Manly

Toby and I did a day trip up to Manly this weekend. Manly is a cute beach town, and a pretty touristy one at that. It's a popular place for surfers and there are lots of great beaches around, so it's a fun place to hang out during the summer. It reminded me of a California beach town where everybody is out for a good time at the beach in a super laid-back way.

Manly's a bit north from Sydney, and the quickest way to get there from the city is by ferry. It was actually a pretty cold and windy day, so the ferry ride was pretty wild with lots of bucking around.

We had to wait for a little bit for a ferry. Here's how Toby looks when we're about to embark on an adventure to parts unknown:

And here's how I look:

When we got to Manly, we found it all decorated for Christmas.

 

There's a big shopping plaza and several streets of boutiques and cafes.

The heart of the shopping plaza was a big, casual, wide-open space. There was tons of seating and gathering areas for eating some takeaway food or hanging out with mates.

The main shopping plaza leads to the beach, which is really lovely.

The beach is separated from the parallel street by a long stand of pine trees, which goes the length of the beach. This park area was also full of people picnicking and hanging out.

The beach wasn't too full since it was such a cold day. The wind was so strong out on the beach, I really didn't know how people could stand it. There were a lot of surfers, too, but they didn't seem to mind either.

After walking around for a bit through the streets of Manly, we decided to grab a bite for lunch at a tiny little cafe we stumbled across. It was a small place - run by a husband and wife - and the panini and egg on toast we had was the perfect lunch to recharge us after the cold walking we did.

I tried to get the lay of the land while we ate.

We did a little more walking after lunch. We came across gems like a packed Internet cafe (who even knew these still existed?).

We also saw this funeral home:

We were both left with a lot of questions about this business.

Anyway, after a bit more walking, we were wind-beaten and cold, so we caught the ferry home. The swells were even bigger on the way home, so it was a fun ride!

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