Ahh, I passed out quickly after the last post even though I knew I should try to stay up and keep my internal clock in line. Unfortunately it was raining when I woke up, and continued to rain for the next few days as well. I hadn't planned anything except to relax and enjoy the sunshine so I was a bit put off and ended up staying in and chilling at the hostel. The other people at the hostel were actually really interesting and I really enjoyed the evenings despite the pit-pattering of rain on our rooftop shelter. A big group of us headed out in the search of live music and found it in an Irish pub called O'Mally's, two guys playing good covers of American songs from the 90s. Needless to say, with a Guinness in hand and new English and Slovakian friends singing loudly around me, I was blissfully happy.

Sunday came along with a cloudy morning, but no rain. This was good as I had planned to do a bike ride, and not just any bike ride. This was a bike ride for charity, supporting child cancer research, that I had found online called the Sydney Body Art Ride. I immediately knew I had to do it. I also knew my dad would absolutely love to hear about it as it's just the sort of thing he'd do too. With some help from a friendly guy at the bus stop and a little bit of luck I successfully navigated the Sydney bus system to the start of the ride. I was actually early so I spent some time helping to raise some tents and befriending fellow riders before we were given the go ahead to start painting... ourselves. We stripped down to swimwear and underwear inside the tents and were given a sponge to paint our fronts while volunteers helped us with our backs. I chose to be sky-blue mostly because it was so vibrant. It was there I met Aaron, an Englishman who, like myself, was simply traveling by himself and heard about the ride. He is an artist and an avid bike rider so of course he had to do this ride that combined his two passions. Once we were both sufficiently blue we decided to add a few embellishments of our own, mainly puffy silver clouds and a bright yellow sun to combat against the threatening dark clouds rolling in to rain on our parade.

Me painting a sun on Aaron's head

The Captain of the Yellows

Before we organized ourselves to ride out in rainbow formation a photographer wanted to do a 360 degree photo of all of us. By the time we were circled around the camera the clouds were looking really bad and we were all trying to hurry him along so that our paint wouldn't be washed away. Right after he clicked the button a few drops started to fall and everyone dashed away to find shelter beneath the trees. Only a bit of the paint on my shoulders came off leaving raindrop shaped dots of exposed skin that would later get sunburned leaving raindrop shaped tan spots. After ten minutes of shivering under these trees we were given the go ahead to start lining up for our procession.

Oh how fun it was to ride off as part of that big group of crazy people! Our way through the streets was cleared by the marshals who were painted silver, stopping cars to let us pass safely. Some people looked annoyed, especially one guy who passed us illegally and was promptly pulled over by a police car behind us. Some other people looked shocked or confused, hanging off their balconies to get a better view of the madness. But most people were amused and honked their horns in response to our waves and cheered us on through the intersections. I found it quite funny that part of our journey was on Rainbow Road. It was about a 6 kilometer ride and we were going at a leisurely pace but much sooner than I wanted we were dismounting our bikes next to the beach. There was a bit of a kerfuffle when we were told we could not do the normal procession into the sea because the shark alarm had just been set off. Would we have to ride our bikes or the bus in full body paint?

Luckily there was a protected rock pool on one end of the beach where we could wash our paint off safe from shark attacks (there had been two in the last three days!). This was also a crazy experience seeing all the paint wash away, fully biodegradable, leaving all of us looking normal again.

I found it hard to recognize people without their bright colors which was more than a little sad. Still, it was great fun and I made sure to thank the organizer profusely for helping me find a bike so I could take part. I also thanked the photographers who documented the whole thing and who's lovely photos are now adorning this blog. Silly me for forgetting my camera in the hostel!

Photo of my back which had a cool Chinese landscape painted on, it's a bit scruffy here though

It made it into the paper too! (photo in the corner)

So how to follow a day like that? Go to Manly Beach and enjoy my first truly sunny day, of course! I headed out of Sydney on the ferry after enjoying some chocolate ice cream and a great view of the Operahouse against blue sky that greatly resembled the shade I had been the day before. The ferry ride was beautiful and windy, even giving us a little splash before docking in Manly. It soon became clear that I was wearing way too much clothing so I headed to a thrift store to deck myself out in summery clothing for the beach. Ahh, now this is what I wanted to be doing in Australia: soaking up the rays and the negative ions of the crashing ocean waves.

I decided that to get the most out of my return ferry ticket I should wait until dark to see the Sydney skyline at night. So once the sun faded from the beach I ducked into a cafe for the spicy tomato soup advertised on the street-side chalkboard. I was given an enormous bowl of that delicious soup and crusty bread that filled me so perfectly. I felt very fond of this cafe and was happy to find out that the woman who had served me was also the owner. Turns out she had been running it for just over a year. To help her out, if you find yourself in Manly go to Kandi's Coffeehouse on Pitt Street for yummy things for cheap.


It still wasn't that dark when I got to the ferry dock so I walked around on the boardwalks and tried to take some photos of myself. My private photo session was interrupted by a couple of asian guys that also wanted some photos. We ended up helping each other out there and had some laughs, especially when one of them pretended to be at a fashion shoot and kept clicking away on my camera. I stayed and enjoyed a beautiful sunset before getting too chilly and retreating into the warmth of a chocolate bar/cafe in the ferry terminal. It was called Chocolate by the Bald Man and had all sorts of fancy hot chocolates and chocolate desserts. I tried a cup of the Italian Thick Hot Chocolate and was immediately impressed at how much chocolately goodness was stuffed into that little "hug mug". It reminded me a lot of Willy Wonka and I swear that it tasted just like the chocolate in the chocolate river from that book. I also felt a lot like Augustus Gloop--the boy who drinks too much from the river--when I forced myself to finish it to the very last drop.


Feeling entirely warm and satisfied I boarded the ferry and found a good window seat. I abandoned this for a place on the outside railing when we got closer to the city, feeling quite breathless at the view of the Operahouse glinting off the glassy water.