Bondi Pavilion

Arrived in Sydney last night, for a short stay to break our long hauls home.

Bit disappointed in our accom, its dingy, not very clean and is in stark contrast to all our other lovely places. As it’s only two nights, we’re sticking with it - but never sure how much fuss to make and when to make it. We arrived after hours, so reception was closed, meaning I had all night to stew over things 😳

I put a load of washing on when we arrived (there’s a machine in our studio) and when it spun, it frightened the life out of us. It attempted to jump and spin its way out the door, down the hallway and into oblivion (which was a bit how we felt) hopefully it didn’t wake the whole building. I won’t go on about the other ‘wrong’ things, but it is a shame to feel so negative about a place.

When in Sydney, you have to go to the beach. Today it was Bondi *, and the weather was lovely, albeit breezy. After brekkie we caught the overland to Bondi Junction, a Westfield type Mall. Needed to buy Col some swimming trunks, as he’ll need them for a dive he’s doing in Dubai. The funny/infuriating thing is he has trunks, but they’re packed in the ‘we’re not opening this until we get home’ bag. Neither of us could cope with the smug glee all the tightly packed items would exhibit, had we allowed them their early freedom.

Kmart worked its magic, and after lunch and a snap of Sydney’s Lush store, we caught a bus to Bondi beach. It is essentially a normal beach when you look at it. Fine pristine sand, glistening bodies, life guards etc. The surf, on the other hand, was not normal. Today the Pacific was wild, fuelled by the lively wind, rips, whatever might be going on, between here and the Chilean coast.
We tip toed towards the edge, waiting for the water to lap over our feet. Just as the words ‘I don’t want to get my jeans wet….’ Emerged from my mouth, the tide launched at our feet higher than the other laps, and yep, I got my jeans wet and boy was that water cold!

We carried on walking around the beach’s picturesque crescent, mesmerised by the ocean. Even the diehard surfer dudes were struggling to catch a wave, it was so lively out there.

A great afternoon in the sun, by the ocean, people watching. We bought a takeaway to take back to our dismal room and watched the last ever episode of The Marvellous Mrs Maisel.

A few hours here tomorrow, then Dubai beckons - a 14 hour flight that I’m really looking forward to 😬

* Coincidentally, we’ve been watching old episodes of Bondi Rescue in NZ, so it was a no brainer to visit!Read more