Ferry, ferry merry

Hard to believe it's been 4 years since my last post. Just kidding, I've felt every minute of those 1,456 days;) Don't get me wrong, I love Houston, Social Work and all that. I think for me I find balance in this all or nothing kinda stuff. Maybe it's my desire for things to be perfect that drives me-I just want to do everything and do it all the way. Anyway, long story short I've worked two jobs for three years with the intention to see more of the world and now its time to put my money where my mouth is!

So here I am in Sydney! After the initial 13 hours of domestic traveling, I was very concerned for the remaining 14 hour flight from San Francisco to Sydney, but surely they compensate in leg room and charm.......ah NOPE! Seriously, like not built for anyone over 5" 8. I was sardined between two very friendly Australians- one in her late 20s working in San Francisco and the other in maybe her 60s, traveling home after visiting her daughter in New York. They filled me in on the sights to see and compared the number of deadly bugs in Australia to the number of guns in America - still not sure if that was suppose to make me feel better or worse.

I'm now writing this part of the post at 4:30 am in beautiful Manly, Australia. It is just a 30 min ferry ride across the harbor from Sydney. With an Opal card you can ride the bus, train, and ferry, which makes getting just about anywhere in the city a breeze!

With my sleep all messed up I headed out at what I thought was bright and early, only to see hundreds of Australians just swimming, surfing, kayaking and sprinting through the sand like it was no big deal. I'm here to tell you my swim game is WEAK! These Aussies don't play! With coffee in hand I wandered onto Shelly beach which makes up a part of Cabbage Tree Bay, a protected marine reserve and began a 4 km walk up to North Head for gorgeous views of the city. It did not take much for Brissy (short for Elizabeth), an expat from SF who I met at a lookout point, to convince me that I needed to plan on staying in Australia a little longer than planned.

A couple hours later I arrived back to the apartment, exhausted and ready for some much needed sleep when I finally ran into Patricia (originally from Brazil) and Sam (from the UK) a newly engaged couple hosting me for a few nights in Manly. This has been my first experience using Airbnb but so far its been amazing and a home away from home!

It's to bed early tonight, I've got swim school in the morning!!!!