On Monday the 18th I didn't do anything too exciting that day other than walking around the Pacific Fair mall with Cameron and Zac. We were just browsing as they showed me the different types of clothing stores, and I saw quite a few I wanted to visit but I thought it would be better to wait until another day. I think I wrote about it before, but Pacific Fair is one of the shopping complexes that has an indoor area and then an outdoor area where all the shops are sort of little stores located outside, with open doorways you can easily walk through.
I guess something neat about that day was that I had the opportunity to eat at Hungry Jack's and try an Australian Whopper. Hungry Jack's is basically the Burger King of Australia and one of the more popular fast food restaurant's here.The Australian Whopper is nearly identical to a regular whopper, but in addition to the regular ingredients it also has an egg and a slice of beetroot. It's fairly common here to have beetroot on sandwiches, salads, and burgers here, which is unusual for me because the only time I've ever really had it is in my grandma's borscht. It's actually a nice light flavor, and I don't know why we don't use it much in Canada. The egg also added something different to the burger, and they use eggs a lot here in sandwiches, so I think it was a much better sandwich than I had expected from the ingredients.
After we finished walking around the mall Cameron and I went home, had dinner, then went for a drive later than night. Usually when we go driving we always head to Surfer's Paradise and we get there one of two ways. For a scenic route next to the ocean we pass through Burleigh Heads, up to Broadbeach, then into Surfer's Paradise. If we are taking the other way we go through Mudgeeraba to Robina then up to Broadbeach through to Surfer's Paradise. Both ways are beautiful and allow you to see so much of the Gold Coast, which is especially incredible at night with all of the amazing buildings that light up the sky.
On the 19th Cameron, Zac and I woke up early and headed back to Dreamworld together. The good thing about Zac is that he loves to go on rides, so not only does he enjoy going on them but also convincing you to go on them as well. That is probably why after 15 minutes of being in the park Cameron and I were in line for The Tower of Terror II, which is basically the most terrifying ride in the park (that doesn't go upside down). It's a car full of people that shoots straight up a vertical pole (the same type of pole that the Drop of Fear at Capital Ex uses) and then falls directly back down, except instead of sitting up and facing horizontally you face down and watch yourself getting closer and closer to the ground. If you think that's bad enough, imagine shooting back and up the pole while sitting backwards and not seeing where you're going! This thing was absolutely scary, but so fun. I don't know how Cameron and Zac got me to ride it... one minute I was just waiting with them in line so I wouldn't be completely bored waiting for them to get on the ride, and the next minute I was sitting down next to Cameron with a belt buckle around my waist! Either way it was worth it, and we came back to it by the end of the night to go on it one more time.
Another ride we visited was The Motocoaster, which is a roller coaster where you sit on a motorcycle instead of inside of a car. The seats are actually replicas of a real type of motorcycle, and reach over 72kmph during the ride. Before that, Cameron and I were on the Rocky Hollow Log Ride, which is much like Niagara Falls except with a much higher fall (and it gets you way more wet!) It was just as good as the water ride I visited at Sea World and I look forward to another ride. The other water ride at Dreamworld is called the Thunder River Rapids Ride, where 6 people sit facing each other in a circular 'raft' and float up and down thrashing 'rapids'. It's probably my favorite ride in the whole park. It's just exciting enough and you can get moderately-extremely wet depending on where you sit. It's a type of ride I'd never been on before and I wish I knew of one closer to home I could visit often. That may not seem like a lot of rides to fit into one day, but the lines there take about a half hour to an hour (even though the rides are less than 5 minutes each!) It's worth it though, it feels like I'm finally getting my chance to visit Disneyland and I'm sure the wait is even worse there.
After dinner Cameron and I went for another drive and stopped at a place called The Spit to just enjoy the beautiful view of the city across the river. To me, that was one of my favorite moments so far, and for good reason. Even though I'm visiting a city with so many different attractions, such as theme parks and malls, what I really enjoy the most about where I am are the experiences I can't have anywhere else in the world.
The 20th was a fun day for me, but probably not quite as fun for Cameron. We went to Pacific Fair again, but this time it was strictly for me to do some shopping! I've been so interested in the different types of clothing the girls wear around here and I've been looking forward to trying on some of their outfits. I would go through entire stores picking out about 20 different tops and dresses and would put them on while Cameron waited outside the change rooms. I had a variety of flowy floral tops, long colorful dresses, and cute decorated shirts. After about 4 hours of shopping I had picked out 3 beautiful tops in what felt like no time at all to me. I loved shopping there. With their pastel colors and such a huge variety of floral themed clothing there was barely anything I didn't like in their stores.
Later that night, as Cameron and I were finishing up our nightly drive around the city, we decided to go and visit Zac at his work. He is actually employed at something called a drive through bottle shop, which is something I don't think we have in Edmonton (or if we do, I've never seen one myself). Basically you drive up to the door, place an order from your door, and the attendant will go inside and then bring it out to you. There is no liquor store for you to walk into, in fact you aren't even allowed inside it's all kept. The windows display a huge selection of what they offer, but if you're going through a drive-thru you probably know what you want to begin with anyways. I thought it was neat that they had something so convenient made just for alcohol!
On the 21st Cameron and I had a busy morning, we woke up late and then quickly got ready to go out to lunch with his Mom, Dad, and Nan. All of us packed into his parent's car and drove down to eat at the North Kirra Surf Lifesaving Club. This restaurant had the most incredible view of the ocean and for the first time I got to see how beautiful it is. From where we sat at our table you could watch the beach bend and span all the way up to Coolangatta and Surfer's Paradise in the distance. It was nice to eat with such an amazing view, plus it was a very nice afternoon with his family. After lunch we all went for a drive around the city and even drove down past the border into New South Wales, which is a completely different state. They pointed out all of the different resorts they used to stay at when they were vacationing, and it was almost like getting a mini tour of the city with all of the interesting information I learnt about the different buildings. I really enjoyed it and it was so nice of his family to take the time to show me around.
Once we finished with our lunch Cameron and I drove to Robina Town Center, which is the shopping complex located much closer to his house than Pacific Fair. It's the one that has lights which show you the available spots to park in, and inside it feels almost as gigantic as West Edmonton Mall. There are only a few store names I recognized and a couple I'd only ever heard of such as Target and even a small Krispy Kreme stand. I couldn't believe it when we walked past, it was $3.50 for one donut there! I'd always heard that the brand was extremely popular in the states, but it's unbelievable what they'd charge just for a single serving.
I did a bit more shopping this time, even though Cameron and I had agreed we were only going there for a nice walk and to show me around. I got a few more tops and we headed home after a quick stop at the Woolworth's (the grocery store). Before we drove home we stopped at a Blockbuster, which they have there, and picked up a few games for his Wii and a Harry Potter movie. The rest of our night took place at his house just watching movies and playing games until bed. Even on vacation, sometimes it's nice to just do things like you would at home!
I will add some pictures tomorrow of the past few days, but it's been a while since my last post, so I thought I better do that part before much else!
A beautiful view of North Kirra, Burleigh Heads, Miami, Broadbeach, and Surfer's Paradise at night
The drive-thru liquor store
The view of Burleigh Heads, Broadbeach and Surfer's Paradise from the restaurant
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