Please ignore the title. Nothing we did this week began with an O... Been exploring Brisbane area for the past 7 days, so here’s an update on my third Australian City! While here in Brisbane, we are staying with Sammie’s Aunt Tricia and Uncle Mike in Cleveland, which is a suburb of Brisbane. Since they are not blood relations to me, there is no label for our relationship. Trust me, we googled it extensively. So obviously we had to come up with our own label, and honestly I think this’ll really take off. So here, Oxford dictionary representatives: cuzaunt /ˈkʌz-ɑːnt/ noun the sister of one’s mother’s or father’s sister-in-law or brother-in-law or the wife of one's cuzunc* cuzunc /ˈkʌz-ˈʌŋk/ noun the brother of one’s mother’s or father’s sister-in-law or brother-in-law or the husband of one's cuzaunt* *(© Anya Phillips, 2015) So it’s Cuzaunt Tricia and Cuzunc Mike for me! Now that that’s cleared up, we can move onto our adventures. On Monday we went out to Wellington Point, another suburb of Brisbane. We went right out to the point and we timed it so we were there at low tide, which is when a natural sand causeway appears between the point and King Island. The Island is about 1 kilometer from the point, so it was a nice little stroll. Luckily, it was overcast or it would have been a very hot walk. It is now a conservation park , but apparently it was temporarily inhabited from 1904 to 1906 by a Philips family for health reasons concerning one of their children. Pretty interesting. Their dwelling isn’t there any more though, so it must have been very temporary indeed. Tuesday was relatively uneventful; we spent the day relaxing and Sam had early morning practice anyway. We did walk down to the Raby Bay Marina in Cleveland to see Tricia and Mike’s boat, which is absolutely gorgeous. Beautiful wood paneling everywhere and is very spacious. I forgot to take a photo of it, so I will for the next time. The whole day on Wednesday was spent out on Stradbroke Island. You can only get there by ferry and it’s a popular spot for locals to go to the beach or get away for the weekend. Once we had gotten off the ferry, we hopped on a bus to take us up to the Point Lookout. On the way we saw a koala in a tree! We’d tried looking before because where we are right now is known for having them in the wildlife, but they can be a tad elusive so it was cool to finally see one!. Once we were at Point Lookout, we walked along the North Gorge Walk. It’s about a 45 minute walk with amazing views. We took our time taking photos and ended up at main beach. We spent the rest of the morning there as basically the only people on the beach. We also had a chat with a lifeguard, who told us that there would be more people there when the wind was moving in a northerly direction. We had lunch at a cafe there, and then Sam headed back to go to kayak training. I didn’t have that, so I stayed on the beach for a little while longer. And that’s when something super cool happened. I was innocently sitting at a picnic table when I heard a noise. I looked up, and there it was: a kangaroo just sitting not 10 yards away from me. I of course snapped a ton of photos! This was super exciting for me, even though I know that for locals seeing a kangaroo is like seeing a deer. Oh well, I can be a tourist every once in awhile! On Thursday Sam and I took train into Brisbane city proper to spend the afternoon and evening there. We started with a walk around South Bank, along a little bit of the Arbour, a kilometer-long walkway awning. It had beautiful pink flowers on it. We also walked around at Streets Beach, which is now an iconic piece of South Bank. It’s a man-made beach, which is free and patrolled by lifeguards every day. From there we took the city cat ferry across the river to the other side of the city and walked up and down Queens Street Mall, a pedestrian street and one of the more famous shopping centers in Brisbane. We did some shopping while we were there because why not! The plan was to head out to Mount Coot-Tha lookout for the evening to get a view of the city at night, but unfortunately we were thwarted in our attempt because we didn’t know that the last bus to run up there is at 3:35….oh well, we’ll do it this week. We headed home and had dinner at a Chinese place on the way! Friday and Saturday were chill days. Hung by the pool, read books for pleasure, edited some photos. But very exciting, I got my haircut! Three inches later, it feels so much lighter and was definitely needed. Plus, the lady only charged me $15 Australian dollars, which is the equivalent of about $10.50 in US dollars. I’ll take it. Saturday I also watched the Macalester men’s soccer team win in the first round of the NCAA playoff, so obviously I tuned in on Sunday to watch the next round. Unfortunately they lost, but it was such a good game (if any of you see this, know that I’m super proud of you guys!) and it felt good to check in with life back in Minnesota. Yesterday afternoon Sam and I took the train to another suburb, Manly. So now we’ve been to Manly in Sydney and Manly in Brisbane! They have a a very nice marina and it is a super cute town to walk through. We caught the tail-end of the Manly Creative Market that is put on every Sunday. It’s all sourced by local retailers (including the food) and each stall was very unique. It was awesome to wander through. Sam and I had an ice cream before we headed back to the house. I had another first last night: Mike cooked kangaroo! And if you were wondering, yes it was on the barbie. It was different to any meat I’ve ever had, but at the same time it was also similar to steak….kind of. Same texture, different taste. Anyway, it was really, really good. Which I’m sure has to do with the chef as well (thanks Mike!) Today I mostly caught up on photos and the blog, but I did go for a run along a path nearby to the house. It followed the coast and changed from concrete to some wooden boardwalks back in the brush. Very nice and relaxing. Will definitely be doing that again. See ya next post!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Meet AnyaHi, Hola, Bonjour, Ciao!
I’m Anya Phillips, a data analyst and travel enthusiast who is always on the lookout for the next adventure! Categories
All
|