Touring Townsville

---

Today, Vlad and I set out to see a little bit more of Townsville, since our hosts had both managed to come down with a cold/flu (it IS winter here). Our first stop was at a Scrapbooking store, which Vlad thoroughly enjoyed.

Next, we headed to the Townsville Aquarium. It was nice to be able to spot (and identify) some of the same fish we had seen snorkling. And we also got to see the dangerous fish with a nice thick sheet of glass between us. We saw the stonefish, crown of thorns seastar, seasnake, sharks, and a few other fish that we never want to meet in the ocean.

Somehow, we managed to get stuck between 2 groups of kids on a field trip, and managed to gain a whole new respect for teachers (Y'oi!).

After that, we walked down The Strand, which is the beach-front boardwalk, and then down to Flinder's Mall, which is an outdoors mall, sort of like our Steven Avenue, but with mall-type stores down it.

We also found The Brewery, which is a micro brewery that makes 7 different varieties of beer. I'm proud to say that Vlad tried all 7, which brings his total number of Aussie beer varieties tried to around 18.

After that, we decided to experience public transit and took the bus back to Amanda and Derek's.

Oz Oddities:
- public transit works on a zone system. The more zones you are travelling through, the more your fare is.
- students get HUGE discounts here, like up to 50% in a lot of cases.

---

Photos

Before
Vlad and his 7 beers

During
Vlad and his 7 beers

After
Vlad and his 7 beers
(and he didn't share a single drop!)