Thursday 8th December

So all had started pretty well with our exit row seats, but the plane soon became freezing and we disembarked in Brisbane with no sleep and stiff necks.

Still the first glimpse of Australia as a sandy estuary with snaking rivers branching like trees was impressive. The cloud cover came in and by the time we reached Brisbane it was drizzling. We got the train to Roma St station and walked the 500m to our YHA hostel. It was on a road with pretty much all the other Brisbane hostels so was quite good to look at them together to compare - ours was best! Our room wasn't ready and we felt pretty rotten after the flight so just sat in the bar with a drink and curled up reading a book. Much refreshed after showering, we set off to explore a bit of Brissbane, the weather had improved slightly so we felt brave enough not to take raincoats. Brisbane lies on a bend in the river and we crossed over onto the south side first to get our bearings and found the cultural centre - the library, art gallery and theatres. We carried on back over the river again into the central area. The first thing we came across was the Treasury Casino set in the old treasury building, as its a bit of an ozzie past time we thought we should go in and check it out...sure enough there were plenty of people in there playing the pokies and the roulette wheels. We left without having a flutter, didnt want to risk anything at this early stage. We carried on walking down the main shopping street and stopped for a soft drink in a street bar called Jimmy's.

On the way back to the hostel we stopped at Coles the supermarket to get some provisions. Everything that we had been told about the expense of food and drink was true, so it ended up being pasta and pesto for tea.

Friday 9th December

We took a leisurely morning and got ourselves ready for a day enjoying the city of Brisbane. We decided to walk to the Botanical Gardens to hire a bike and ended up hiring a tandem...not a decision i will make lightly again! In the Botanical Gardens there were water dragons as frequently as you would see squirrels in the UK and also some Ibis begging for food. We took the tandem over to the South Bank and made our first stop alongside the man made beach lagoon, being the first day of the ozzie summer holidays it was quite full of children. We had our first icecream of the holiday and randomly saw 2 vets who were in my year at the RVC, I didnt know them well enough to say hello but recognised their faces. We carried along down the South bank and then crossed over the river. Here our selection of the tandem was a flaw - the busy streets were very cycle friendly but only up to a point and the cycle paths just seemed to end! Tony got shouted at for leaving me hanging out in the road. After some minor stressing we found our path and cycled along the north path alongside the river. There were lots of enthusiastic people running and cycling this path. We passed the old customs and immigration house which was an old building and looked bit out of place in the modern CBD. We reached the Bradfield Highway and decided that was a suitable place to turn around (we sadly wimped out of cycling up a steep hill - too much of a challenge on our tandem!). The cycle path back along the South bank passed through Kangaroo point and the climbing cliffs. I had a quick go up front on the tandem but it didn't work so we headed back to botanical gardens to get rid of the tandem.

After that we fancied a quick snack and found ourselves near a creperie! Although a crepe wth marshmallows and almonds and strawberries sounds sickly it was very tasty! We went back to the hostel and read before getting ready to head out into Brisvegas.

I still dont know why it has deserved that nickname. Tony had heared the place to go was Fortitude Valley and as that was confirmed by the receptionist at the hostel we set out there. By the time we were heading out most of the population of Brisbane was aready wasted and rowdy in the streets, office Christmas parties I guess. We walked for a good few KM to Fortitude Valley and came across a very swanky place called Cloudland which looked like a giant speaker from the outside and had an indoor waterfall. It was more of a fancy bar but did have a DJ with bongo accompaniment. After a drink in there we went to a grimy English pub type establishment where a Foo Fighters tribute band we playing. Once their set was complete and we'd rocked our little socks off we headed out to look for a club. The first one we came across was called Beat, and with 9 floors of music sounded like a winner......I commented to Tony as we entered that there seemed to be alot of gay men, and sure enough on the top floor were 2 cross dressers performing to a crowd. Good music to dance to though so we managed to stay until 1am and walked back via pie face for a quick drunken midnight snack.