AUS15- Royal Botanic Gardens

My Tuesday classes were cancelled this week --> ADVENTURE TIME

I woke up early to make some of my now infamous burgers. There are some moments in which I feel more American that others (this was one of them). While everyone in the kitchen is making eggs, toast, or other normal breakfast items, I am slapping together some burger patties. It was worth the strange stares, I tell ya. I packed everything up and met with a couple of friends to head over to a place called "The Royal Botanic Gardens". It is a beautiful green area right beside the Harbour and Opera House. I had heard so much about it and was excited to finally be going! Oh, I didn't explain the burgers purpose yet! We wanted to have a picnic there. Burgers at a picnic is strange, yes, but just go with it. ;) Another plus about going to this area is that there is a STARBUCKS! Yayy for unhealthy coffee drinks! Australian starbucks has this beautiful creation called the dark mocha frappachino. It was glorious. It probably also causes diabetes. But dark chocolate is good for heart health, right? That's what I told myself.

Who remembers bird man from Hey Arnold??

We found our little patch of grass, placed our blankets/towels down, and prepped for a lunch with a view! The sun was out and life was good!

A tram that dished out fun facts about the gardens!

Europeans with American burgers in Australia

A local school had a field trip here and I couldn't get over the adorable uniforms

model moment

Afterwards we went walking throughout the whole garden (30 Hectares of beauty). We saw some things you would expect to see...

beautiful views of the water

cool trees

lookout points

and beautiful flowers!

tulips :)

and whatever these things are

But we also saw some things that were not so normal, to me anyways. We found a cockatoo just chilling in the tree!

This man saw me freaking out about this one cockatoo and advised me to walk up the hill a little while for a surprise. HOLY SMOKES THERE WAS A FEILD OF WILD COCKATOOS.

I stuck my arm out and it led to some rather funny photographs...mind you I have a slight fear of anything that can fly.

one cockatoo was cool

two was slightly alarming

three was about all I could handle

and here comes the fourth...

these little fellas loved Ri <3

then we found out that "love" wasn't the best adjective

rolling with ma homies

We had to head back after this because I had a work shift at the House of Crabs. Have I mentioned how much I love my job? All of my co-workers are lovely and the customers are generally fun people as well. I am learning new skills and filling peoples' bellies! What could be better? I'll tell you what. A mudslide :). Once work was over, I found a recipe online for mudslides and the gracious John fixed it up for me. Granted that it wasn't blended and we didn't have all the ingredients, it tasted mighty yum. Phoebe even came by and topped it off with some Choco bits :) Can you say "new drink special"?!

tis gorgeous

My next post will include WATERFALLS. Get pumped, y'all!

9/14/15

#AustraliaTrip