Blogs from Manly, New South Wales, Australia, Oceania
May 2nd 2012
La météo a prévu un super temps pour aujourd’hui et on compte en profiter en allant faire la fameuse “scenic walk” à Manly, ville au bord de l’eau collée à Sydney, située au nord. Ca fait parti de la liste des choses à faire selon Patrick. Manly se trouve en face de Rose Bay, là où on dort, en bateau ça serait rapide, mais aucun ferry ne dessert ce trajet. Le plus simple et économique reste la voiture, nous voilà donc parti à 8H30, on y arrive sans encombre, on emprunte une fois encore le « cross city tunnel » qui est payant, mais en automatique, avec une puce, ce que nous n’avons pas !! Mais il parait qu’il ne faut pas s’inquiéter, quand on est d’un autre Etat ils ont plus de mal à retrouver ... read more
ANZAC Day and arrival in Manly.
Published: April 27th 2012Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Manly
April 27th 2012
Hi everyone! Just a quick update to let you know I'm now in Manly and I'm staying with Sara at the hostel where she works (Manly Boardriders Hostel). I spent my first week in Sydney at the Wake Up! hostel on Pitt Street and spent most of my time with the remaining TopDeck tour group. Wednesday was ANZAC Day so I've included a couple of photos of the parade, but the computer I'm using at the moment is a relic so I couldn't update everything I wanted to. I'm off into Sydney now with Sara and a few of her friends to find 'Pancakes on the Rocks' - amazing pancake restaurant! Yum. Will update again as soon as possible! Love Streets. xxx... read more
So ferry, across to Manly, cos this land's a place I love...
Published: January 2nd 2012Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Manly
December 29th 2011
Yesterday I caught up with Rob, a Merlin ex-colleague, for a few afternoon beers in Paddington. Had a lovely time catching up on the gossip and was treated to fish and chips for lunch. Yes, yes - I know I'm vegetarian but there was nothing veggie on the menu and as it happens, I loved every bit of it. My stomach disagreed. It wasn't so appreciative of my dinner choice, as expected. That said, I'm not deterred - I may well have fish again before my time is up in Sydney. Maybe I'm taking the small steps to not being veggie in the future! Unlikely, however there is a chance I might go pescatarian (no meat, but fish OK)...watch this space! After my stomach returned to normal, about lunchtime, I headed over to Manly to go ... read more
October 5th 2011
After our road trip with road trip, Debbie and Sean dropped us of in Lismore where we were due to meet her aunt and uncle and spend a week with them in the mountains that form the border between NSW and Queensland. Not long after we left the town in the back of Esme's aunt's car, the road began to climb and twist until we were surrounded by towering green trees and we finally arrived home. The house sits high on the ridge of a hill and looks over miles of lush, green canopy until the towering mountains rise out of it in the distance. We spent a great, relaxing week here going to national parks in the mountains, seeing waterfalls, reading and playing the family card game before setting off again in our third camper ... read more
September 24th 2011
Day 8, 19/9/11: So, I'm off by myself for 51 weeks now. A lot of people flew up to Cairns this morning but a group of us chose not too, including me. Had a relaxed day today wandering around town, a friend handed out a couple of CV's, I was just enjoying the walk. Three of us took a walk down Sydney Harbour late afternoon/evening time and it was a beautiful sight to see it at night. Walked all the way around The Harbour from The Bridge and ended up by The Opera House where we went inside to have a look. Wanted a backstage tour but was $155 so gave it a miss. I am probably never going to be in there again so I decided to use the toilets just because I could. Had ... read more
August 6th 2011
Hi all ( or few as the cse may be!) Today I went to Bondi beach to catch a glimpse of the surfers! It was another lovely sunny day, so we sat on the beach and had a picnic. Then had a quick paddle in the PAcific ocean. We also went to Manly, where there is another beach - a bit more upmarket than Bondi, well an older crowd, anyway. Felt more at home there, though there were more surfers - nearer to my age this time! The Ferry over to MAnly was good - got a great view of the other side of the opera house. We also visited Paddy's market - a huge collection of market stalls & picked up a couple of bargains. This evening, finished up the trip to Sydney with a ... read more
December 30th 2010
We headed out to a tapas restaurant called Encasa inkeeping with the spreadsheet, but I hadn’t planned for Christmas closures so we were forced to go off schedule! However, we managed to find a really cheap nice Thai restaurant along the block. Oli had an amazing bbq duck for 12 dollars and tried to show off by eating Steve’s uber hot chillies and burnt his mouth. Ads and Laura finished their Bridge Climb about 9pm so we went for a drink with them after that. The next day we were up bright and early (5am) to be the first and only people on the express ferry to Manly which was only $4.50 each as we were early birds. We claimed our spot on the beach and proceeded to burn. I tried to even up my tan ... read more
November 9th 2010
What a great day! We got in about 12 hours of sightseeing activity today. Although the early morning sky looked threatening we opted for travel by ferry today. A nice 30-minute ride from Sydney to Manly provided great views of the Sydney skyline and the many parks that line the shores. Once in Manly we got this bright idea to rent bicycles so we could see more of the area in a few hours than we could on foot. I think the young attendant at the bike hire shop was chuckling as he sent us out, with upside-down maps on the handlebars, on a route that started out with lots of hills. After viewing a couple of secluded coves and a lot of huffing and puffing, we abandoned the suggested route to the Sydney Harbor National ... read more
November 5th 2010
My two favorite, fun phrases I’ve learned along the way that I’ve enjoyed. 1. “Good on Ya” -A nice way of saying thank you or they like what you’ve done 2. “ What are you after” - bartenders say this often instead of, “what do you want.” Sydney has a rare thing about it that should be used more often in the United States, it’s called, wait for it…..free public transportation. It’s the most amazing thing, all day, a giant green tax payer funded bus, picks you up and drops you off for free. There’s no catch, at least I don’t think there’s one. Of course if they did this in the states, they’d probably collect your DNA or make you fill out a form so they can sell your info to telemarketing companies so ... read more
Winter, Little Penguins and PhDs
Published: July 10th 2010Oceania » Australia » New South Wales » Manly
July 10th 2010
Another update from our now very occasional blog. Apologies for those who have been waiting in anticipation of a fresh installment. We are now in the depths of the Antipodean winter, which contrary to popular opinion is in fact very cold and very dark. Like England dusk is at about 4.30pm and it's invariably night by the time I (Will) gets back home. No more evening surfs, ultimate frisbee or picnics :( So we make do with heading over to the local "Veterans" sports centre ( http://www.harborddiggers.com.au ) for some training, swimming and a good long sauna. It's a great place to have near by and has a real sense of local charm, marred only slightly by the "Pokkie Room" next to the bar, which houses some 100 electronic poker machines designed solely to rob elderly ... read more
