Australia: Bondai Beach and Music Awards

Sculpture by the Sea

Sunday, Nov 7:  After two days of rain, it was finally a sunny and hot day in Sydney!  We got takeaway coffee at Room 10 and walked around the cute Kings Cross weekend market.  We then walked to Oxford Street to catch a bus to Bronte Beach, which sits on Nelson Bay.  Now this is the Australia you see on television and postcards - home to one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world!  Room 10 suggested we do the coastal walk to Bondi beach which was STUNNING!!! And we were lucky to be there during the "Sculpture by the Sea" - Australia's largest annual outdoor sculpture exhibition displaying over 100 sculptures by artists from around the world.  They were set up beautifully along the coastal walk that we wandered along.  In the middle of it, Stephanie and I stopped at a cliff ledge overlooking the beach and surfers to eat our lunch. 

Bondi Beach

Bondi beach is one of the best beaches in the world and is about one kilometer long.  We walked down along the graffitied walls and onto the hot, sunny beach where we laid down and soaked in the cosmic rays for a few hours.  Once we had had enough sun, we ate at the Sushi Train.  Different plates of sushi and Asian food came around on a conveyor belt and we had to pick the plates we wanted.  We had so much fun here.  I got called out on using my chopsticks incorrectly.  Meanwhile Steph was using her fingers.  Not fair.

We caught a bus back to Kings Cross and walked to the Sydney Opera House to see the ARIA music awards.  We settled down by the water where we got a pretty good view of the steps and stage.  Everything was lit up, there were tons of people, and we got to hear some bands play.  Steph and I dubbed today "call out Shona day" because first the chopsticks, then I got called out for standing on the bench taking pictures, and some random guy passed while I was yawning and said "why are you yawning?  It's still early!" Steph and I laugh way too much :)

ARIA music awards

So after an awesome display of fireworks over the harbour, we went back to our hostel where we had another horrible night sleep with our disrespectful French roommates ...  But it couldn't damper our moods too much after another awesome day.