Manly and more...

At the close of our first full week here, we are totally falling in love with the city. After exploring the neighborhoods, visiting Bondi Beach, and celebrating New Years, aka “NYE” to Sydneysiders, we spent the rest of the week apartment shopping in our favorite neighborhood - Potts Point. When we first visited Potts Point we knew it was where we wanted to set up house. It’s considered Sydney’s SOHO/Village with tons of outdoor cafes, open air fruit stands, funky boutiques, and trendy restaurants and pubs. Think SoHo with a European flare – but with the beauty of being fantastically placed between two beautiful bays – Elizabeth & Rushcutters. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that we find a place this week, more to come on this topic soon…

Between apartment viewings, we squeezed in some time during the later part of the week to have some more fun. We thought we would take the ferry up through the harbor to one of the more popular northern beaches - Manly. Wow. Best beach town either of us has ever experienced. Everything that makes a beach town awesome Manly has to offer - a larger than normal downtown area where the streets are lined with surf shops, fish markets, pubs, clothing boutiques, cafes, restaurants, clubs, etc. The beach itself was gorgeous and lively. Manly is a little larger than Bondi and definitely less crowded, plus the sand and the street are separated by a row of pine trees – yes that’s right pine trees in the middle of Sydney, who knew? The smaller crowd probably had to do with the extremely strong rips that caused the beach patrol to advice against swimming in the water. Though that didn’t stop the surfers who seemed to be taking full advantage of the active ocean. We did venture in for a quick dip, we might note - that was before we learned that the previous day the beach had been closed due to a great white shark sighting just off shore! Everyone seemed to know but us. Shark attacks or no shark attacks, Manly beach is amazing and our favorite thus far.

All Sydneysiders have a favorite beach that they call their own – Manly is certainly in the top running to be “our” beach. And would be a consideration for living if not for the fact that the commute to the central business district would consist of a 30 minute ferry ride, which as you probably know isn’t the best form of transportation for Greg’s sometimes iffy stomach. The ferry ride, however, is quite spectacular and would certainly be a surreal commute to work! There are some pretty unbelievable views plus you get to check out all the sailboats, yachts, and other nautical activities that Sydney is so famous for. Bottom line, Manly is now tops in the running for our weekly beach of choice and a definite spot to hit for those of you planning to visit!

In addition to the trip to Manly, we also ventured to the Sydney Botanical Gardens. Going in with so-so expectations (neither of us are exactly green thumbs) we were pleasantly surprised with the wide array of fauna the Gardens showcased. And weren't we surprised when we looked up into the trees to discover hordes of massive, hairy, ugly bats hanging from the trees. This was quite a contrast when compared to the colorful water birds that occupied the rest of the Gardens. Another surprise were the eels that were swimming throughout the ponds - both “gross” in Carey’s opinion. Another bonus of our trip to the Gardens was that we discovered some of the most beautiful running trails that Sydney has to offer. Carey is already planning to train for a run…and attempting to convince Greg there is no better time start!

Overall, our first week has been spectacular. With so many sites to see, we tried to fit in as much as we could before we have to start putting together our new home and getting back to work.

Note - we added a link to all our photo albums on the top right side of the page - two albums so far for your viewing pleasure! It's best to just click on the picture to make it bigger and then use the blue arrow button above to scroll through them (we have some less tech savvy people using this application). And, these are the LAST pictures of the Opera House - we promise!

Also - we have updated our phone numbers below the New Year's entry.

And now we’re just about ready to transition from tourist mode to resident life. All that’s left is to find that perfect place to call home…