On to Bondi!

When we last met, I was saying goodbye to the bitter actress in Randwick.  She said one thing that stuck in my head for some reason.  Under the TMI file, she mentioned that she never married.  She told me that she never felt comfortable with the concept.  She thought she disliked the idea of marriage because she noticed that in many places, when the door is locked to the bathroom, it has an indicator that says "Engaged."  So, she always equated getting married to going to the bathroom.  Weird bird, I swear.

I stepped into the warm sun and luckily found a cab immediately.  The cab ride from Randwick was about 10 minutes, and after paying him, I stood before a white, modern looking building.  Victoria - the person who was renting the room to me - had asked me to call her before I arrived, but alas, I had no phone, and I didn't want to ask my previous landlord to use her phone, so I just showed up instead.  Victoria knew I was arriving at some point during the day, we just hadn't worked out a specific time.  Knowing all of this, I walked up to the "door."  There were actually three doors.  I knew I was staying in apartment #2, so I rang #2's doorbell.  No answer.  I rang it several times over.  No answer.  I waited outside for a few minutes and took in the scene.

 
More minutes passed, and still no sort of response.  I decided I didn't want to wait outside all day, and checked the door to see if it was open -- I figured that she might've left the door open for me.  Success!  Not locked. 

The door opened to a staircase.  I climbed the stairs and, aside from being immaculate, the place was eerily quiet.  All of the bedroom doors were shut.  I walked towards the back of the place, where a huge sundeck beckoned.  I dropped off my pack and took in the view.  I snapped this from the deck (which is enclosed, but has windows all around the place):

Here's looking into the apt from the deck.  Rach -- recognize those stools?

Another 20 minutes or so passed until a person emerged from one of the rooms.  I called out to her, and scared the living crap out of Victoria.  She had unintentionally left the door unlocked.  Once her panic subsided, she welcomed me to the place.  The place is a multi-million dollar place that she was renting with four other people, but they all moved out.  She had been scrambling to find other renters and is currently renting the place to a German, a Frenchie, one of her friends (Dara, I think is her name), and now me.  I met the Frenchie (Anthony) and Dara, but I have yet to meet the German.

I spent the rest of the day getting my bearings and wondering around.  I like to figure out where I am before I get into too much trouble, so I didn't actually walk onto the beach.  That didn't prevent me from taking lots of pics...Enjoy!!

                                    [Walking down the street towards the beach]


There's a cool walkway that extends all along the shoreline.  These were taken as I headed up the path towards Bondi Beach.

Bondi Beach lies north.  Turning south for a moment (and towards Bronte Beach) gave this view.

Continuing the path towards Bondi, a restaurant and club emerge.  The club provides a zero edge pool where people were swimming laps.  The club allows anyone to join, and is more a swim club than anything pretentious. 

Once I got the beach, it was packed.  This was a beautiful Sunday afternoon around 4pm or so. 

Behind the beach and running about half a mile is the strip which, predictably, houses tons of shops and restaurants.

I made my way to one of the restaurants and settled in for some delicious prawns, had a tasty drink, and chilled out.  This next pic is brought to you in Sell-o-alcohol-vision!  You don't get this sort of insight everyday, folks - enjoy!

That was pretty much it for the day.  My housemates were all recovering from the prior day (as was I from the music festival).  More to come...