Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, February 10, 2013.

Today, we made a trip to Bondi Beach. (Yesterday was Manly Beach).

I have always wanted to visit Bondi Beach, ever since I read an article about an NFL football player who used to play for Miami (Ricky Williams?) that was in “Sports Illustrated.” The football player pitched a tent near Bondi Beach and refused to play. Despite a multi-million dollar contract, he wanted to stay in Australia and smoke whatever he was smoking. Thus began the lure of Bondi Beach, for me.

Bondi Bay.

We took the bus from Circular Quay and the bus went through the gay area of Sydney (which is having a Mardi Gras like celebration right now) and observed shops like the Saigon Queen (Vietnamese food). Because it is Sunday, things seemed somewhat slower than normal, as they used to feel on Sundays in Iowa City in the days when the state-run liquor stores were the only game in town and so many businesses closed that it felt like the entire town had closed down.

Bondi as the clouds roll in.

The clouds began to roll in around 4:30 p.m. and we took the bus back. Now, we’re debating our evening’s activities. The movies are pretty much all “old” by my standards. I saw most of them during the Chicago Film Festival last October, which was nearly 6 months ago. I did get to see “Hitchcock” here, but the others are me going for the second or third time (“The Impossible” and “Silver Linings Playbook,” for example).

Tomorrow is our last day here. We need to do something memorable.