Two Weeks in Oz!

So I have been in Australia for over two weeks now, been working for more than one week. Was in Melbourne for four days to rest from the flight, and then came straight to Brisbane where I started work the day after I arrived. The flight and food was horrible, luckily I did have a seat next to me on the flight from LAX to MEL, which made things better. LAX is a pretty ugly airport, not what I expected at all.

So Melbourne, it's such a beautiful city, reminds me a lot of Europe, in particular Italy. It has the sidewalk cafes, the short buildings with walk-only paths, the restaurants down alleys, the vineyards outside of the city, and the river running through it.

Federation Square

kind of reminds me of Barcelona, river and palm trees

It's a Bombardier (actually I don't know that, it just reminded me of the commercial

The Cappuccino's are just as good as Italy I think, and I had the most amazing Almond croissant the first day I arrived. I walked into the Weston, asked where I can get a good pastry/coffee, and was guided to "Laurent". Little did I know this place was not only expensive ($7.20 for the two), but also a lot of other people like it too, as I was told multiple times afterwards to go there.

One of the malls, so nice!

Italian Style street cafes

I didn't do much there, I just now want to relax in the city, walk around seeing things, not go to much. I went to this old jail where Ned Kelly was killed, I've never been to a jail so I thought I'd give it a try. Churches/museums I have been to, jails no. And I don't think I'll go anymore unless I get more commentary, because it was boring/morbid/depressing.

I have family in Melbourne, an aunt, uncle, and cousin. I have not seen the cousin in more 15 years, so it was really nice meeting her again. She took me to the wine vineyards for wine tastings! Australia, being a place that generates some really good wine, this was a must-do. So we had lunch at one of the vineyards, then went to two vineyards for tastings. It's obvious we don't do that much, as we just kept going and going as fast as possible. Whereas I suppose we should only choose ones we really wanted to try and buy, drink really little, then either spit out the rest from out mouth, and/or dump the rest from the glass. No we did not finish each glass (very little in each glass), but we were speeding our way through them. But it was very nice to spend time with my cousin, and I was so happy that she took me out for a nice day.

Off to Brisbane I went on sunday morning, the guy who sat next to me would not stop talking. We talked for one straight hour and unfortunately the plane did not take off cause they had to replace some part, and we still had a two hour plane ride to go. He wasn't asking me short questions either, he was asking deep/long question. Things like "what did you want to do with your life?", "are you happy at your job?", "what did you want to get out of your job?". Luckily these are all questions I have thought about recently, and I'm really not one to shy away from telling total strangers what I think if they truly ask, and I have the time and energy. I just did not expect this guy to keep on asking and asking, and talking. He also told me about what he does (unfortunately I asked him), and he went into the same thing that he asked me. And then I realized why he asked me all these questions, his ultimate goal was to recruit me to sell vitamin supplements. Basically it operates like a pyramid, whether he gets money from people he recruits I do not know, but the structure of people finding people is definitely pyramid. Anyways, no big deal.

I got to Brisbane, hired a taxi, and the taxi driver was funny too. He started asking me about Toronto, what to do there, and then he asks me do i have a girlfriend back home. I say no, and then he starts telling me where the best places to go to meet girls. Hilarious stuff! All the while, I am mesmerized by the scenery I am about to see. Driving along the river I see many sailboats, and just an amazing scenery. It was hot too, had to take off all my layers.

Beautiful Brisbane View

I arrive at my place, and I am amazed by how beautiful it is. I see this very cool street flea market just outside my building right along the boardwalk. I quickly put down my stuff, go down and walk it, while also finding food cause I had not eaten all day. And I continue to be amazed how beautiful this place is made that much better by the weather.

My new place!

The washroom

View looking out my window

My first week at work was boring. I am reading docs for assessment, and it is so boring cause I don't really understand them all because it's a piece of the program I have not seen yet. I seriously could not do more of that, and luckily this week has started better in that I have something else to do as well. I get to go to meetings. When I am happy to go to meetings, it must mean that the previous work was really boring.

Some friends of mine are travelling in Australia, and just so happens I am here in Brisbane while they are. I don't have space for them, but I met up with them which was really nice. It's always nice to see people from back home in places you go, it makes it feel very warm. Then this weekend I met up with them on the gold coast at surfers paradise. I rented a car and drove on the WRONG (left) side of the road for the first time. My first turn was a bit hard, I turned wide, but after that things came easier. I was very weary about driving too fast, as I was told at least in Victoria, even if you drive 5km/h over the limit they will give you a ticket. I don't really want to get a ticket. They apparently have speed cameras everywhere, and just send you the bill. Anyways, driving was no problem, had two minor problems, but I conquered those without problems.

I got to surfers paradise, and I went surfing. Now I was just a bit hesitant cause I don't swim, but I wasn't too scared. I tried and tried, but I couldn't really get up. And worse, the waves just got bigger and bigger, and I just got tired of being thrown around by the waves. I also got really self conscious of people on the shore looking at me and laughing that I could not do it. hahaha. And one thing, oceans have salt water, and it sucks drinking it. Really nasty. The weather kind of sucked on that day, but it turned out to be a good thing cause we had less people to fight the waves with. Anyways, I think I'll try to go again to try it out again even though I hated the salt water.

The empty beach, cause it's a cloudy day

There is this really nice park right behind my building, i have walked it twice. the first time I spotted tent right in the middle of the trees, I guess someone camped out there. not a bad idea as long as you aren't worried of anyone mugging you in the middle of the night. you don't have anywhere to go if you were mugged. This park reminds me of central park in that it has a lot of different things in it like a cafe, a bandstand, however I think it has more foresty areas. I even saw a wedding there with a horse drawn carriage. really nice, I could walk and sit in this park all day. If only they had lawn chairs for me like in Hyde Park in London.

I had a holiday the third day I was in Brisbane, it was Anzac day (Australia New Zealand Army Corps) and they had this march right in the middle of the city. I imagine it might be the same thing if there is a march in Toronto/Canada, but this march was huge, and everyone was clapping for these people. Amazing scene. I walked to Chinatown that day, just one street so not much. But get this, Char Siu sells for $24/kg, that's like $11/lb! Insane! Not only this, but all food is expensive here in Australia. General cost of living is just so much higher here in Australia than it is in Toronto.

Alright, this is it for now. I'll let you know what I do on my long weekend coming up this week. Yes, two holidays in two weeks in Brisbane! I'll post pictures later, because I had trouble uploading this post itself.