Bondi Beach

As I've mentioned, we spent our first week in Sydney in the Bondi Junction area. Just a 15-20 minute walk down a hill is the famous Bondi Beach, so it's not a big surprise that we spent most of our first weekend here. Right away you can see why this place is so well known. It's just really vibrant.

Kate and I made our first trip down to Bondi Beach on our first day in the city while the boys were taking a mid-afternoon nap. First day in a new city/country/continent/ and it's gorgeous out and they sleep . . . go figure. Right away I'm taken with the long wall of street art. It starts on one end and stretches down most of the length of the beach. I think it adds so much color and I kind of went crazy taking pictures.

In my mind, the beach area can be divided into 4 tiers.

The first tier is the street level with all of the stores, cafes, bars, hotels, and hostels. These stores and cafes clearly make their living based on foot traffic from beach goers. Of course, this means that most of time it's on the pricey area; however, if you come on off hours there are some decent deals to be had -- if not deals, then reasonable prices at least. G and I came down here on the early side one weeknight when there are few beach goers or partiers out to populate the many eateries. Many of the restaurants seemed to be hurting for customers and had some kind of extra deal in place to lure people in. A few had people outside actively trying to herd in patrons -- i.e. they give you the hard sell. In a very rare move for us, we go for the pitch given to us by the manager of a small mom-and-pop Italian joint called Il Puntino.

The manager promises us a decent discount, plus free garlic bread. (A free bread basket is by no means a given here I've started to notice.) We order a bottle of the house wine at just under $30. To our amusement it's a wine we're already acquainted with as an inexpensive, but quaffable red. Translation, we purchased it at a bottle shop -- as liquor stores are called here -- on discount for about $6. We laughed. Luckily, everything else was lovely. The garlic bread was served with a large bowl of garlic in olive oil, and one of chiles in olive oil. They're both delicious. The chile infusion is quite good and it isn't too hot, although I probably liked it better than G did. By the end of the meal, we've pretty much done away with the garlic mixture. It's a good thing we both love garlic, otherwise we'd both be in trouble. The pizza has decent quality toppings and a thin crust that is nice and crispy. The olive oil mixtures gets sprinkled all over the pizza as well, and this takes it to another level. At the end of dinner, the waiter offers us espressos on the house and we walk away very happy with our meal. I think it was those olive oil mixtures that won us over.

Once you cross the street, you hit tier number 2. This level is dominated by the Bondi Pavilion, which was initially built to be a changing area for surf-bathers around the turn of the 20th century. The current version was built in the twenties to include turkish baths, a gym, shops and a ballroom. (For further info see this history. ) Nowadays, there are galleries, music studios, class spaces, and performance areas. As might be expected, there are some restaurants and cafes in the Pavilion as well. G and I happened to be back in this area today within happy hour range, so we stopped into one of the cafes, Nick's, for a snack and refreshments. You're definitely paying for the view here. The service was slow and food was expensive -- and we ordered off of the happy hour menu mind you. We had salt and pepper calamari for $10, which were very tasty, I just wish there had been more of them.

Four . . . just four lonely, tasty calamari. We did get a pitcher of beer for $12, which is pretty good, and Bondi Beach was sprawled out before us as the sun was going down. Truly Beautiful! Just realize that the beauty comes at a premium.

Just next to the pavilion is a park area with a hilly grass area perfect for picnicking, reading, or just to perch on and take in all the sites and people. There are playgrounds for kiddies and a few other attractions. Off to one side there is also a skate park where skaters of all ages --- from tiny to all grown up-- take turns launching themselves into flight.

The third tier is sandy space, good for all the beloved activities that go on sandy beaches everywhere. This one is large and sprawling, and even on a really busy day, Kate and G and I didn't have too much trouble claiming a space.

And then of course -- the fourth and final tier -- the water. Bondi Beach is on a small bay. This actually seems to be the case for most of the beaches nearby, although Bondi is the biggest of the beaches in the eastern suburbs. There are good waves to be had well throughout the day (at least at this time of year) and surfers are EVERYWHERE. My next project is to get a board so I can get out there and give these waves a try. I have high hopes that I'll do better here.

Clearly, Bondi is a very energetic place, and they add to this vibe by hosting several festivals every year. (Including a South American Festival, which I'm sort of surprised to discover.) We got pretty lucky because on Sept. 13th they held the Festival of the Winds. Colorful kites filled the air.

It was really beautiful and the day was perfect for it! On top of the beautiful kites everywhere, there are all kinds of musical acts going on in and around the pavilion. And I do mean all kinds. We saw traditional British folk dancers, a couple of performers on stilts, a great gypsy-esque singer, and some kind of crazy South American tribal dance.

It's all free. There is also lots for the kiddies to do and see, including a cute petting zoo.

Of course, the glory of any good festival is the the vendor food. The food selection here is ok -- it's a small area, albeit decently varied. However, they have Poffertjes! Poffertjes are small dutch pancakes that are served topped with sugar, or other sweet toppings.

I first tried these in the Hague, when I went in High School for Model UN. Ele, Anto, and I didn't actually spend much time at the conference. We shopped and ate our way through the city instead. Poffertjes constitute one of my favorite food memories from that trip and I hadn't seen them since. Imagine my surprise to find them here! I was a very happy girl.

Please note, most of the pictures in this post were taken by G.

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