The Beach Weekend (April 1st/2nd 2017)

I am a little embarrassed to say that it took me over a month to visit a beach in Sydney.  It is somewhat sinful because there are so many that are relatively close by.  But, I never got around to it.   Well, that has been remedied.

Last weekend was pretty spectacular because I spent most of it at the beach.  Saturday, I spent the better part of the day doing the Coastal walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach with one of the clubs that I am in, Unimates.   There was about 20 of us who met up on campus and took the bus out to Coogee. We actually started the day by missing the first bus we were meant to take.  But, it worked out well because we had about 45 minutes to get to know others in the group.  It was an hour long bus ride and it was very popular. The bus was completely full and the bus driver even had to skip stops that people weren't getting off at because there was no room for additional passengers.  But, I guess that makes sense since it was the first Saturday in the last month with absolutely perfect sunny weather.

Starting at Coogee Beach

The walk took about three hours because we couldn't help but stop every few hundred meters to take pictures.  The water was clear and exceptionally blue.  Each beach along the coastal walk (I think there were about five total) and each one had a different landscape.  Here are some of the hundreds of pictures I took:

Ending with Bondi Beach

The views were just unbelievable.  The only sad thing was that I did not bring a swim suit.  It was a very warm day and a dip would have been fantastic.  What I found really interesting was that a number of times along the way they had swimming pools right next to the ocean. I have never seen that before. Check it out:

Bondi Icebergs Pool

Once we got to Bondi Beach we rested for a little while, then we headed our separate directions.  It was an awesome trip and I highly recommend doing the coastal walk to anyone visiting Sydney.

As luck would have it, I ended up back at Bondi Beach on Sunday too.  I signed up for the Welcome to Sydney program organized through the Alumni office.  The program is for first year international students and they have events hosted by different alumni in Sydney. I didn't quite realize until I got there that these were very small events for getting to know people.  We met at the train station near Bondi and our host, Dasia, picked us up.  It was me and two other girls.  As it turned out, one of the other girls is in one of my classes, so that was a nice coincidence.  We went to back to Dasia's house where she had prepared a home cooked meal and we all chatted about our courses, getting settled, and Sydney in general.  Her house had the most amazing view.

Her patio view

She and her partner, David, told us about the best places for a view and for a walk, including Camp Cove, Centennial Park, and the Gap.   After we ate, she took us for a drive past Bondi Beach and we got out and took pictures.  I will certainly have to put those on the to do list.  After that we headed back to the train station and I took the train back too campus with the two other girls.  It was a very pleasant afternoon on the whole and I made some great new friends.

It was a lot windier on the Sunday, so my hair is all askew.
But, the water was still really pretty.

So last weekend I learned that I want to spend every weekend, if not every other weekend, near the beach.  It was a perfect weekend, especially because I did not get sun burnt! I have been hitting the sun screen pretty hard since getting here.  But even so, I still think I am starting to notice a tan on my feet. Hooray!