hi jeff, i live in the centre of sydney so i can help you out. the beaches will all be perfect at the end of november: warm ocean currents will be in, and the usual 1,000 to 10,000 will be packed on each beach each day

<br /><br />classical bookstores, the best one by far is abbey's (right near the town hall, in the centre of syd), they have all the loebs, a stack of octs, and heaps of grammars, dictionaries &c. it's really the only first-hand bookstore which has a decent classics collection, and even that's prob not as good as what you're used to in america. you can sit there for hours reading and they don't bother you. second-hand bookstores, definitely go to darlinghurst (a suburb also in the centre of syd), it has a few bookstores open to midnight within 5 mins walk of each other, but their classics collections has already been pretty much cleaned out (by me sorry). worth trying though.<br /><br />for classical antiquities, the best is sydney uni's nicholson museum. you'll know you've arrived when you see a life-size copy of the (top half of) prima porta augustus, and a life-size roman senator statue from the republican era, at the door. pretty cool. there are also a few random classical statues through sydney's centre: right near my law firm is a life-size copy of the piraeus athena bronze, donated by athens' mayor 2 years ago, i love it but the plebs walk by without noticing. also in the gardens on the harbour there are, on either side of a path, two greek pankratioi, one about to jab the other in the ribs (as that story goes), pretty cool (not antiques though).<br /><br />if you want some local info about non-classical things to do in syd, i can post them here or msg you (if non-sydneysiders are already sick of this info

cheers, chad.
