AUSTRALIA DAY long weekend

Bondi Beach=GORGEOUS! This is the most popular and probably the most tourist-packed beach in Australia. I went with Gracie and Katie (the Canadian girls) a few days ago and it was so beautiful. I think it was on a Wednesday, so it wasn't TOO packed. The waves were HUGE and we didn't even go out in the water past our knees because we were scared of getting slapped around by the ocean.

After we left the beach we rested, showered up, and went out for the night with 2 girls from Holland who are staying in Katie and Gracie's hostel. On my way home I was thinking it was about 12:30am; I looked at my phone and realized it was closer to 5am! Wow.

The next day (or...that same day I guess) was January 26th: AUSTRALIAN DAY!!!!! I took a train up to Central Coast which is about 2 hours north. My new friend Glen lives up there so I met up with him and after his friend fixed my computer (thanks, Bret!!!) he took me out with a big group of his friends to a bar called Beachies. It was fun and it was cool to get out of the city to see a little quieter and calmer Australian atmosphere. I stayed the night up there and the next day we went to look at Soldier Beach (below) and a place called The Entrance on the lake where there are a lot of resort areas and there were plenty of festivities going on for Australia Day.

Later that afternoon/evening, I took ANOTHER train and went south past where I live and into a place called Cronulla where I met up with some other people who wanted me to celebrate Australia Day with them. By the time I got there, they were all pretty much smashed since they'd been drinking since 10am. Cronulla wasn't too impressive, but the people were hilarious and all decked out in their Australia gear and flags. Glen bought me an Aussie t-shirt that I wore, so I totally looked like a local.

I stayed the night in Cronulla then went back to Sydney (finally) and laid on Bondi Beach with the Canadians and Glen. I was pretty exhausted by the end of the day!

For some reason-I think it's because Australians are the self-proclaimed laziest people in the world-most Aussies didn't have to work on Monday, even though Australia Day was on the previous Saturday. So early Monday morning I had plans to SNORKEL!!!! Adam Lulay's roommate Doug-who I met in California-put me in touch with a friend of his named Phil who lives in Sydney. Phil picked me up at 9:30am with 2 of his friends to go snorkel in Clovelley Bay. I haven't ever snorkeled before, so it was really cool. And the waves were pretty choppy in some areas, so it was a good workout too! I saw some really pretty fish and a couple of Blue Gropers which are HUGE, and no one is allowed to fish in that area so the fish are really tame and not skiddish around people. You could almost reach out and touch them before they'd swim away.

Overall, it was a pretty fun Australia Day weekend!