Supermarkets, The River and Mangroves (July 16)

Although the bed was comfortable, and I was exhausted, I was unable to sleep past 1am.  I gave up the battle around 2.  Apparently, my body was still firmly planted in another time zone where the world is wide awake.   I had a terrible time figuring out how to use the French press coffee maker (Lord, I do love my Keurig), and as a result made some pretty terrible coffee.  But the truth is, at 2am, even terrible coffee is good coffee.  I then turned on the news and I have to say – it’s really, really neat to watch the news in a foreign country.

 

There’s a strangeness to hearing news stories that completely have nothing to do with me or anyone in my world.  It almost felt like stepping into an alternate universe and turning on the TV, being fascinated but utterly unaffected by what's being reported.  Whether or not Qantas sells its shares to foreign entities is of no concern to me; the decisions made by the courts, consumers rights, tax issues, the virtues of old vs. new football rules, none of it affects me in the slightest, turning the news into, quite frankly, pure entertainment.   My favorite story is this: apparently there is a debate going on here about the use of corporal punishment in schools, with some in power arguing that as long as the parents agree to it, it can be very effective. Wow.  One other thing I found really interesting; directly before a report on someone who'd died, the news reporter warned any viewers of Aboriginal descent that there would be pictures of someone who'd passed away on the report.  I was riveted, and watched for hours, until finally it was time to work out and really start the day. 

First things first, I needed to go food shopping.  I went to the Woolworth, one of the larger supermarket chains, just a few short blocks from the hotel.  On the way I discovered something fun.  To cross the street here, at every intersection, you need to push a button.  When it is not safe to cross, there is a slow, rhythmic beep, but when it’s safe to walk, there’s a loud sort of special-effect costmic sounding multiple beep indicating that it’s safe to cross.  I waited patiently at every intersection for the beeps…because honestly I can’t tell which way to look down here, and it was really just fun to listen to them. 

Supermarket shopping is another alternate-universe experience.  The market looked just like any supermarket at home, until I looked closely and see shelf after shelf of somewhat familiar items packaged by brands I’ve never heard of.  There's no Skippy peanut butter, no Tide detergent, no Pepperidge Farm, no Ruffles or Cheetos - though Coke, Diet Coke and Kellogg's have made it here.  Eggs are not refrigerated, and all are brown.  Milk was very confusing – the choices seem to be trim, smarter white, full-cream milk or custard (I chose full-cream, hopefully that works).  Whole wheat bread is called whole grain bread, and chicken is a popular flavor for potato chips.  I was able to find laundry detergent, but no dryer sheets – they’re not really used in Australia (I asked).  It was really fun looking at products, differences in frozen-food choices - this whole trip was really sightseeing and shopping in one!  I could have spent all day in that Woolworth's, and I look forward to my next trip.

After running up to quickly unpack my groceries, I headed down to the walkway that goes along the Brisbane River, just a block from the apartment. The weather was nice, a bit cloudy, a coolish and comfortable 20 degrees C.  The pictures below show my first view as I stepped down to the riverwalk. The bridge you see is called Story Bridge, which crosses to the south bank of the river.

 

I decided to walk a bit further along the banks, In the back of my mind thinking about mapping tomorrow morning's run.  As the walk advanced, I started seeing these trees lining the banks, just incredible trees…
 

As I continued walking, the vegetation got more dense.  These amazing, incredible tress grew thicker, and I came upon a sign finally which told me that these wild trees I was seeing were called mangroves, the most common tree in Australia, found mainly on the edges of rivers:

 

 

 About a mile and a half from my hotel I came to the Goodwill bridge, a footpath across the river. It was here that I saw a sign which told me I had just walked through a path which was part of the Botanical gardens.  I made a note to myself to be sure to come back here to do some more exploring, and walked across the bridge. On the far side of the bridge, below, is the Maritime Museum, another place I will come back to visit.

 

 

 

 

When I reached the other side, I found myself on what was called the cliffs boardwalk.  I determined from here that I'd walk back up the river to Story Bridge and cross back that way. The truth is, at this point I was beginning to feel very tired, as my jet lag was catching up with me.   I took the picture below of the Brisbane skyline, beautiful from the south bank (my hotel is the tall building all the way to the far right of the picture).

 

 

 

 

By the time I got to Story Bridge I was near collapse; and I realized I'd slept maybe 6 hours in the last three days and that was really taking its toll.  I put the camera away, crossed the bridge, and headed back to the hotel as it began to rain, desperate for sleep and done for the day, knowing that the weather tomorrow promised to be beautiful, and looking forward to getting to know the city a little more then.