Breakaway To The Beach

I had a great idea planned out for this weekend's adventure. I was going to head over to the Sydney Harbour National Park, figuring I could hike around and take some awesome pictures. So on Saturday, I looked at the book I have of maps of all of the city streets, and figured out that the area where I wanted to go was a bit more expansive than I thought, spanning pretty much the entire coastline of Sydney, and that I would be better off looking into the Park and figuring out where all to go. So instead, I found that there is a pretty nice area up near where I live called Balmoral Beach.
The beach was pretty cool. I have added a slideshow of the beach tour. The area was pretty nice. Sand, sun, water... The water coming in is Hunters Bay, and is part of the Middle Harbour. To explain, the part of Sydney where all the famous pictures are taken (the Bridge, the Opera House, etc.) are in Sydney Cove, which is part of Port Jackson. To the east of Port Jackson is the Tasman Sea. To the North is the North Harbour, up around Manly (one of the more famous beaches), and then the Middle Harbour is just around where I live, slightly southwest of Manly and north of Port Jackson.
But enough of the geography lesson. The beach is a 10-minute walk from my flat. I honestly had no idea it was that close until I headed that way. It's kind of cool, though; you wander through a pretty nice neighborhood until you suddenly hit the beach. I spent a while walking around the area. It was pretty nice and relaxing. And yes, I went and put my feet in the water. Freaking freezing. I think the water at the Jersey Shore might be warmer. Well, at least in July. Even the sand was cold to walk on, especially the parts that were not in the sun.
So I walked around, waded in the water, went from point to point of Balmoral Beach. I got to the northernmost point, and my camera battery died. But I wasn't ready to head back. So I climbed onto a rock overlooking the Harbour, stretched out, and just relaxed and enjoyed the view. Not too bad a way to spend Saturday afternoon - lounging on a rock, listening to my iPod, while enjoying the view of the boats out in the Harbour. But it finally got too cold for me to stay there any longer (the sun was starting to go down and I was in a t-shirt), so I headed back to the apartment.
For dinner, I headed down to my favorite pub for dinner. The TriNations rugby challenge is going on, which is played among the Australia Wallabies, the New Zealand All Blacks, and the South Africa Springboks. The Saturday night game was Australia verses South Africa, and SA were major favorites in the match. So I went to the pub, had dinner, and hung out watching the game on the big screen. Towards the end of the evening, the couple sitting across from me ended up talking to me. They figured out I was from the US, and started explaining some of the calls to me. They were pretty entertaining folks. There was a guy next to them who was wearing an All Blacks shirt, but he was cheering for the Wallabies. After the couple left once the game was over, Mike, the guy from NZ, bought me a beer and hung out for a little while to talk. He was a funny guy, and is pretty psyched up for next week's game - New Zealand will be in town to play the Wallabies. So if I don't end up going to the match (I doubt I'll get tickets), I will probably be at my local pub watching the game with Mike. So I have a rugby buddy!
It was funny, though. Mike was asking me about where I was from, and I found out that not only did he know where NC was, but he has actually been there. The guy has been in the textile industry for 20 years. He told me he had been to NC, and I said, "Oh, probably Greensboro and Winston-Salem, huh?" Yep, he had been there. Then he started talking about how much fun he had in Charlotte. I told him I was from Charlotte, and he got all excited to talk about his trips there. How cool is that? I come over here and meet a guy who has actually been to Charlotte!
Oh, and a side note: Mike is a regular at the pub, so he was catching a lot of flack about his being there last night, cheering for the Wallabies. The main one giving him a hard time was the bar manager. At one point in time, the bar manager came over and talked to us for a few minutes. (The bar manager is young and pretty cute, by the way...) So Mike had gone to the restroom, and I was talking to the bar manager. I said, "Okay, I have a question for you that bothers me every time I come in here. What is the deal with the baseball cap rule?" The manager told me that I was right - it was because some of the bars had gotten robbed by guys running into the bar with their hats really low, robbed the bar, and then ran back out, and the security cameras could not catch faces. Mike came back and heard the end of the conversation as the bar manager was walking away, and Mike told me that this bar was one that had been robbed, so they had stepped up security to be safe. They haven't had any trouble in a while, so good thing. So I'm thinking the no-hat rule is perfectly okay with me. I'd rather not go through all the trouble of finding another local pub...
So my Sunday was pretty interesting, as well. I didn't sleep very well Saturday night, and was thinking to myself that I would rather stay in bed. But I managed to get up and I went to church. Down side: Services are at 9 or 9:30 here. But there was a little church in my neighborhood that I saw and was curious about. It is a Uniting Church, and I have no idea what that means. (I later found out that the preacher was an Anglican minister, so I would say Uniting is a little more of a "high" church.) So I took a chance and walked down there in time for the 9:30 service.
I walked in, and was probably person #10 there. (By the ended of the service, I counted, and there were 30 of us, including the preacher and the organist.) I was the youngest person by 25 years, and my age was below the average age at this church by a good 35-40 years. The sermon was pretty good, although the preacher was from the UK and was not an Aussie. Oh well. But in reading the bulletin, it seems that this church does not have a regular minister, so there is a different preacher every week. But nothing too big with the service. It was kind of funny. The minister left his microphone on during the first two hymns, so you could hear him loud and clear. He had some trouble with the first song (too high), so he started harmonizing. It made me laugh, but at least he was not tone deaf. Then his sermon was on 3 different scripture lessons. He basically went through the scriptures read and explained them to us. It was a decent sermon, but nothing special. The best part was that he was 3/4 of the way through, and said, "Oh, by the way, I decided that the sermon today would be that I'm going through and explaining each of the scripture lessons. Some people don't like it, but I do. I hope you don't mind." Of course, the funniest part was when the ladies int eh church were running around trying to find the offering baskets. They didn't find them right away, so one lady walked up to the minister, whispered to him, and he interrupted the organist to announce that we'd be switching to a hymn while the baskets were located. It was nice to be somewhere laid back like that.
After the service, I walked out, shook the minister's hand to say hello, and one of the ladies came over to me, asked my name, grabbed me, and invited me to come to morning tea. I couldn't turn her down, and she said it would just be a few minutes and the tea would warm me up (I really didn't think it was that cold), so she grabbed another lady and had her walk me to the tea. Once in the little tea room, I got my tea and sat down. Another lady came over to me and introduced herself. Then she asked my name and where I was from. She then informed me that the accent gave me away. But several people came over to talk to me. (I think I was the only visitor there.) The people were super nice. This lady was one of the younger ones (maybe 55), and she had been to the US before. She then introduced me to her father who had lived in Boston for a year. He was a nice guy, and I talked to him for a while. I finally got up to leave, and a couple more people came over and started talking to me.
The best way I can describe it: Imagine if your grandmother and 30 of her friends all came over to meet you at once. Two ladies grabbed me as I was walking out the door. One of them was worried that my jacket wasn't warm enough, and she proceeded to grab it and feel for the lining. The other lady told me she was 91 and lived in the retirement home near my apartment. She told me she wanted to see me come back to the church, but that I also needed to come over to the retirement home to see her. (I would consider it if I remembered her name...) She then told me I was coming to lunch with the other ladies, but I told her that I needed to run a couple of errands and get home. Maybe next time.
As I finally got out the door and started walking home, the younger lady I spent some time with was driving by and offered me a ride. I wanted to walk and was going by the grocery store on my way home, but I have to say, it was pretty nice to have this kind of reception at the church. I was really hoping that I could find a little community church to attend while I am here. I am going to try to visit some other churches, but it was definitely easy to feel welcome there.
So what a random weekend. After a month of finding people to be a little less than outwardly social, I had a weekend full of meeting people and finding some cool new places.

Oh, I went for a run tonight, and decided that I would just run all around to see what I found. First off, I am at the top of a hill. If you go out, you go downhill immediately, and pretty quickly. Then to get back up, it is long, steep hills. So I spent 25 of 30 minutes running uphill. (I'm sure I'll be sore tomorrow.) But I digress... My point is that I got to see a lot more things as I ran around. There are some killer views of the city and the beach. The funny thing was that these views are in areas that I go by all the time (like my regular bus route). But I guess between riding at night or reading while I ride or just trying to take in so much, today was the first time I noticed some of these views. With that said, it is so nice to see how amazing the views in this city are! And if you guys want to check out some new pictures, I added a few to the Neighborhood slideshow.
No funny stories, other than those already told in this post. But tomorrow is an mX day, so I promise something good in tomorrow's post!
Have a great week, everyone!