City Tour, Bondi, Coogee and Manly

Well I finally went to a sushi restaurant! The one with the food going around like trains - the only way to do it. I tried a number of dishes - prawns, scallops and some chicken. Yes what a cop out lol. Strangely they were the worst ones - don't know what it was but the seaweed around them was very strong so the whole thing was quite salty and fishy. A good enough start lol. The prawns and scalllops were very nice though. I dared my mate Andrew to get a raw prawn (at least that's what I think it was) which arrived in the body with the eyes and all. Rotten looking! He ate half of it, fairplay to him (pics are on FB but will try to upload some onto this blog going forward once I figure out how). It was an enjoyable experience but I'm not converted yet.

I'm thrilled living so close to Chinatown you can actually leave the apartment and walk for a number of streets without seeing any Western people - almost feels like you're in Asia for a few minutes. Lots of nice restaurants nearby including a lovely Thai place I've been 3 times already. They're a bit stingy on the duck if you order that as your meat though!

I met up with Frankie on Tuesday for the cinema, she's my new cinema buddy. It's only 10 dollars this day compared to 18 every other day - look at me I'm budgeting! We saw 'Let Me In' a vampire flick - load of rubbish don't waste your money! If it was any slower moving it would have been in reverse.

Spent a lot of the week finally getting back to sightseeing. Did a 2 hour city tour on Wednesday where I stopped off at Circular Quay and the Opera House. I had been before but I still can't get over how amazing this place looks - it really is a work of art. You will all know I'm not the theatre/opera sort (do they have key changes?) but I will definitely go to one of the shows before I leave. On Thursday I did the Bondi tour which stops off at all the main beaches in Sydney. Hopped off at Bondi and Coogee - Coogee is actually really nice spent about 2 hours there. Got fresh prawns and chips and sat out listening to my ipod just taking in the view.

On Thursday Andrew took myself and Aidan (who is visiting from Ireland and heading back home today) out to Circular Quay where we got the ferry to Manly Beach and did a 2 hour walk to North Point for a savage view of the city and harbour. Really great day although with only a factor 30 on me, I decided not to apply any sun tan cream until it was too late and by that stage I was well burnt! I'm sitting here in my bed like a lobster. The pain is awful - the aftersun does nothing! Fingers crossed now I don't peel.

I've been off work for just over a month now and over three weeks into my travels - officially the longest holiday ever! Thanks to those of you reading this! Bear with me, should get more interesting once I do the East Coast as I'll be moving around and there'll be a lot more to report on. I've booked my flight to Cairns for the 16th November. For now I'm just enjoying living in this city.