One of the first things Shawn and I remarked upon was how insanely well dressed people are in Australia. The women are all dress in very flattering feminine attire, with their hair and make-up nearly perfected. The guys are all very metro... and sexually open. Some of them give me a very strong guido vibe. Despite the fact everyone looks like they took an hour to get dressed, many would look like aliens in the US. There is a very Katy Perry/ Lady GaGa style here which about half the women follow. Then if course there is a fair share of the "Crocodile Dundee" dressed men and the rugged backpackers. I'd just expected more laid-back attire from the locals. On the other hand, tourists forget to even attempt to look presentable...
Our first meal was a shared prawn and calimari pizza for $26. It was in a little outdoor patio restaurant. We ended up each getting two slices. The eventful part came when we tried to leave. We kept waiving at the waitress to come bring our check. She cleared our dishes but never brought the check. Eventually, I went to the kitchen asking how to get the check/pay and the waitress got very irritated and told me she'd bring it to us. By the time she brought the check to us we'd finished eating at least 30-40 minutes earlier. I tried to pay with a credit card and she got extremely irritated. She kept saying they don't take credit only "sign"... Which is credit... So we ended up having to pull together AUD to pay. I really want to know if this will be common in Australia. Maybe they just expect longer, more laid back dinners? We have noticed that they are bothered by credit payments.
Every meal we've had since then has required us to pay when we order, but the food itself takes easily twice as long to come to our table as it would in the US. We've also noticed that it tends to be colder... As if they let it sit out during that extra time.
I've also had a few experiences where they seat us then never come to take our order. We went to this sushi place during off hours because we'd noticed seating lines out the door for a few times. The sushi was great but 40 minutes after being seated I had to go find the waitor and ask the waitor to take our order... Then gave up on him ever bringing it and took the carousel buffet meals which charge per colored plate. In the end, the waitor was too lazy to even count our plates and make a bill so he gave us a sheet and we added it all up. It turned out to be $70 for the 3 of us...
*Note: You don't tip in Australia - tips are already added into the price.*
If I haven't already established that the laid back nature hasn't been very useful, here's another story! Our room had a broken airconditioner, which was apparenty "struck by lightning." The staff kept saying its a quick easy fix they would make in a few hours, but it took 3 days of nagging the staff constantly for that to happen. Six people in a dorm room without a window or airconditioning... not the best.
Poor "Vitamin"
Bottles look different.
Our first dinner as the 5 of us was a kangaroo sandwich from the hostel's cafe. It was delicious. We couldnt find a familiar meat to compare with kangaroo; however, it is a lean flavorfull dark meat. Some people think it resembles lamb. It is not gamey, but does have a somewhat tough and stringy texture. Most of my group has declared it to be their new favorite meat.
Kangaroo burrito is delicious!
Vegemite is as horribly disgusting and salty as everyone says. Keep away at all costs. The sheer smell, which resembles spoiled eggs and soy sauce, is enough to gag a maggot.
Kangaroo raspberry pizza.
Rooftop pool and waterfall! We put beanbags chairs in them so we could play bumper cars.
Night view from our roof.
Another odd thing is that Australians walk EVERYWHERE. They don't seem to approve of grabbing a taxi to go anywhere within an hours walk. Im not sure if this is intentional, but everytime I ask for directions I'm told something is "merely a 10-15 minute walk." Then when I ask about taxis or other means of transportation they make jokes about jet packs and hover crafts. Walking is nice because we really see more of Brisbane than we would have otherwise; for instance, almost every plant had a flower. However, their "10-15 minute" walks usually take us over an hour, and we match pace with the locals.
We took a shortcut.
*Note: They drive on the opposite side of the road, so we are learning to walk and bike on the left.*
Views from foot bridge on "10-15" minute walk to beach.
They need to work on their road names.
Evidence of Queensland flooding. Fortunately, the flooding has not impacted us in any manner besides flooded bike trails.
Wildlife? I also saw a ton of parrots but they wouldn't photograph on my phone.
Pretty man-made beach in the middle of Brisbane. You can look out to the city.
We found this restaurant's description in a travel magazine while on the plane to Brisbane. Somehow it turned out to only be a "10 minute walk" from out YHA. The steak burgers were delicious and the staff was extremely nice. I recommend anyone visiting to drop by.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone :)
Location:Brisbane, Australia
Today I learned rabbits outnumber humans 15 to 1 in Australia. Please confirm this for me. kthanksbai
ReplyDelete