Sydney: Part 2 and Melbourne

We're on the roll!  So, we woke up late on day 2, but not hungover or anything, so why not keep seeing the sights?  Today my goals were:  Bondi Beach (pronounced: Bon-dye) and Village Bizarre (more on that later).

We walked a couple blocks from our hostel to Hyde Park, where we caught the bus to Bondi.  The fare was about $3 each and it took us about 40 minutes to get there.  It was already pretty late and really cold when we got there, so we just walked around, no swimming for us (even though we wore our bathing suits):

The beach is really pretty and the sand is so soft.  Maybe the best sand we've felt yet.  The waves are perfect for surfing and the water was freezing!  If it was warmer, it would have been nice to sit and picnic in the sand, but it was chilly so we just walked around a bit then took the bus back to the CBD (Central Business District).  Walking back to the hostel, we saw this:

Can you spot Aaron in there:

Really cool.

We showered and changed our clothes and got ready for The Village Bizarre.  I saw some pamphlets last night at the bar and I'm totally one of those people that takes one of each and reads them through to see if anything fun is going on around town.  One of the pamphlets was called Village Bizarre:

Right up my alley!  It said they have all kinds of street performers and exhibitions and fun interactive things for people to participate in, as well as food and shopping stalls.  I love stuff like this, so I'm in and if I'm in, Aaron's in (he's less excited, but he's along for the ride at this point).

We walk to The Rocks (neighborhood right next to Circular Quay).  Along the way I saw more pretty Christmas trees:

I just love this time of year!

The Victoria Building all lit up:

The Marty McFly Clock Tower:

It changes colors!

We walked forever until we got to The Rocks and Village Bizarre:

The neighborhood is adorable!

This says Sydney's oldest pub, wonder if it's true?

Our first performer:

She dances in store windows.  Okie dokie.

We made it to the food market:

We settled on this:

As you can tell by how disgustingly I'm plowing into this, it was delicious.

Now that our bellies are full, we're moving onto the shopping portion of the street:

These masks were pretty neat because they felt natural on your face.  Most masks feel very constricting and you can't wait to take them off the second you put them on, but these felt breathable and they also made us look infinitely more badass, wouldn't you say?

They'd even been featured on Ellen:

Along with shops, they also had a bunch of interactive bizarre experiences:

They take you into this tent and make you chant weird stuff.  No idea.

You enter a completely dark room with music blaring and dance like no one's watching.  How fun!

This was the photo booth area, filled with costumes and props:

Vaudevillia was the live show with singing, dancing, magic and comedy:

This guy was a street performer, trying to sell some sort of miracle elixir:

Overall, the place really lived up to it's name, but in a super fun way.  I had a blast and Aaron cracked a few smiles too.
We got more food on the way out (who can resist at half price):

We went back to our hostel and slept and the next day took a flight to Melbourne.  We finally got to our apartment in Parkville (a suburb of Melbourne-about 3 miles north) at 9pm on December 5 and have loved it ever since.  It's so nice to feel somewhat settled after backpacking and living out of suitcases.  Our landlady, Anna, just moved out of the apartment to travel, and this is our first time living in someone's actual home before.  Every other apartment has been an investment property for the owner, they've never actually lived there.  I have to say the thought weirded me out a little at first, but I'm loving it now because she's thought of everything!  She left us so much useful stuff and it's all really convenient and saves us a lot of money.
The apartment itself is super modern, functional and beautiful:

We're on the second floor, with the bamboo covering the patio:

 We've been here for about a week now, just getting the lay of the land.  We have been keeping it pretty low-key, just because everything is so expensive and let's face it, nothing feels better than relaxing.  We walk about 15 minutes to the library every day to go online and to rent movies and books I make dinner every night.  Here are some of my dinners:

This is a breakfast oatmeal with a chunky apple sauce:

Yummy!
So far I've read:

The Girl On The Train was pretty good, I hear they're making it into a movie.  The main character is so irritating, but the story is decent.
The Girl In The Spider's Web is the most recent of the Millennium series (Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and 2 others) and if you haven't read them, they're fantastic!  I can't wait for the next movie to come out!

Anyway, so that's been our life lately.  Not much to write about, but it's been really nice and cozy, especially since the weather has been perfect.  We're planning a trip further south (either this month or next month) to Port Lincoln to fulfill Aaron's lifelong dream of cage diving with great white sharks.  We're also planning to hit The Great Barrier Reef at the end of January, before jetting off to New Zealand.
This week we're going to explore Melbourne and on Wednesday night go to a concert for one of Aaron's favorite rappers, Hopsin.
Stay tuned.