8/06 Meeting with the City Oasis

Roxie and I were playing the Zombie and Plants 2 last night, it was free on App Store for a limited time, hope that Dad did see the news and download the game : )

Roxie was yelling by my ears for me to get out of bed at 8 in the morning…

I was hoping to stay in bed though XD

We got dressed and had breakfast (croissants) at the public patio, scheduling our route for the day while stuffing our mouths with bread. It was about half an hour from our lodge to the CBD. The weather was much heated, fortunately we got our shorts and T-shirts on.

The Centre of Brisbane was pretty big and crowded, kind of messy though. We passed the centre and continued moving forward. Roxie and I entered the Parliament House by accident and looked like it was the Minister’s Day out and there were so many police officers surrounding the place. One of the officers came toward us and I was pretty frightened whether he is going to arrest us or not, luckily he was just checking if we were with the tour group to the House.

We fastened our path and moved toward the Queensland University of Technology, to have a taste of the Australian academy.

The school was small but advanced, and it was a surprise to be bumping into their Job Experiencing Fair. Most of the students were lying lazily on the grass or rushing from buildings to buildings, spreading out a scent of teenage freshness.

Just by the University side was the City Botanic Garden, we really loved the Gardens in all the cities, for they have different arrangements to the botany and we get to see special kinds of Australian species.

We got a little lost in the garden and went the wrong way, going back to the CBD. So we headed backward looking for a bridge called Goodwill. Our initial intention was to get Southbank, the one that we accidentally came across yesterday. According to the guide book, it was really some place for vacation. We re-entered QUT and exited from the back. I really had a pretty good sense of direction and I led us to the front of a bridge. I bet Roxie a bottle of beverage that the bridge was Goodwill and it really was! We got really lucky.

Most of Southbank was covered with a gigantic riverside Park known as the City Beach, providing the tourists with lots of beautiful plants and entertaining utilities. The sun was still right above our heads even though afternoon was approaching. The coolest thing about City Beach was that right after we past Stanley Plaza, there was a real artificial beach waiting for us! It was full of fresh water and had all the sand surrounding it. (the artificial beach’s size was about three to four normal-sized swimming pools) while inside the water, you can still see people juggling or cycling outside on the bank and when one raised his or her head, there was the tall skyscrapers just across the bridge! It was really a City Oasis!

The Riverside Park was enormous and we tried covering all of the spots on our feet. At last we climbed on to the Victoria Bridge and made our way back to the CBD. There were many Food Courts under the buildings and most were still in business despite late hours. I got myself some really good bargain, two ZIP boxes of spaghetti, one with cream and the other one in meat sauce, costing just 6 AUD in total. We shared it together.

Roxie bought a skateboard on the way home, I hoped it wasn’t just a sudden impulse and she really was determined to practice.

As for dinner, Hungry Jack’s become the savior, again. I made the order and it was a female Indian cashier. I said that I want a Big Cheese Medium Size Meal and a Single Double Whooper Cheese and she repeated the Double Whooper Cheese so fast that it sounded just like: Dabberhooberjeez, which was so very cool!

Before we went back to Chills, we stopped by the famous liquor store in Australia: BWS, I bought a bottle of XXXX lager, which I would love to try since watching one of FRIENDS’ episode, as for Roxie she took an apple cider beer, it would be our virgin taste of some Australian liquor!