Manly

I've never considered myself much of a 'beach person'. Growing up in the UK means that the beach lifestyle doesn't really come naturally, and to me, a European city break is a much more enticing prospect than the prospect of a holiday spent sat in one place on a beach with nought but a book and sunburn for company.

Mark and I took a trip out to Bondi Beach shortly after our arrival on these foreign shores and to be quite honest found it a bit of a disappointment. It was much smaller than they would have you believe, and the sea front is to be frank rather tacky. Admittedly on a winter's day it perhaps didn't appear at its best, but it put me off the beach idea for a while.

A few weeks of galleries, cafes, museums, bookshops, gardening and bars later, I found myself pondering the coastline again. So on a pleasant spring Sunday, we ferried ourselves off to Manly (quite literally - we took the ferry from Meadowbank to the City then changed to the Manly ferry to complete the journey. I do enjoy spending days traveling entirely by boat!).

Manly is one of Sydney's northern suburbs, and popular by virtue of its beaches. You arrive on the harbour side, then walk through the central pedestrianised area of shops and cafes to the ocean side, where Manly beach is. It has a lovely feel, the street lined with palm trees and strung with lanterns, and lots of outdoor dining space adjoining the cafes and restaurants. There are also a large number of fish and chip shops. We picked the one with the longest queue (yes you might have to wait a while, but the queue is usually there for a reason!), which paid off when we were handed our boxes full of the tastiest, freshest battered fish and fat chips.



I was a bit hungry and scoffed my fish before I could get the camera out!

Then we hit the beach.







My bikini got its first proper outing (trips to the Macquarie Uni swimming pool don't count!) and we had a lovely relaxing couple of hours. Everyone on the beach was very young and tanned and slender, which was a bit off-putting at first but I soon stopped worrying and enjoyed some ginger beer and Jane Austen.

I think I might be a 'beach person' now!