Walk Sandgate and Shorncliffe

One of my friend's sister came to Brisbane (with the big objective to spend her few months to a year time in Australia doing working holiday). So she is in town for sometime. 

Since thursday is the only day she and I can get together doing a bit of outing, we sort of, make it a weekly thing.

The first trip I took her to last week is to Sandgate and Shorncliffe. Both are the suburbs of Brisbane, located north east on the coast around 12 kms from the city.

We took the direct train (and missed the first train as we were so busy chatting). The train ride was convenient and didn't take us too long.

The train stop in Sandgate is located in the middle of the town center (I don't understand the place which has train or bus station outside of the city - do they expect people to just jump on their suddenly-appeared car or any other form of transport, after they get off the train?)

The town is small but pretty enough with some little shops and big centre with some cafes. There is a small lake in the park along the way. We take a quick stroll passed one of the town landmark - which is a church building to the beachside walk. 

This path - called Flinders Parade, goes all the way to Shorncliffe, the adjacent suburb (from Google map it looks like we can walk it for 2.5 km), so, naturally, there where I headed to.

After a while, the track disappear and turned into a small soil path along the beach and in some points there are no tracks even, so fortunately it was low tide and we can get down to walk on the beach rock. I keep checking on my companion's face (wouldn't want to scare her off at the first outing day) but looks like she's comfortable enough so we keep walking.

The rock was amazing and mixed with the rugged land side and the wild vegetation - I miss this activity so much!

Around the corner the track went up to a park in Shorncliffe from where we took the train back to the city.

After we are back in the city, I took her to see West End - a inner suburb just 1 km from the city, they have several shops and eating place along the main strip. We had late lunch in Little Greek Taverna, a greek restaurant in West End which has good reviews.

I had spanakopita - fried pastry filled with spinach and ricotta and she had vegetarian pita wrap. Both are amazing and despite after that, my asian stomach who is not to tolerant to dairy was not too happy with me - but their spanakopita is worth it