From the hostel I walked 2 kilometers northeast to see Heroes' Square.
Out on the streets people were celebrating National Children's Day at a large festival with toys, sweets, and music. Behind Heroes' Square is a sprawling park with lakes, castles, cafes, and all sorts of other activities going on.
I came back to the hostel to make myself lunch before walking to Margaret Park.
The park is an aerobic exercisers dream. It's still under renovation, but in addition to dirt walking paths, they have stone walking paths and a softer running path made of the same material you find on tracks -- both of which I presume loop around the entire island. At the southernmost end of the island they have an outdoor exercise park that I did a short workout on while I was there. The entire island is more than two kilometers long and has a zoo that's free to walk around and peer at the animals, a hostel, bars, cafes, monuments, church ruins, a Japanese garden... A LOT of stuff. I only wanted to walk halfway up the island before flopping onto a shady spot of grass to enjoy the smells from a nearby rose garden.
Back at the hostel I met a group composed of a Brit, an Aussie, and a Kiwi. The person working the reception that night I had never seen before, and was hilariously incompetent at his job at points. For some reason he was walking around the hostel without his shirt on. When a taxi called up to alert us that he was waiting outside, the guy had no idea who he was calling for (technically not his fault, whoever requested the taxi should have been waiting outside!). He told us he had a scheduled check-in at 11pm, but at 10:55 told us he would be upstairs drinking vodka with the Italians. When he was checking in the guest later, he had a few golden one-liners like "We have a few rules here at the hostel... *looks at me and the Commonwealthers* ... errr do you guys know what they are?". Overall, a raucous night, but I enjoyed the light entertainment.
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