First Day in Sydney
It’s almost the end of two weeks on this adventure and we are all still getting along. We have made it to Melbourne and the Great Ocean Road, both living up to expectations and more. We arrived in Sydney last night and took a MaxiTaxi (an oversized taxi) to our apartment in Bondi. We went around the neighborhood last to buy some groceries and found a really good Thai restaurant to get dinner. The apartment is just a half block from a ton of little shops and restaurants. Drew was pretty sick on the plane and when we got to the apartment she went straight to bed.
I woke up early this morning and worked on this blog and then went for a walk to the beach down the big hill. We are staying on top of a hill and it’s about a mile or so down to Bondi Beach, which is pretty big. I was told that I need to do the walk from Bondi to Bronte, which I was able to do this morning. I stopped at one beach and watched some locals play volleyball and then headed back to the apartment to get everyone to go and hang on the beach. Ilise, Noah and Karley joined me as Drew stayed behind to rest and work on her first blog post.
We got down to the beach and there were people everywhere. The beaches were packed and the water was beautiful with big waves and an undertow that was pretty brutal. Noah and I went in and Ilise followed. Karley doesn’t love to swim so she just stayed on the beach reading. We tried to ride some waves but the surf was really rough and there were so many people in the water if you did catch a wave you would crash into someone in front of you. We decided to walk to the next beach to see if it was a bit less crowded and less rough and it looked a bit calmer, until we got in. The waves were crashing right on the beach and Ilise got pushed around by the waves and pulled under. She was laughing historically but a bit scared at the same time.
After I got in I started talking with a local named Steve. We talked for the next hour or so in the water. Steve is a recovering lawyer who grew up in Melbourne and has been living in Sydney for the past 10 years. Steve is very interested in Eco-construction and is someone who is very focused on living his purpose. We talked about a number of topics and then Ilise and I met his girlfriend, Chris. We talked about the area and made some tentative plans for Thursday night.
Tomorrow we will head into Sydney for the day and I will attend a Rotary meeting at 6 PM. I have a number of clubs identified to meet with and will try to meet some more fellow Rotarians. Looking forward to a fun day and seeing what Sydney has to offer.
To a life well lived!
Larry Kesslin 