Afro Circus

My apologies for the lack of updating, I just haven't found the time to sit down for ages and write a post. While it's still early in the semester, I am still trying to revert back to the uni schedule, as I am currently in holiday mode and taking a lot of naps. It would be unlikely that I will find time to write about the rest of my holidays, so I'm just going to keep moving forward.

This semester has started on a much better note, I now have similiar timetables to my dent friends which makes life a little less lonely. The feelings of homesickness have somewhat subsided however I still do miss myself around my Melbourne friends, but that will have to take some time to happen in the GC. In the first week, I am proud to say that I attended all of my classes, okay so pracs haven't started yet, but it is a lot better than how I was last semester. This streak also continued through the second week (the one lecture I skipped doesn't count because it was optional as the lecturer already finished the week's material).

The first weekend was a fun-filled weekend, where on Saturday was Brisbane City exploring day and on Sunday was Dreamworld!
The day started very early on Saturday, meeting at the bus stop to make our way to the city, and the first time that I have been on the brisbane train! I LOVE the FREE wi-fi on the trains! I hope melbourne really follows with the wi-fi option, one of the best decisions ever. The trains were a little different to Melbourne internally, maybe I'm used to the feel of the Melbourne ones. Once we reached the city, the station didn't feel like the 'city' at all. We got off at Southbank, which is comparable to to our Southbank. I think they had redone everything after the flooding and it looks amazing! There was this awesome walkway with pretty flowers hanging off it, and there were swimming facilities and a man-made beach which looked pretty cool. I guess the swimming wouldn't be that relevant to Melbourne due to the much colder weather. We explored the markets, acting like tourists and gushing over the little things, taking photos and crowding around the stalls. However I didn't buy anything. Lunch was at Max Brenner's, which I still am not the biggest fan of, but my dent friends seem to love? I had a hot chocolate and waffle. I have learnt (mostly) my lesson to not be greedy especially when it comes to sweet things. After lunch, we over the bridge to the city part where all the shopping was. The shopping was pretty decent however I only had explored a little part of the city, and most shops were closing. The city is quite confusing, for me anyways, I think they need to adopt the grid system like Melbourne, but luckily for technology and google maps on our phones. Half the group went to watch Batman, while the rest did more exploring of the city. I got really exciting spotting Asian groceries and discovering cheap food especially junk food. For dinner, we went to Korean restarant which served pretty nice, cheap and decent food, thank you urbanspoon for the reviews. Afterwards we quickly made to the station to catch the train. The buses don't run that late so we didn't want to miss the bus. On the train ride back, there were security men on board and that was awesome, made it feel a lot safe. My friends were cam-whoring on the train, funny to watch. Once we got of off the station in the GC, the bus didn't come for a super long time. To kill time, we took heaps of photos, and I like being the photographer. It felt weird because I only had my phone camera, because I left my dslr in Melbourne, and my digital camera didn't have the SD card. Finally the bus came, and luckily for my friend's sister who drove me home, otherwise I have to walk 25mins at 12.30 in the dark.

The next day was Dreamworld time! My friend and I decided to go for a yearly pass. I wanted to get the 10% discount for my friends who were buying the single entry pass. It took a while to process everything and get everyone through into the park. My first impressions of Dreamworld was pretty awesome, I loved the little themed shops and look of the whole place. To warm us up, we went on this ride which I called the mexican hat because it looked like one. Basically its a circle platform that spins around while it goes along a wavy path, it was very fun and a good level of thrill that I can handle. I definitely knew that I would not be able to go on all the big 7 rides, so I settled for The Claw, which looked like the most tame out of them all. Lining up for it was pretty terrifying, but I'm glad it didn't go upside down, that's a deal breaker for me. There were many times I wanted to back out but looking at the ride, it didn't seem that bad. I was very tense sitting down and getting ready for the ride. The parts that were thrilling when it was going back down, and you can feel the adrenaline rush. I hate that falling feeling in your heart, and usually when I experience scary rides, I closed my eyes, but this time I screamed/yelled which made it a lot better. I was so proud of myself for going the ride, and I actually wanted to go on it again! Throughout the day I went on most of the kiddy rides, and yes it did feel a little weird to be among very little children. Walking through the Madagascar part, I was singing the afro circus song a lot which none of the my friends seem to get or find funny. My favorite part of Dreamworld was my koala experience. It was expensive compared to the other zoos, but I have been looking forward to this for such a long time! My koala was named Frank and 19 months. He was the most gorgeous thing ever! He felt so soft and warm in my arms and a little heavy, and he smelt nice. I kept petting him. They told me he had been fed and he was just sleeping in my arms. So my photos had him with his eyes closed, which may have been preferable because koala's eyes are scary. I'm glad there wasn't a line or anything and I got to hold him for a long time, I'm not if it was actually a long time and that's how long other people got to hold a koala, but I'm glad they didn't rush us and were really nice. I feel incredibly happy afterwards and I'm looking forward to holding another one. Oh and an alpaca spat in my face, not the best experience, I just wanted a photo with it and pet it! Unfortunately we didn't have time to catch the lions, but it was okay because we had a yearly pass.

Sorry for the photos being out of order, it takes too much effort to move them around.


Love Squealer.