Another day, another rainstorm. It seems that our arrival coincided with a break in Australia's terrible heat wave, which is great for them but means rainy skies for us. Still, we have continued undeterred with our on-foot adventures. We spent the morning aimlessly wandering the downtown, popping into stores of interest as we got to know the city. After we had worked up an appetite, we lunched at Mamak, a Malaysian restaurant that filled all of its tables within minutes of its lunchtime opening. We soon discovered why. It's slow-simmered curries, coconut rice, and crepe-like desserts make me mourn my Malaysian food-less years.
Sated, we meandered back to the waterfront and boarded a ferry to Manly Beach. A quick 15-20 minute ride from Sydney's Darling Harbor, Manly is the surfer-cool cousin to Sydney's urban sprawl. Since it was a Saturday, the ferry was filled with tourists and tween locals alike. Manly's appeal is understandable: a beach town feel, corridors of ice cream parlor and surf board shops, miles of beaches and trails. Manly was particularly busy during our visit as two events vied for tourists' attention: a CrossFit competition and the Australian surfing championships. I'm sure that both raised the average fitness of the people around us, because otherwise Australians are direct descendants of Greek gods. Further down the beach, hundreds of amateur surfers dotted the waves, a seemingly random few popping up as each wave reared.
Still further down, we passed a low stone wall with silver sculptures emerging from its crevices, dozens of wetsuit-clad scuba divers waddling to the water's edge, and trees filled with birds gossiping. We tried to take the hiking trails back to the pier,
but the lush vegetation swallowed the paths whole about a kilometer in and we were forced to retrace our steps. We passed everything in reverse and the normalcy of it all, the calm joy, the sense that life was being fully lived, settled over us.
Our ride back to Darling Harbor was, on the other hand, somewhat peculiar. See, Sydney's Mardi Gras celebration, which seems to be a thinly-veiled Pride celebration, was that evening, and our fellow passengers were in stunning rainbow regalia. Tutus, six-inch silver sparkly platform thigh-high boots, bodysuits, glitter, hair dye, flag capes, and more glitter were de rigueur. Perhaps even more stunning, though, was the sight out the window of the ferry. The "rougher-than-normal surf", which caused our 700-person ferry to list in one direction and then the other, had brought out the local sailing daredevils. Hundreds of sailboats filled the water around us, some with their masts nearly parallel to the war and their crews all sitting on the top edge to prevent the vessel from capsizing. One boat nearly clipped our ferry, forcing us to turn at the last minute. Harrowing for all, though I think our ferry would win that round of harbor chicken.
Once we were safely back on land, we enjoyed the long walk home, passing hordes of Mardi Gras revelers headed the opposite direction in increasingly outlandish outfits. Such enthusiastm suggested the parade and party would make for an evening to remember but, alas, jetlag reared its ugly head and we were near comatose.
Spotted (and tasted!): The world's best Japanese cheesecake. Given that most Asian countries are largely lactose intolerant, making the best indigestible product seems a dubious honor, but we were sufficiently intrigued. The cheesecake was much less firm than a traditional cheesecake but just as rich and overwhelming as you'd expect.
Spotted #2: The strangest cars (and I don't mean the color). Part sedan, part truck, and we've seen them all over the place. This one has its truck bed covered.
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