It’s still early in the morning by the time
we get up. We left the hostel and had a big breakfast at a coffee shop, the one
that we always pass in the day and Roxie covets every time. My big breakfast
included three pieces of bacons, one big beef sausage, and toast with butter,
mushrooms, a tomato and some baked beans, which I left untouched. Roxie had a
croissant with ham and that tasted wonderful.
After stuffing our stomachs, it’s time for
some serious business. We headed to the Central Station which lays on the hill,
located at Southern Sydney. I was in charge of buying the tickets from
Countrylink and trying to get us to Brisbane. We would be travelling to
Brisbane Roma Street’s Transit Centre, rather than the Central Station, for the
lodge fee would be cheaper around that area. ISIC got us some discount, too,
perfect! (The aquarium, IMAX, countrylink…)
As for the lodging in Brisbane, we chose
Chill Backpackers rather than Base. I heard that Base only provides two types
of rooms: female and male. It would be really inconvenient for Roxie and I to
stay in different room, how are we supposed to get up at the same time and talk
about our plan? The price at Base was also not at all sweet, but bitter.
I made a phone call to Chill to confirm our
booking yesterday online, the receptionist was friendly and sounded really
enthusiastic, looking forward to our arrival. I used a public phone and it was
free, surprising me like a jolt of electricity.
There was this Belmore Park just under
Central Station, full of doves but nothing special in particular. We decided to
make use of the rest of the time and go to Paddy’s Market.
In our early phase touring around Sydney, we
visited the Market City just the second day after our arrival. However, the
real Paddy’s Market wasn’t Market City at all, but a secret huge basement right
under it! It was super big and very cool, full of cheap and special stuff. The
boomerangs and loads of souvenirs were about a third price the ones outside!
I bought a pretty boomerang for my parents,
hoped they like it. I considered some aboriginal masks and big lizard carvings,
but finally gave up due to the uncertainty of whether my folks would like them
or not.
We wandered for the rest of the day in
Paddy’s Market, now you get the idea of its size. Both of us were feeling
rather thirsty the time we got out from the ground, the day was already dark,
of course. We entered Mc Donald’s and ordered a cup of Banana Berry Bash
Smoothie, which tasted rather strange.
On our way back, we crossed path with the
Entertainment Center at Darling Harbor, which was closed the time we visited a
few days earlier. It was now crowded with people for the star, PINK would be
holding a concert right there tonight! We felt pretty jealous toward those guys
with tickets…
There was also this Harbor Town specially
built for the Chinese, full of little booths and vendors were yelling at the
top of their lungs. It was like sardines swimming in a pack inside, which took
us some time to get out.
Dinner was made of 10 sticks of roasted
chicken from Coles and two packs of mushrooms from the Chinese supermarket next
door. We cooked the ingredients ourselves when we got back, and it was
delicious!
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