So, 2 weeks ago Neil and I decided to rent a car for the weekend and see some more of the sides that southeast Queensland had to offer. (And as a side note: Fred, you’ll be pleased to note that the car we rented was a Camry. The thing rides like a dream!)
On Saturday, we headed up to a small town called Eumundi (you-mun-dee) which is north of Mooloolaba. Every Wednesday and Saturday they hold a market which is basically a flea market held outside. They sell a lot of homemade goods (art work, pastries, jewellery) and fresh produce. The Saturday market is said to be bigger than the Wednesday one, and obviously busier. We had company for this trip as well. Our friend Sandra, who’s a classmate of mine, joined us for the trip and pitched in with the rental. I guess you could say we went on a bit of a road trip. :)
We headed out at around 10:30 in the morning and we drove for about 30-40 minutes which got us to the market at around 11. As expected and as expected, the place was already quite busy. Sandra, Neil and I took a look at some of the home-made crafts, and indigenous art works before walking through the fresh produce section.
Actually, the market isn't really set up in sections, everything is all kind of thrown together. When you think you're waking through what you think is the jewellry 'section' you'll come across a vendor selling shoes and another one selling clothes. As it turned out, some of the fresh fruits and vegetables are cheaper than what we pay for them at the local supermarket. So Neil and I stocked up because we had the car availabe to us.
We stopped for lunch at around 1:30, then walked around the market a little more before heading home at 2pm. The market usually runs from about 10:30 in the morning til 2:30 in the afternoon. When we arrived the parking lot was packed, but as we were leaving the lot had just about cleared out except for a few cars parked closer to the market's entrance.
And that was our trip to the 'flea market'. I'd definitely like to go back and check out the town itself. We walked down a street and there were some little stores that they had, but we didn't go into. I guess you could say that the flea market is held in the 'downtown' of Eumundi, which reminds me of a much smaller version of Kleinburg.
*****
The following Sunday, Neil and I drove down to the Gold Coast which is about 200 km south of the Sunshine Coast. So, it was about a 2 hour drive from where we are. The drive itself was pretty uneventful, other than driving through Brisbane which we'll be visiting next week.
We left Mooloolaba at around 7:45 in the morning and arrived in the Gold Coast at around 9:45-10 am. We drove around for a bit, taking in some of the sights and, of course, the beach. What I didn't know was that Surfers Paradise is a town in the Gold Coast. I thought it was the name of the beach.
Anyway, Neil and I ended up walking down the beach which seems to gon on forever in either direction. We checked out their shopping mall which reminded me of the Eaton Centre because it's bigger than the mall on the Sunshine Coast and has more shopping malls and a tourist info centre.
It was around lunch time when Neil and I decided to check out Seaworld, which is one of the main attractions. There are quite a few of them, but because we only headed there for the day, so we had to settle for one.
But Seaworld turned out to be a good choice.
We checked out some of the aquariums that were indoors, and then checked out the other exhibits which were mainly outdoors. One of the first ones we visited was the Dolphin Nursery, which had about 3 or 4 different pools for all the dolphins. There were a couple of them swimming around, but they kept swimming back and forth between two of the pools. :)
There's also a touch pool, that held a bunch of starfish, sea cucumbers and baby stingrays, all of which you could touch! It was pretty cool. It was also kind of neat watching the stingray bury itself under the sand. Unfortunately I couldn't snap a picture or take a quick movie of it because they do it so fast. And the touch pool is connected to two larger tanks that held several different sharks and a variety of fish. We walked down to the viewing area to check that out and it was pretty neat. There was a huge school of fish that kept swimming back and forth and all the kids thought it was hilarious.
I suppose the main attraction were the dolphins and the dolphin show that we got to check out. I've never seen one and it was awesome. Dolphins are quite the amazing creatures!
And that was our weekend...a couple of weeks ago. *lol*
So, now you can enjoy some of the pics that we took!
Eumundi Market:
Gold Coast:
The sign says it all!
One view of the Q1...
The longest stretch of beach that I've ever seen!!!
And another view of Q1.
Ok...so this was a jellyfish that I spotted while we were walking along the beach. If any of you have seen the pictures I took of the jellyfish lying on the beach on the East Coast...those were nothing compared to this one! And just to compare, take a look at my sandal...holy @#%&!!!
Yay! Seaworld!!
One of the dolphins checking us out. :)
This was the school of fish I was referring to. We sat there watching them for a few minutes. *lol*
Bruce from Finding Nemo??
This was at the beginning of the dolphin show. The guy came in on a boat with two dolphins leading the way. Pretty sweet!
And there you have it. Eumundi Markets & the Gold Coast in a weekend.
Stay tuned for Brisbane (Brizzy), Whale Watching and more!!!
