CAIT AROUND THE WORLD

March 17, 2023 — HAPPY ST. PADDY’S DAY!

I love St. Paddy’s Day. It’s been one of my most loved holidays since I was in Nice on the French Riviera with my school trip in 2018 and it was St. Paddy’s and there were tons of people dressed in green and with hats that had four-leaf clovers on them and we all rushed to a pub to see if we could get them, too (sadly, they didn’t have any left, but it was all about the experience). I took the bus from Byron Bay to Brisbane today and was kind of cursing myself for travelling on the holiday because I wouldn’t have anyone to hang out with and because there was some cool stuff happening in Byron on that day (of course). However, it was an early morning bus so I planning on settling in in Brisbane then taking myself out to the closest Irish pub anyway.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

My morning started bright and early at shortly after seven a.m. I packed up my stuff, checked out of my room, and waited for the courtesy shuttle from the hostel to the bus station to depart. It goes to town promptly at 8:00am and, while I was waiting for it, I thought that my bus was supposed to leave at 8:30am from the station.

When I actually opened the email confirmation from Greyhound and looked again, I found out that the bus actually left at 8:10am.

So, at this point, I was sweating bullets hoping that the shuttle would leave on time, get there on time, and I wouldn’t miss the bus. Because bus tickets are expensive.

I was working on Plan B while waiting for the shuttle, though, and found out that there was public transit available that could get me to Brisbane if I happened to miss the bus. So everything would work out either way.

When the shuttle opened the doors at 8:00am, I was in line and got my bag in the bus and got on the bus and strapped myself in as fast as I possibly could. And off we went to the bus station.

We pulled in just a few minutes later, at about 8:05am, and the Greyhound was sitting in its spot at the station, doors open and still sorting out passengers, so I had definitely made it on time, thank goodness.

The drive to Brisbane was really interesting because — get this — the time changed! At home in Canada, the time change (spring ahead) had already happened the previous weekend. Although the time change does eventually happen in the state of New South Wales (where Byron Bay is located and where I’ve been since I got back from Tasmania), it was going to be another few weeks. However, Queensland doesn’t observe daylight savings time at all and so their clocks were still set to normal. Where there used to be sixteen hours of time difference between home and where I’ve been in Australia, there was now just fourteen hours difference. Time at home sprung ahead, and time fell back in Australia.

So, even though the trip took about three hours, we actually made it to Brisbane two hours after we left Byron Bay. We rolled into the station at 10:30am and after I finally figured out how to get out of the station, I walked to the hostel.

Which was such a mistake.

It was so hot.

Although Byron Bay was wonderfully warm, it wasn’t stinking hot. However, Brisbane was my first introduction to the subtropical wonderland of southern Queensland. And man, is it hot.

I made it there, finally, and dropped my bags until I was able to check in. I looked around the hostel a little and popped out to the outdoor terrace area, where I saw that I’d had messages from Happy Travels back in Byron Bay to sort out my bookings. Although I was really disappointed that I couldn’t scuba dive, I got booked on for snorkelling through the same company that I would have been diving with, on the same boat, on the same date. Plus, I got to add a tour of the Noosa Everglades and a flyover of the Great Barrier Reef in Cairns! I was so happy with the decisions I made when I got off the phone with my travel agent and wasn’t even that sad that I wouldn’t be able to scuba dive anymore.

With all of that sorted out, I realized exactly how hungry I was. I’d promised myself I would go out for a waffle when I got to Brisbane because I’d been craving a good waffle for a really long time. I decided on Gélare because it was close by, on the South Bank, and only about ten minutes’ walk from the hostel.

I got a waffle with syrup, whipped cream, and a scoop of vanilla ice cream and it was so, so good. I honestly never want to eat another waffle without ice cream again.

I’d packed my bag with my laptop so that I could spend some time at the State Library of Queensland, which was close to the waffle shop, working on the blog for the afternoon. I looked around a little because the libraries here seem to have cool exhibits a lot of the time. The one here in Brisbane wasn’t as cool as the State Library of Victoria, but it was very nice and I got a seat with an awesome river view to do some work.

After about an hour, though, I started feeling kind of icky, with chills like I’d had in Byron Bay the night that I felt really crappy. So, I packed up and headed back to the hostel as I was able to check in at that point. I got into the room and absolutely dropped, took a nap, and when I woke up I was feeling good enough to at least get something in my stomach. I got a set of dishes and cutlery from reception (yeah, unfortunately it was one of those hostels) and made myself noodles.

I called Mom and Dad to say goodnight and then went back to bed. I have to say, with how I was feeling, I was so glad that the room I was in had two sets of bunks and a single bed. I commandeered the single bed and it was awesome. I fell back asleep, hoping to wake up feeling better in the morning.

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