Day 8-9

Day eight, beach!!!!  It was so nice to spend some time in the sun, since it is summer time here.  Today we checked into our hostel in Sydney and headed down to Bondi Beach. We spent the afternoon on the beach, enjoying the sun and the cool water. Dani and Sarah came and met up with us at the beach, where we said goodbye to them. :( In a few short days, I was able to make some really good friends! After frying....well actually somehow i was the only one that walked away with barely any burn, we went to dinner in Darling Harbour, near our hostel, we're we yet again had a great meal. (Australia has some amazing sunscreen, the one I bought also has zinc, which helps alot!) I plan on bringing back a few bottles.  
Day nine, due to issues with our bus pass (booking the first leg of our trip too late) we are staying in Sydney a day/night more than anticipated).  Since its summer and peak traveling time you must book things far in advance, and we were unable to get 3 seats on a bus up the coast until Thursday. We will unfortunately be skipping Coffs Harbour due to the delay, however according to all the locals, aka our friends and their family, Coffs Harbour is not a need to see place. We will be stopping tomorrow (day ten) in spot x surf camp, where accommodations and food is already included in our bus pass thingy, and a 2 hour surf lesson!  Super excited to get more time on a surf board, and maybe after two hours I will no longer need someone to push me into the wave in order to catch it. Enough about tomorrow, today we spent the day shopping in Sydney, and due to our sunburns decided not to spend as much time at the beaches, although it was another beautiful day. We really wanted to check out where the locals go though and head out to Manly beach.  We ended up deciding that sun today would not be our friends, so we went to their big shopping center and did a bit of shopping, only going into Australian stores. We also decided to go low key tonight, staying at the hostel bar for dinner and drinks ($5 meals and $3 drinks!)
Side note: We have noted that food courts here are not food courts like back home. They do not have McDonalds or Burger King in them, they have gourmet restaurants, and they have a wide variety of choices. You also do not have to tip here, in restaurants, which I feel bad about, but their hourly rate is SO much higher than ours back home for retail or restaurant jobs.  All the food we have had, has been so good, even in the food court, having a meal on a plate with real silverware in a mall food court is just not something I have ever fond in the states, nor has the Canadians in Canada. We have all been really impressed with their food, and the quality of their food.  Enough babbling about food, I will try and write soon to update about our surf lesson (day eleven).

Bye for now <3