Bondi Beach

After 22 hours on the plane...we have arrived in AUSTRALIA, first stop Bondi Beach...we plan on staying here or about a week.

The first day that we got here, it was pretty cold and windy. When we first got out of the airport, it was so confusing trying to get used to the cars being on the other side of the road! Every time we go out for a walk we have to be extra careful as the cars seem to have no speed limit, and come out of nowhere! It is difficult to try and train yourself to now pay attention to the OTHER side of the road of on-coming traffic. For the rest of the day, we got into our hostel, which is called the YHA Bondi Beach House, which has an amazing view of the ocean! The hostel is very clean, and very cool. There are so many people here from around the world. We are rooming with girls from England, Germany and Japan...pretty diverse bunch. We have met two other Canadians so far, from Saskatoon. In the hostel there is an amazing rooftop balcony, which overlooks a breathtaking ocean view, there is also 2 movie rooms, a lounge, a games room, a kitchen and a terrace. Last night we went to a pub where we watched the most random thing ever, a crab race...haha I guess that's great entertainment here! We had to choose a crab, and make a $1 bet on which one we thought would cross the finish line first. I was lucky enough to pick the winner, and I was rewarded with a free beer! Not quite as smooth or tasty as a Canadian beer, but who would turn down a free drink?! The rest of the night we went to the beach and watched the waves and stars...if this place isn't heaven I don't know what else is?

This morning we got a rude awakening...and by rude awakening I mean a fire alarm evacuation at 6:00 am! That was quite the experience, after a day of 22 hours on a plane. Everyone had to wake-up and stand on the street for about 10 minutes until the fire trucks came. Thankfully it was quite humourous, to see half asleep/drunk people standing on the street in their PJS at such an early hour.
Since we were up anyways, we decided to head to Bondi Beach...which is absolutely gorgeous. We are still not used to the time difference, so we arrived there at 7:30 am. We were prepared to be the only ones on the beach, but to our surprise, dedicated surfers already occupied the beach! Watching surfers for a few hours, was so fascinating (and great eye candy!) Some were really good and held a wave for a few minutes; other's however failed and were taken down by the huge waves. I hope to conquer a wave in the near future.


We haven't seen many creatures here, thankfully...but have seen 2 different kinds of parrots flying around.

This one here is a cockatoo, and the other one was a green parrot. It was the craziest thing ever to see these little guys in the wild!

So far Australia reminds me a lot of Europe, and Canada. The stores are pretty much the same, but slightly different. Randomly they have a 7/11, Domino's Pizza, and a complete ripoff of Burger King called Hungry Jacks. They even have whoppers!!! Their products in grocery stores are extremely small, and CRAZY expensive. For example, most meals are at LEAST $10 for a sandwhich, a slice of pizza, or any sort of combo. Even at McDonalds!!! Today when we went to the mall we noticed mascara is $30 and a case of 30 cans of coke is $35!!! So our meals will slowly start to turn into welfare meals...such as buying a bag of noodles or rice. That is of course until we find some sort of income. My first big purchase will be a new straightener as mine blew the first day. It over heated, and started to singe my hair. So it looks like I will quickly start to do as the locals do and rock the "natural beach wave" hair style.