sydney v1.3

to my disappointment the tour of fox studios australia is no longer running. thanks again outdated guidebook. finished do androids dream of electric sheep? i think i'll stick to ridley scott's film blade runner staring han solo himself.

instead we've spent our final few days in sydney exploring the local beaches. on thursday we went to bondhi (bond-eye) beach, which is just south of woollahra. probably australia's most popular beach, mostly with tourists. there is even a reality show based on the lifeguards who patrol the beach on tv here. it is called "bondhi rescue," and it is very popular. other than tourists, several surfers can be spotted bobbing in the waves and topless women sunbathe all over. might explain the popularity.

the next day we visited manly beach which is comparative to bondhi in terms of popularity, but it is more of a beach for locals. to get there we took a 25 minute ferry from circular quay. the northbound ferry doubled as both our transportation, and a cruise ship. it provided great views of sydney harbour, the sydney harbour bridge, fort denison, and the downtown in general. manly gets the nod from lydia and i as being the better beach than bondhi. both have soft, golden sand, but manly is an oasis in the desert. a strip community of restaurants and surf hops leading to the beach down a palm tree lined walk.

it was 33 degrees in sydney yesterday, but showers came at night to cool things off. we celebrated our 2nd last night in sydney by hitting up bankstown (western sydney) for middle eastern food at titanic. it was our pleasure to treat micah and sarah after we have crashed in their place for so long. after dinner we hit up a club on the outskirts of king's cross. note on the cross: king's cross is known for being the amusement park of american soldiers on leave during the vietnam war. it is the centre of sydney's backpacker culture, a culture micah and sarah have been nice enough to let us miss. hostels, irish bars, and strip clubs mark the streets, and a warning in our guidebook warns against walking alone at night. our club, the victoria room, was, however, merely on the outskirts of the cross. this meant that i got to say that i saw the giant neon coca-cola sign that is famous for marking the entrance to the cross. our club was a classy place and we all felt money with our booth and chocolate fondue.

tomorrow we are up at 6am to catch a train back into the city. from there we are meeting up with our surf safari crew. m.i.a. for the next 5 days as we surf up the coast to byron bay. if a shark should get me my last words are "i dig music" like the guitarist from stillwater.