Flouncing around Floriade

Tipsy times in the tulips

At nearly midnight on the Monday of a long weekend, I am determined to fulfill my Substack promise to myself, despite the fact that I feel like a complete space cadet.

Tonight is the first night I haven’t had alcohol since last Tuesday, but make no mistake, I’ve been working hard too. Friday afternoon I put on a massive Launch Party for Newcastle’s The Big Picture Fest, and then, after a week of weird work hours, Saturday morning my darling friend Beth scooped me up and away we drove to Floriade in Canberra to frolic in the flowers and various other activities. Australia’s largest festival of Spring is a visual, fragrant experience complete with night time festivities which Beth and I ended up having to sneak into. (More on that later.)

On Friday night I danced until midnight at the Rogue Scholar, boogying and boozing after the launch party was wrapped and packed up. I came home hyped up and proud of myself, unable to fall asleep until 1am. I woke up at 6 the next morning, already stoked about the road trip ahead with one of my favorite fun-loving friends.

Beth picked me up at 9:30. We took off in her little blue Volkswagon full of energy and excitement. I was sleep deprived and possibly still a little drunk, but I didn’t care, excited to party in the petunias. We talked incessantly about our plans for the next two days: museums, food, flowers, drinks, walks, etc and by the time we got to Canberra I’d lost my second wind and exhaustion took over. First we went to a shopping centre where she got the champagne and I got the coffee. Then up to the QT Hotel we went we went. Our 6th floor room had a balcony with a nice view and comfy bed. We were right up the road from Floriade and in the middle of the city, within walking distance to restaurants, bars, museums and Lake Burley Griffin. (And oh, walk we would.)

I finished my coffee and we moved quickly on to Espresso martinis at the hotel bar. It was a bit overcast so we decided to drink, dine and relax from the five-hour drive and save Sunday for the flowers. Then we sipped champagne in the room and got ready to go out. We headed out after dark, starting with incredible Lebanese food and more champagne and then on to the iconic Smith’s Alternative. There happened to be a quirky open mic on which I’m sure had many talented acts, but Beth and I stayed out of the performance room and hung out in the cafe. We opened another bottle of champagne and found a shelf with strange musical instruments and spent the whole night taking creative photos with said instruments. Perhaps it was the Espresso Martinis from earlier, but we were definitely ricocheting off the walls. I couldn’t stop laughing.

The next morning we woke up early, despite it being daylight savings. It was time for more coffee and mimosas. We lounged around taking photos and getting tipsy; the hotel bathrobes were great inspiration.

But the sun was warm and teasing us, so it was time to go out and tiptoe through the tulips. Day entry to Floriade is free, and we got in around 10, snacking on food truck delicacies and artisanal nuts. We were probably smart to leave again early because by the time midday approached swarths of people were headed across the bridge to flowertown. Beth and I were glad we came and left when we did.

Midday mimosa exhaustion was setting in, but who knows when you’ll get another weekend in Canberra, so we marched to the Australian National Museum where I just adored their (free) Great Southern Land exhibition which was so experiential. I loved that there were plenty of objects, photos and stories, but there were also sculptures and large scale projections, allowing you to get more immersed in a feeling (rather than facts) about a concept of culture and history. It’s a more artistic experience, imo.

Then it was back to the hotel for a nice nana nap, then more mimosas, then back to the town. First we had dinner and champagne at an amazing-but-nondistinctive Asian place, and then we headed back to Floriade for the night fest. For ages Beth and I had been excited to see the flowers illuminated with cool lights and night time performances, but alas, after walking one million miles BACK to the event, we were told that they were at capacity and sold out. (We however knew they couldn’t possibly be at capacity as at this point as it was 9pm and we’d just watched hundreds of people leave.) We weren’t prepared to take no for an answer! The first group of festival leavers we approached happily handed us over their used tickets (they weren’t coming back and they didn’t even want our money to pay for them), so in we bounded, quite pleased at our Macgyver-ing into the last hour of 2022’s last night of Floriade night fest. We took all the photos. We drank terrible overpriced cocktails. We rode the Ferris Wheel.

Then we’d had enough and decided to head back into Canberra for one last drink at an Irish pub. It was there around 10:30pm on Sunday night that three fellows unexpectedly joined us for drinks, and somehow from there we ended up at Moosehead’s, which I would later learn is a bit of an institution in Canberra. We danced and drank more champagne. Sadly I was a bit rude to one of the men who made a few presumptions about me based on me where I was from and also briefly put his arm around me, which I usually wouldn’t mind, but for some reason this time it did. That sidebar is probably for another blog post, ha. (He did have a friend from Guatemala who I actually adored and invited to Newcastle, so it was a net win in the new friends department, I’d say. )

We danced until 12:30 and then came back to the hotel. (We’d done nearly 30,000 steps according to Beth’s pedometer.) We laid awake momentarily assessing the said men of the evening and then hit the hay, hard.

This morning I ended up sleeping until 10am, giving us just an hour to pack up before check out. (No mimosas this time). We had a tasty breakfast at a busy cafe in Braddon and then stopped at Mount Ainslie lookout for a quick scenic goodbye.

We drove home noticeably less giddy compared to Saturdays arrival. We got home around 6pm tonight. I am now a little melancholy and beginning to process the last week and everything that’s happened. I feel myself returning to emails/reality.

It may seem there is no moral to this random Canberra/Floriade rehash, but there actually is, are you ready?
Travel with like-minded people who love fun and champagne. Celebrate nature and color whenever possible. Eat delicious Asian and Middle-Eastern food. Walk as much as you can. Be wary of expensive cocktails in little plastic cups at outdoor festivals. Don’t be overly accommodating to presumptive, touchy-feely men. Order soda waters with every alcoholic beverage, and take photos of pretty things unapologetically.