Sydney cont.

I'm up a bit earlier than the rest of the girls this morning and I thought it a good opportunity to update this, only I'm having a hard time separating the days! I feel like we've done so much walking and seen so many things that they've all sort of blurred into each other...in a good way though.

After my very early morning on Sunday, I had to wait a good while before the girls got up. In the meantime I enjoyed myself a few cups of English breakfast tea and a few trashy magazines, then went ahead and made our lunch to take with us. Since the girls were running low on energy, we decided to take it easy and headed to the Chinese Gardens. We've had amazing weather everyday since we got here, in the mid-sixties, so walking around the gardens was really nice. Lots of bonsai trees, weeping willows, meandering streams, ponds, waterfalls, etc etc. From there we walked to the firsh market where we were nearly attacked, once again, by the fiendish seagulls whilst trying to enjoy our red tuna sashimi and seaweed salad. Since we were planning on attending free salsa classes (I know, I know...), we came back to the apartment to get pretty.

Salsa dancing was a blast. It was quite awkward at first, as the women had to start in a circle while the men switched partners every few minutes. I was told by a Frenchman, "this song is really hot...you make me really hot" at which point I quickly scurried back to where Lupe and Nea were. There were some amazing dancers there, an Australian-born Portuguese guy and a Chinese guy that had a dance-off, and we had a blast being twirled in circles, but only after downing the water bottles full of liquor that we'd smuggled in, of course.

On Monday we took a bus out of town, or to a suburb of Sydney rather, called Coogee. There's a 5km walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach (pronounced Bon-day, it's Sydney's most famous beach apparently). The scenery was absolutely spectacular, little coves carved out of the craggy cliffs that jut dramatically out into the sea. Naturally-formed pools where older people and little kids can swim, completely sheltered from the crashing waves. The water was dotted with surfers all waiting to catch the perfect wave. A surf camp for little kids who "bunny-hopped" and paddled out again and again. Dripping surfers half-clad in their wetsuits around their waist that got quite a few giggles when we were caught staring. Skateboarders dipping and twirling in and out of what looked like empty pools in Bondi Beach. Once the sun went down, we went to have a coffee in one of the many outdoor cafes with space heaters and spent a long while laughing and telling stories. One of Lupe's friends called her to tell us about something called "Fire on Rocks" so we jumped on a bus and came back into the city. Turns out Fire on the Rocks is a show the city puts on every year with dancing and music, fire and boats, costumes and floating dragons, all on a floating stage in Sydney Harbour illuminated by the light of flaming barrels floating in the water. As luck would have it, we got to be here for the one day a year they put the show on.

Bodies are starting to emerge from the rooms now, so I must bid adieu and get a bite to eat.