Billabong

My wife surprised me with a night out at this restaurant while we were on holiday in the evening. She had organised a baby sitter for the evening and I had no idea where we were going except which town we were going too. We were staying at a nearby Holiday Park but decided to travel via Taxi to dinner, which was about 20 minutes drive, so we could both enjoy the evening and have a few drinks. Nijmegen is a student city with a young population so I really didn't know what to expect. Once we got out of the Taxi we started looking for the restaurant, as all she had was a street address and no map so we wandered for a while before asking for directions. Eventually we were almost back where we started and found the street and started walking along it, after a very short walk I was sort of in a daydream and Trish stopped and announced we were there... I stood back and then smiled... The Restaurant was named Billabong, so I immediately knew what type of restaurant we had arrived at. The name Billabong is an abogriginal name for a water hole or little damned part of a river in the dry season.

Inside wasn't exactly what I had expected as I had pictured more Australian memorabilia, but there were some familiar sights. We met our waiter for the night a young Australian who had Dutch parents, so along with an Aussie accent, he had could talk Dutch also. Unfortunately they didn't serve my favorite brand of beer, but I ordered a Fosters anyway, just to be reminded why I didn't drink it back in Australia. Once we had our menu, I quickly decided what to eat, which was Kangaroo... why not eat one of the national animals fo Australia, and Trish decided on the Osterich.

The service was good the food was good and we both had a pleasant evening. Thanks Trish for giving me a slice of Australia in the Netherlands. For those Aussie amongst us, drop by and have a drink and try some of their food, it has a nice atmosphere and the food was great, made me feel a little homesick though.