I brought the sunshine to Sydney

Apparently the weather immediately prior to my arrival in Sydney last Saturday morning was miserable. Several weeks of gray skies and rain. It was bad enough that the Sunday morning newspaper actually had a story about the fact that the Saturday weather didn’t suck, complete with a photo of a rainbow (which I saw and it was quite cool) and some statistics about how the bad weather was causing more traffic accidents this winter. But for me, for the 32 hours I was on the grounds, the weather was pretty much unbeatable.

With such a short stay it was important to prioritize what I planned on seeing and doing to get in as much as I could. I booked a bed in the Rocks YHA Hostel, just off of Circular Quay and under the Harbour Bridge so I was quite centrally located to do pretty much anything I wanted in town. I checked in at 9am and they were able to get me into my room right then which meant a shower and dropping my bags off and then I was on my way to see the city. Plus, it was rather cheap and the view from the roof deck was, well, awesome!

First stop, Manly Beach. I picked Manly over Bondi mostly because I wanted to ride the ferry across the harbor. The 30 minute ride is a great way to get a tour at quite a reasonable price, plus there is a stop on a beach in the middle. Hard to go wrong there. So off I went to enjoy a couple hours on the beach, and enjoy I did. My visit happened to be on the weekend of the Manly Beach Food, Wine & Sustainability Festival which had a ton of people out walking through town; the great weather didn’t hurt, I’m sure.

There were also a bunch of folks out doing more typical beach activities, including volleyball and surfing. The volleyball in particular was a bit confusing at first because I couldn’t figure out the team uniforms. Apparently there was a “costume” factor to the efforts that many of the folks playing got quite into. Some were more practical for actually playing volleyball than others but they were all entertaining.

After a bit of time out at Manly Beach I popped in to 4 Pines for a pint – always good to have a local brew and their Kolsch-esque brew did not disappoint – and then back on the ferry. Some more great views of the harbor on the ride back into town.