We Made It!

We finally arrived in Sydney Sunday morning and were able to check into our hotel room and get settled. We both managed to sleep on the plane so we were feeling pretty good. So after cleaning up we decide to head out to Bondi Beach and the Icebergs Club for lunch.

We took a city bus from our hotel to the beach. Luckily it was a single route with no transfers. You pay for the ride by tapping a credit card on a reader as you enter and leave the bus. There are different tones for tapping success or failure. Apparently Sydney bus drivers take special classes in rider and automobile harassment. They pull away from the curb cutting off drivers and dueling with their horns and yelling out the window.. Neither driver is willing to give way. The bus always wins. Don’t think for a minute that you can enter the bus through the exit door. You will be in for a serious scolding. If you are bold enough to stand near the exit door with any part of your foot on the red painted floor with the words “DO NOT STAND HERE” painted in black lettering you have successfully stopped the bus and are being seriously dressed down by the driver. He will not move the bus until you have complied. If you want to board the bus you must flag the driver or he will not stop. If you try to board the bus any place other than the precise location he stops you will be chastised until the next stop. We really enjoyed our bus ride and appreciated the onboard entertainment.

The Bondi Icebergs Club was founded in 1929. It has a rich history as a winter swimming club. The club was started by a band of live savers who wanted to keep up their fitness during the winter months. They drew up a constitution and elected officers. To maintain membership, they created “Rule 15B”, declaring it mandatory for swimmers to compete on three out of four Sundays for a period of five years.

The beach was beautiful and we were lucky to get a table on the outside patio. We soon discovered that a great cure for jet lag is watching all the surfers wipe out in the waves! We do give them a lot of credit because it looked like paddling out to catch the waves is more work than fun. The beach is famous for the size of it’s surfing waves. We saw impressive waves batter the surfers but, to us, no surfer was spectacular. Obviously, there is a tremendous amount of skill required to catch a wave just right and ride the curl to the shore. Much less skill is required to sit on the balcony of the Bondi Iceberg Club, have lunch and a beer, and watch those brave souls wipe out.

Later in the day we discovered a second cure for jet lag when we went to Fortune of War, the oldest pub in Sydney, founded in 1828, for dinner. For some sleep crazed reason we ended up watching footy (aka rugby) in the bar. We sat there drinking our beer and marveling at the brutality of the sport and how no one ever seemed to get hurt. The players were all very civil and there were no fights or arguments with the referees. We never completely understood what was happening but it was very entertaining and mind boggling for sure!