Manly Beach Surfing & Ferry Ride

February 16

Blair woke up very early and spent a couple of hours creating the blogpost that was the story of his arrival the previous day.  We met up later in the morning to do some schoolwork together.  We opt to go to a park to do our classwork "a la prima" with Blair filling in as a teaching assistant.  We tackle math in the park and return our books to the hostel before heading toward the other end of town to go off to Manly beach to watch the Australian Open Surfing Competition.  We pick up our now familiar FREE bus (the #555) and ride down to the wharf where the Opera House is located, purchase our tickets and wait about 10 minutes before the hoardes and masses make a mad push to jockey for the best position on the ferry.  We find 6 seats together beside the windows and we are off....we pull up about 30 minutes later.  Before exiting the station, we find an Aldi - a familiar face from home and the source for very inexpensive food items.  We put all kinds of luscious foods into our baskets before returning them to the shelves.  The reality of making sandwiches on the beach, in the hot sun and spending all that money when we could purchase sandwiches for roughly the same amount has brought us to the conclusion we can do without these supplies.  We walk down a really neat, palm-tree lined street that is surrounded on all sides by boutique type surfer shops.   We get to the beach amid the sounds from loudspeakers and barely-clad bikini bodies and find an open spot on the sand.  We spread out and watch the competition with commentary blarring over the speakers nearby.  Its hard to keep up with the surfing when there is SOOO much to look at.  Some of us tire of sitting and decide to take a walk along the beach.  After about 2 hours of sitting, we are feeling the effects of the sun and are a bit stir crazy.  Shopping is the answer to our ennui!  We amble along in and out of the shops, making small purchases of trinkets and/or snacks for a couple of hours.  The thought of going back into Sydney and retreating to our little hovel of a hostel is not an enticing thought, so we return to the beach instead.  It is now around 5:00 and the wind has picked up making us a little chilly.  We stay a short while and conclude it is indeed time to get back home.  The return ferry ride is uneventful.  When we arrive, we are now faced with a good 20+ block walk home from the waterfront wharf. We return home to rest for a short while before heading into Chinatown for dinner.  We are once again in search of a budget meal and find a great source at a Food Court. We can choose among Korean, Taiwanese, Thai, Chinese, Japanese and lots of other "ese" from which to sample the cuisine.  To each his own and we have a great meal before retiring, weary and bedraggled.  A lot of walking and enjoying together!!!