla for $1,200. It seems to go well. The guy I bought it from was bugging out when I took it for a test drive, I kept driving on the right side of the road. It's a big change driving on the left, your blinkers on the opposite side and the driving stick shift adds another obstacle.The third day, Friday I went for a bike ride to the cliffs to the north of Sydney Harbor, North Head. The views were great, sometimes you can see whales passing. 
The harbor is really massive, often whales and sharks come venture in, I believe the harbor is very deep. I looked on Google Earth and there is a feature you can look at how many shark attacks there have been, not very appealing. I believe they have put up nets though, and all the shark attacks were in the late 1800's and early 1900's; I didn't see any past 1950. Along this area is quarentine station, where past immigrants with infectious diseases would be held. They also used it as an evacuation site in the past. They had 400 bed barracks, a disinfection plant, and laboratories. Now it is a tourist attraction, they even run ghost tours now, I have to check that out. We had a party Friday night as it was one of the roommates birthday (Tess). We picked up a bunch of food and beers and bbq'd. I met some cool people. A lot of people that live in Manly Beach are from Brazil and Argentina. It is a big backpacker town. It is easy to get a job in retail or the restaurant business. Sydney is also in need of engineers, so I shouldn't have a problem getting a job when my money goes; and if not I wouldn't have a problem getting a job at a surf shop or something. Most foreigners living in Manly work 2-4 jobs. My roomate Diego works 5 jobs, one is making candles. I have been helping him out a bit, it's really interesting. I never realized how easy it is. We are going to try and make organic surf wax.
The harbor is really massive, often whales and sharks come venture in, I believe the harbor is very deep. I looked on Google Earth and there is a feature you can look at how many shark attacks there have been, not very appealing. I believe they have put up nets though, and all the shark attacks were in the late 1800's and early 1900's; I didn't see any past 1950. Along this area is quarentine station, where past immigrants with infectious diseases would be held. They also used it as an evacuation site in the past. They had 400 bed barracks, a disinfection plant, and laboratories. Now it is a tourist attraction, they even run ghost tours now, I have to check that out. We had a party Friday night as it was one of the roommates birthday (Tess). We picked up a bunch of food and beers and bbq'd. I met some cool people. A lot of people that live in Manly Beach are from Brazil and Argentina. It is a big backpacker town. It is easy to get a job in retail or the restaurant business. Sydney is also in need of engineers, so I shouldn't have a problem getting a job when my money goes; and if not I wouldn't have a problem getting a job at a surf shop or something. Most foreigners living in Manly work 2-4 jobs. My roomate Diego works 5 jobs, one is making candles. I have been helping him out a bit, it's really interesting. I never realized how easy it is. We are going to try and make organic surf wax.On my fourth day here, Saturday I woke up and the waves were big, 4-5 foot. The day before was completly flat too. I took my new car with Benny to Fairy Bower, on the south side of Manly Beach to a reef point break. The beach breaks along the main beach were packed, this spot only had a few guys on it. The winds were blowing hard offshore, ideal for great surf; I hadn't surfed a good offshore since I went to Costa Rica 6 months ago. They were blowing so hard you would be riding a wave and get pushed off the wave. We got some real fun waves. I even saw a Penguin, Australia has the species - Little Penguin. That was so neat. Saturday night we went to watch a rugby game at the pubs, that game is brutal.
Sunday we drove up the coast to the north to check out the surf, it was even bigger. It was a bit too big and too much rip tides. There are so many beautiful beaches to the north, we checked out Curl Curl and several others. All the beaches have pools on the edges for people to swim laps and kids to swim. These pools were just getting worked with the big swell.
We saved up our energy to go the following day in the arvo (afternoon). So on Monday we went to Fairy Bower again and got some great waves. It was a bit crowded but Ben and I seemed to get some fun waves. I also saw heeps (lots) of penquins. This point break is easy to ride once your on it and has a big face to carve it up and down. Often when it gets real big the wave curves all the way from the south around the point to north of the point where we surf. I saw a guy get a 10 foot + wave when one came through, it cleaned nearly everyone I was with out. It was a thrill, that must have been one his best waves.
Here's a pic of a huntsman spider on the back of a broken surfboard hanging up in the backyard. They bite, but are not poisonous, I used to see them in my dorms when I went to school here.
Well, I have lots more too write but too little time to stay held up at this internet cafe. Hope everyone is doing great!
1 comment:
oh jar it sounds like you're having such a great time!! keep up the posts - i love to read them :)
hope all is well! xoxo
love,
ellie
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