Cheese in a tortilla.

One of the few problems I have discovered with the loveliness that is Australia: people here don’t know what a quesadilla is. An American friend told me that she approached someone at lunch as they put a tortilla stuffed with cheese on the Panini press and when she asked, “Oh! Are you making a quesadilla?” he replied, “If that’s what you call cheese in a tortilla…” Um, yes, it is. The moral of this seemingly irrelevant anecdote? There is a glaring lack of Mexican food here in Oz. As delicious as the abundance of Asian and seafood has proven to be, I miss my burritos and tacos like crazy! So, when a friend and I ventured over to West End for dinner on Friday night, we went in search of the Mexican restaurant we heard was nestled there. What a success! It turned out to be a small, cozy place with rows of two- or four-person tables down its length, bright orange walls, a teeny bar at the back, and all kinds of Mexican-themed decorations adorning the walls. Plus our burritos, complete with guacamole, were fantastic – totally worth the $19.50AUD I spent on mine (clearly, food here is wicked expensive!).

After dinner we walked to South Bank, the cultural center of Brisbane, scoped out some of the ice cream shops, and settled into a bench with our cones for a lovely chat. It was such a beautiful night, perfect for sitting outside and soaking in the city.

Saturday was a bright and early morning. While Australia elected its next prime minister (results still pending), our program took us on a day trip to the Gold Coast Hinterlands, where we got to explore some of the gorgeous national parks and scenic views that southeastern Queensland has to offer. Our first stop was Tambourine National Park (Word just inserted a “u” into “Tamborine” for me, love that Australian spelling!), where we took a few minutes to walk through the rainforest and see lots of gum trees, palm trees, and even a waterfall. Since the sun can’t break through the thick foliage of the taller trees, the rainforest floor was more or less freezing, so I have to admit I was glad once we emerged back into the sunshine!


Next we headed off to Gallery Walk, a little street lined with all kinds of shops, restaurants, and wineries. Some of us stopped in at one of these wineries and did a wine tasting, then headed to the ice cream shop down the street where I had the pleasure of enjoying coffee & hazelnut ice cream (I’m convinced that Australia is home to the best ice cream on the planet, by the way).

After only about 45 minutes it was back on the bus for us and we commenced a pretty epic drive up a mountain, complete with switchback turns and horrifying views of the ravines not two feet away from the road and our tires. Between the harrowing drive and the gorgeous views of the valley and farmland below, the drive reminded me a lot of our tour through Custer State Park in South Dakota (shout out to any of my ASBesties reading this!). The drive was worth it though: we saw wild wallabies on the side of the road on the way up (!!!), and the views during our picnic lunch at the top of the mountain were lovely.


After lunch we went to O’Reilly’s, where we were treated to a treetop walk. This entailed trekking across a bridge made of wooden planks and thick wire railings hanging 16 meters from the ground…despite my severe aversion to heights, this walk offered a really beautiful and unique view of the rainforest in Lamington National Park.


Our last stops included feeding wild birds at O’Reilly’s and saying hello at an alpaca farm on the way back down the mountain. Apparently people are starting to keep alpacas in their houses now as pets. He’s cute, but he can stay in the yard, thanks!

This week will consist of heaps of schoolwork in preparation for an upcoming trip this weekend: a few of us are headed to the beach and then to spend the night on a farm with an Australian family! It should be good, so stay tuned!