I woke up and had been added to a random “Oz” Instagram group chat after leaving my username in the Hostelworld app chat. Again, having absolutely no idea what I should do whilst here, I saw some messages about people heading to Manly beach so I decided to tag along.
I had a pretty relaxed morning and then headed down to the harbour to meet up with Gianni & Karolina to catch the ferry, 10 minutes later and we were at the Manly harbour and heading over to the beach to meet up with some more people from the group.
Seems strange writing it now considering I had never met them before and didn’t really know where I was but in for a penny…
After a quick dip in the sea (which was way colder than Bali) we set out to find some of the cheapest alcohol possible, I actually felt like I was a backpacker for a change. After a while of hunting we got a 4l box of wine for $22 which is apparently the go-to here, aside from Goon, which is just a bag of cheap and awful wine.
A portion of fish and chips and a litre of wine later I was living the dream, who could complain about a day chilling in the sun by the beach, unsurprisingly I have no photos of it which may have also been wine related.
The next day I met up with someone else from the Instagram group and headed to Bondi beach.
I’d say Manly beach wins out of the two but still a worthwhile visit, it’s also the starting point for the costal walk to Coogee beach which we then set out on, it’s only about 6km and is a great way to see some of the coastline and beaches Sydney has to offer.
I also ran into Daniel who I had met on Gili Air a few weeks back, such a small world but it was great to catch up with him and we ended up relaxing at Coogee beach for a while before I headed back to the city. Even more of a surprise was when his friend joined us who was sat opposite me at breakfast in the hostel that morning.
After grabbing my bag from the rental locker, I had to switch hostel because pretty much everywhere was either fully booked or cost a fortune as it was pride weekend, one night in the new hostel was enough to make me realise quite how well I had it in the first, no A/C and people in and out partying constantly as it was attached to a bar, I was ready to head to my next destination.
It was a short trip but I got everything I wanted to see done, excluding the nearby Blue Mountains, maybe I need another trip there…
Note to self, see what’s happening in the city you’re going to before you book flights.
Trying Freedom 
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