Sunburnt and loving it!

Hello again!
This blog won't be as long as yesterday's simply because we didn't do as much and I got to go to bed!!! Sorry in advance for the lack of details that yesterday's post seemed to consist of. Today was still awesome none the less. We woke up at like 9 a.m. and headed out into the beautiful, sunny 75 degree weather. PERFECT for the beach...which is where we went. On our way to Bondi Beach, pronounced "Bon- dye" not "Bon- dee" like we had thought, we stopped at a french cafe. Random kind of, but it was delicious. I got hot chocolate and a chocolate croissant while my aunt and mom got quiche. It was very cute and a perfect way to start to our day.
We continued to walk and bought our bus tickets in a 7-Eleven and went to stand by a bus stop. The bus system here is kind of confusing, we never know which bus to take and where it is going and how far down a certain road it goes. We got on the right bus and headed towards the beach. Because our bags got lost, our sunscreen was limited to face and little bottles that we could not lather up with. Therefore, we were expecting to get burned but that was okay with us. We were going to THE BEACH IN JANUARY. I was fine with the trade off even though I would hate it later (like now).
Bondi Beach is a very popular beach in Sydney but I didn't expect it to be GORGEOUS. It is quite large with rocks surrounding it and it kind of goes into a little cove. Once again cute shops surrounded the beach and the whole atmosphere was great like everywhere in Sydney. The weather was perfect and I was ready to hit the beach. We laid down and relaxed for awhile, walked down the beach and bought some clothes. I bought this really cute Bondi tank top and I'm pretty psyched about my first Australian apparel purchase. After that, we went and soaked in some more rays (this is probably what pushed the sun tan over to sun burn) and left at around 3 p.m. We stopped at a little convenience store that made sandwiches (kind of random) and they gave us a discount because we didn't have a ton of money. They are definitely hospitable here. Every Aussie I've talked to has been more than willing to give us Americans advice or directions. They are SO TAN too. I know it's their summer, but all of them are as tan as Halie it seems. You'd have some competition here, Hal.
So, we left the beach and came back to what seemed like a market in Chinatown with a bunch of food and clothes which we looked around for a little bit. We aren't sure what the occasion was, it could've just been because it was Friday. We then decided to walk into "Paddys" which is indoor market filled with anything you could imagine. It's a tourist's dream. Clothes, toys, sunglasses, hats, everything. I ended up buying 2 pairs of sunglasses for 15 AUD (Aussie Dollars) which is pretty good because I needed sunglasses! We didn't look around too much because I was exhausted, burnt, and let's face it...kind of crabby at this particular part of the day.
We came back to our hotel, got showered and headed back out to "The Rocks" near the Opera House and The Harbour Bridge which I talked about yesterday. They had their own thing going on "Markets by Moonlight". They had music and food and jewelry and stuff. It was cool to be there at night. There were a lot of people there but it didn't seem overly crowded or uncomfortable which was nice. We got a cajun wrap and a Turkish dish which consisted of a pita type thing filled with cheese and spinach and we sat and listened to this band. They were called "The Fiddlers" or something like that. They were really good. Fireworks also went off by the Opera House which apparently only happens once a month but we couldn't really see them which was a disappointment :(
We then went and walked down by the water to document the harbour at night and a Lohrentz photo op, trying to get just the right picture. We walked back and I got some Dutch miniature pancakes drizzled in powder sugar and chocolate. Pretty good way to finish off the day. We rode the bus back to our hotel ( I still can't seem to get used to them driving on the other side of the road....I see people sitting in the left seat and freak out because they aren't driving haha). The bus drivers are crazy drivers here, they have no mercy for anyone! They go fast and bull doze past everything. It kind of scares my mother.
Okay, I'm done. I'm really burnt, tired and have to wake up at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow. Ouch. I'm not sure I want to go on this Blue Mountain tour after all. You'll read all about that tomorrow. Cheers!