brisbane city - day three

with a baby in tow, its just not easy to follow any form of schedule, which is why we decided to do a free and easy holiday vs a organised group tour. unfortunately though, its winter time in australia and the days are much shorter (the sun usually sets @ 5+) so it leaves us very little time to do things in the day unless we start the day earlier. the original plan was for lil' princess & myself to visit the weekend markets while dh 'withdraws' the funds deposited in the casino a few years ago and then grab lunch before heading back to gold coast. while we managed to get up and leave the apartment about an hour earlier than the day before, the problem we have about the lack of time was compounded by the flat tyre that we dh had to change. we never had to change a flat tyre in our entire life and here we are on vacation, having to do that. amazing, isn't it?

lil' princess slept through all that action. :)

it was way past noon by the time that was done so we decided to have lunch in chinatown before continuing our plans. parking is ridicuously expensive now in brisbane (even on a sunday!)- 1 hour parking @ the casino costs A$11 and 1 hour parking in chinatown cost A$6 (its a flat rate of A$12 subsequently if you exceed 1st hr though).

we reached back to the city just past 3pm and managed to find a roadside parking lot that was free so dh went ahead with his 'funds withdrawal' plan at the casino while claire and i ventured across the river to the southbank weekend markets, not knowing if it would still be on and fortunately, it was! i'd loved visiting the weekend markets as a college student because that's where i would find the locals displaying their fine works of art - whether its a photograph, a painting or some handicrafts that only they can think of. while i didn't find as many creative works of art as before, i still enjoyed the leisurely stroll the the markets with claire and also managed to buy a couple of nice things for her. :)

we took a slow walk along the river after the markets

claire's latest fascination is carrying handbags just like me so i bought her a tiny one...

we stopped by to admire the nepalese pagoda by the river bank as well...

and just as we were about to reach the bridge to cross over back to the city, we came across a beautiful display of corvette cars. the proud owners parked their corvette side by side to be admired by all and admire them we did!

doesn't the color of this corvette match claire's sweater?

mummy, can i have a car just like this when i grow up?

we crossed the river and took a short walk around the city (and bought some krispy kreme!!) before heading back to meet up with dh, who 'deposited' more money into the casino instead of 'withdrawing' from it. i'm guessing that starting our day with a flat tyre is not exactly a good omen for visiting the casino. :P