Manly: Take Two
28 February 2009
Sunny day! Not much new happened today but we did take the Ferry to Manly beach instead of trying to get there via the bus system. It was so much easier taking a train then the Ferry! We ended up buying a day pass that is good on the bus, trains, and ferries. They don’t give concessions (discounted priced tickets) on the day pass but the lady was super nice and gave me a child’s ticket in place of a concession ticket! I get concession because I am an exchange student, not a study abroad student. So the day pass costs $17 but I got it for $8.60.
We did stop at Starbuck’s before we got on the Ferry, which was very nice. We then loaded the Ferry and sat down on the second deck inside. The Ferry ride was about 25 minutes and very smooth, minus some minor rocking.
Once we got to the beach, I was surprised at how busy yet how not busy it was. Manly is definitely big enough to accommodate all the people who want to go there for a day. We ended up sitting at about the halfway point. We did apply sunscreen (I did SPF30). I looked around for Rachel because she was supposed to be there and it turns out she was only a few feet to our right diagonal.
We layed out for about three hours and then the sun went behind the trees that were behind us and we got cold. We then decided to head up to the corso and get some ice cream from Copenhagen’s. Once again, it was delicious. We went back out to the beach and hung out with Rachel and her friends for a little bit.
Towards the end of our stay, there was a public announcement regarding Blue Bottles. Blue bottles look like jellyfish, but they really aren’t, I tried to figure it out on Wikipedia, but it was slightly confusing. There more common name is the Portuguese Man o’ War. The announcement said that there is no immediate cure for stings and the only effective way to even help it a little bit was to remove the stinger and rinse with fresh water. However, I checked on Wikipedia and it said that washing it with fresh water actually made it worse. I am not about to experiment.
Apparently, the blue bottles were washing up on shore quite frequently. There was a onshore wind that aided in that and the surf was going out. We saw about three people get stung. It did not look fun.
Around 5 o’clock we headed back via the fair and train. We were so tired and just went right back to my apartment and made dinner. During dinner we watched “Kiss the Girls” with Morgan Freeman. It was kinda scary but not too freaky. Carrie then went home around 10pm and I crashed.