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Sydney, Australia
33° 53' S 151° 12' E
Feb 13, 2006 23:16
Distance 2158km

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Sun and Sport

Text written in: English

We arrived early in the morning to Sydney airport, only to clumsily board a public bus in search of our friend Nelson’s house. (trust me its hard to get on a public bus with a backpack, especially now that my backpack has a tent attached to the bottom (damn seahawks!) and it is now awkwardly wide) but after some bus confusion, a little walking back and forth, and a desperate phone call, Nelson picked us up and whisked back to his house in Clovelly. Only a few hours later we were snorkelling in nearby gordon’s bay, A very rocky and narrow bay with crystal clear water and a wealth of fishies. We found out very soon after making our entrance to the water that the best thing to do is smash sea urchins open with a rock and then try to feed them to shy, but big groupers. At first we had to rely on nelson to do the whole process but eventually noah and I, armed with one glove each, had successfully grabbed our own spiny monsters and were smashing them open with rocks retrieved from the ocean as well. At first the groupers didn’t trust us, but soon after many tiny fish had stolen much of their meal, they got braver. By the time Noah and I had smashed open our urchins, grouper were coming right up to us to feed off of the delicious urchin meat. It was cool, because they were so comfortable with it that by the time the uchins were empty they were still coming up to check out if there was anything left. I also inadvertently fed a moray eel, when I dropped a little piece down near a hole in the rocks. I was about to go down and retrieve this piece, when I saw said eel eyeing the food, and then all of a sudden snatch it. Close call. After snorkelling we had a bite and then fell asleep in front of the television watching cricket, The Auzzie sport which is about as conducive to sleep as baseball. At night we went out to a great bar, huge, in bondi beach, and I was able to meet up with two friends from university there. It was great to see them as I hadn’t seen either one for almost a year so we spent most of our time catching up, and so I missed out on the excitement of dancing and drinking, no big loss. The next morning Noah and I awoke and decided to walk from clovelly beach, basically right next to nelson’s house to Bondi beach, a few k’s north. This walk is called the beach walk and its beautiful. It follows the cliffs overlooking the water up and down hills, around beaches, and even through a cemetery where the dead people have the best view that dead people have ever had. We arrived in Bondi, and attempted to play Frisbee, unfortunately the wind was too strong and we mostly ended up throwing and hitting the wall bordering the beach. On the way back, I ran (as part of a new effort to slow the effects of eating out in argentina and drinking quite a bit of beer and coca cola), huffing and puffing I made it the 3.5 k’s without passing out, so I congratulated myself, and then proceeded to get lost in the clovelly neighborhood looking for Nelson’s house. So even though I was running at a blazing pace, hah! I arrived at Nelsons to find Noah sitting on the porch waiting for me ( I had the key, since for sure I was going to arrive first). We spent the rest of the afternoon lazing around and generally doing nothing until Nelson got home and he and I went for a swim in the ocean. We only swam about 200 yds total but by the end I was really out of breath. The swells which were about 2 ft high had kept tossing me up and down in the water and I was really pumping my arms to get anywhere. It was really fun though because for some reason bobbing up and down in a choppy sea is fun. Its kind of like the deep end of the wave pool at Wet n Wild (you dallasites remember it…). Today we go to find the Vietnamese embassy to fix some minor problem we have with our visa and then later we have been invited to play touch rugby with nelson’s competitive team. I’m not sure how Noah will do, but I am excited to show off some American skill to some Australians.