Manly Beach Mondays

So I FINALLY got some time to myself today...and decided to go to a beach ;)

Manly Beach, to be specific.

I got up early, got on the wrong bus to city centre, got on the right bus to city centre...and wandered around. Hyde park, giant chess match, foutains, Barrack museum. yaddy yadda. Sydney is a cool. Duh.

Headed to the wharf at 10:50 and caught the 11 (perfect timing!) ferry to Manly beach. I decided to actually READ a guidebook and do some thing it said...so I went on an awesome 4 or 6 mile hikey walk thing around Manly beach and the surrounding 'hood. Normally, not so into this --- but on my walk I found these 4 other little tiny beaches that had no people on them but amazing views of the city. Crazy. It was like being on a San Juan island, but within view of Seattle, sort of...but you could swim, and there were giant Euro yachts everywhere. And Euros. So not really like Seattle.... Big learning, I had literally no idea that Sydney had Carribean-esque turqoise blue waters. Now I know. There was this cool 'rock pool' which is made of rocks from the sea, cemented together, w sea water in them but right at the oceans edge.

It was a great day. I got back to the city late, did a little shopping, got on the wrong bus to Paddington, got on the right bus to Paddington - and viola. First offical day of solo exploration in Sydney: done.