Australia Trip - Day 3 and 4!
The rain stopped!
Finally, the rain has come to a halt. It took two full days of pouring rain before we decided we’d had enough - and so had nature!
Day 3 and 4 of our Australia trip were filled with much joy as we paraded around Sydney with dry feet and clothing. Today’s adventures focused on Bondi Beach and the Star City casino.
Bondi Beach
Bondi Beach was a very nice, cozy beach, not terribly unlike Pacifica in San Francisco. It was a sort-of cove surrounded by houses on either side that went up and down the various hills surrounding the beach. We found cheap eats at a Kabob place on the small boardwalk area, and a few cheap drinks (and some shelter from the wind) at the beach’s RSM club. The club reminded me of a community center and seemed somewhat out of place - but nonetheless it had spectacular views of the beach. It was cloud-free when we arrived and drizzling slightly when we left, but we still caught some nice views (and photos) while we were there.
After Bondi Beach we headed back into the city by rail train. We continue to be impressed with the city’s trains and think BART should take note of a few things - like the overhead screens that list EACH STOP the train is going to be arriving at, so there’s never any reason to be confused. A sample is below
Star City
We arrived at Star City around 5pm. After losing $50 at the Star City casino, we came to the conclusion (by 5:45pm) that this was the saddest casino we’d ever been to. It was way too quiet and everyone looked like they were having an awfully miserable time. There were no chimes or bells or noises from slot machines, or people cheering, or people at all for that matter. I was not impressed and neither were Jeremy or Dave. In addition, the minimums on all the tables were $10 or $25, which is just too high for us. And there were no free drinks provided by cocktail waitresses nor fun bars or events going on in the casino. We were quite disappointed in the casino.
After this we decided to head to meet our cousins who lived in Bondi Heights. After a short train and car ride we met up with them. More details on that in person.
At the end of the day we headed back to the city to grab a drink at a nightclub. After trying out “Scruffy Murphy’s”, a bar that Jeremy’s friend works at, we concluded that the place was about as appealing as such a name might imply, and departed to a nearby pub that seemed to be a popular spot for those who enjoyed Guinness. It was a strange pub, but low-key, which is what we wanted after a long day of roaming around the city.
And that was that for Day 3!
Day 4
Day 4 began with another set of clouds on the horizon. Not to worry, it was still an improvement from previous days and the sun peaked out periodically so we were happy. We began the day by venturing out on a ferry to the Zoo. We didn’t actually intend to go to the Zoo, we simply wanted to take the ferry ride and catch some good views (and photos) of the Harbour.
We then checked out the going away event for the Wallabies rugby team at Town Hall. They were being wished off to the 2007 Rugby World Cup. Clearly a press event (and poorly attended), it was amusing to see.
And now we’re off to explore the Sydney Tower! More great photos and other fun stuff to come.
Saving a Buck in Sydney
Finding yourself trapped in the middle of Sydney and hoping to save some cash? Here are some tips we found useful.
1) Buy the RED ZONE Weekly Travelpass. It gets you almost anywhere you might want to go, except Manly Beach (it WILL go to Bondi and also get you on most ferries). It includes a week of rides anywhere you want, unlimited, as many as you can a day. Makes it easy to hop on and off any of the hundreds of city buses constantly going by.
2) If you can skip breakfast out, buy some food at Cole’s in World Square, assuming you are near there. It’s tucked away underneath the building but it’s got cheap eats. For $25 we ate three breakfasts for three people (or 9 meals total) for an average cost of $2.77/meal. That included a muffin, fruit and cereal with milk.
3) You won’t find free WiFi anywhere basically, and Internet rates vary greatly. Check out “Everywhere Internet” with tons of locations and cheap rates. More importantly, they have decent bandwidth and very well setup machines - even a place for you to hookup your camera via USB or burn CDs.
More to come as we learn it ourselves!