On the Friday we were up and out of Woodduck Backpackers by 10am and walked next door to YHA to dump our bags as we could not check in until 2pm. We headed into the city stopping at the Transit centre for bus, coach and rail info and picked up a lot of leaflets again. As we walked through the city we were looking for somewhere to chill have some grub and browse over our leaflets to plan out our week in Brisbane. A lot of places were pretty pricey and posh so went for place called Hungry Jacks (Burger King basically) had breakie/diner, very healthy. Good deal though mini burger, chips, refillable drink and sundae for $6 total bargain happy times :) All fuelled up we walked around the city to explore, found the city's library and took advantage of their free internet to research trips and decide whether to buy a car or not. Around 2.30pm we checked into our 6 dorm room, we were the first to arrive so dibbed the bunks closest to the window, a lovely view of the city. We headed upstairs to unpack our food stuff and sat and enjoyed a cuppa and chat. Close by is the Suncorp Stadium home to Brisbane Broncos Rugby League team and they were playing tonight so thought about going but decided not to, both pretty tired and thought our $60 could be better spent on food haha. We used up our remaining free internet minutes on computers in the lobby then purchased a weeks wifi for our netbook for $40 happy researching!!

Neither of us slept great, especially Gary we had an interesting bunch of roommates, a drunken guy who snored very loudly and peculiarly and also a girl who seemed to have ants in her pants and couldn't stay still, was in and out of the dorm constantly. We made the most of being up early and went for a walk along the river, we found Southbank a really nice area, it was recommended to visit by James an Aussie friend we met on Wednesday night and we could see why. On our way back we popped into Coles for some more food shopping, before jumping into our pool to cool down and relax in the sun. I ended up a nice red shade again after napping on the sun loungers :( since it was Saturday and our only weekend in Brisbane we decided to go down to Drifter's for the $10 happy hour jugs of beer and also try out their food. I enjoyed an Aussie burger while Gary enjoyed a steak. We got chatting to a lovely English guy named Daniel who had lived in Sydney for 2 years, he gave us some good advice and named places to visit. Around 8pm Gary and me walked back down to Southbanks to feel the atmosphere on a night and it was good, lots of restaurants buzzing with people enjoying food and good company, with live music coming from each. We walked along the area noticing market stalls open at the weekends and decided we should come check it out tomorrow. Southbanks is not only along the Brisbane River, with a bunch of lovely restaurants and pretty parks of green and rainforest walk, it also has a beach! A man-made beach and pool for the people of Brisbane to enjoy, with the nearest actual beaches being more than a good hour away. After a lovely night stroll we ended up in the hostels TV lounge watching some Harry Potter before bed.

Ahhhh finally a bit of a lie in, with being a little jet-lagged we tend to sleep best from 6am-10am so when we need to get up or want to get up and make the most of our mornings it is actually the time we most want to keep sleeping...typical. We enjoyed a lazy morning, breakfast in the sun on the roof terrace before yet again heading down to Southbank to walk along the Lifestyle Market. There were sooooooo many nice things from jewellery, hippy, funky clothes to amazing Australian Art stalls. So much I could have bought, but I did come away with a lovely t-shirt, purple top (surprise surprise) with a cute owl :) We came across a stall selling banana's however, these weren't just normal bananas so we treated ourselves to one, Gary got hazelnut and I chose dark choc and oh my god......the choc was actual inside and throughout this banana, definitely the best banana ever!!!We chilled on the beach, ate our pack lunches, took a lovely swim in the pool was a really nice afternoon. When we got back we chilled with a film before having a pasta tea and chatting to my mam on Skype for an hour or so. Sticking with our very healthy diets we headed into the city for a late night stroll and ended up at place called Pie Face, I ate nice slice of choc cake as Gary indulged in a steak pie hehehe. Ended up being a late night as got drawn into the TV lounge yet again and watched Hitch. Gotta love a bit of Will Smith ;)

Monday, an exciting day, up early we headed along the river to a little pier by the Cultural Centre for the Mirimar Cruise and Koala day trip :) We set off up the Brisbane river at 10am, away from the City Centre, we had commentary along the way, sharing information of the buildings and suburbs we passed. The river cruise was an hour and a half before we anchored at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. We had nearly 2 hours to enjoy the sanctuary that was filled with more than just Koala's. There were many birds, including cockatoos and parrots. A platypus, first time we have seen one, he was twirling around in the water trying to kill his crab lunch. We saw dingos, wombats and a lot of koalas, the park hold over 130!!! They are rescued animals which cannot for whatever reasons be returned into the wild. We both got to hold a beautiful young Koala called Tinkerbell, less than a year old. Was an amazing experience. We also got to hang out with some more kangaroos, and watch some playful koala's in the kindergarten pen :) We arrived back at the pier at 3pm and walked straight back to hostel and enjoyed a cooling swim in the pool. We thoroughly loved our trip, and we even got $20 off with being YHA members, get in!! We didn't really want to spend any more time in the sun today so had cuppa inside discussing road trip plans for the Easter weekend. Planning on renting a car to drive down to Sydney, via Bryon Bay, Yamba and Newcastle. Monday nights in the hostel was Bingo night so we chilled upstairs had food thinking of joining in on the bingo action but as 8pm came we were feeling tired and bed with film was more inviting.

Very nice relaxing and lazy day on Tuesday, morning was spent enjoying our books. At lunchtime we went for cuppa upstairs to have food and book our weekend trip. Unfortunately, we hit bad timing as with the upcoming weekend being Easter, all hire cars were booked :( Eager to get to Sydney to start flat and job hunting we talked to a lady on reception about our best route and form of travel, she suggested Greyhound. So back in our dorm we looked around the options but decided to book the Greyhound coach leaving 5pm on Friday and arriving 9am on Saturday morning......yes a 16 hour trip overnight!! But for $94 each it was cheap, it was one of the better options for what we wanted, and bonus it saved us paying for a night in a hostel :) Again we got discount with our YHA membership, a very handy card to have here. So after our travel was booked, we paid for one night at Sydney's Railway Square hostel for when we get there. We headed out for little walk to Coles for few bits and bobs mainly chocolate and nail varnish remover, so when we got back I had a little pamper session followed by an awesome bar of cookies and cream Kit Kat Chunky nom nom! For a bunch of reasons we were both feeling a little blue that afternoon so I decided we should go out for a meal, we got dressed and walked over to the Barracks. The Barracks is mini shopping centre, with restaurants, Coles, alcohol shop, cinema and few shops. We came across FaB (fish and burger place). Enjoyed our burgers and wine-like free bottle of water while enjoying each others company and me getting on my soap box about animal related topics hahaha. Even better, Tuesdays was $10 burger night so ended up a good cheap date (the food that is, not Gary). Once back in hostel Gary enjoyed chatting to his mam on Skype while I sat and had a cuppa with our box of cookies reading my awesome book. Oooohhh its called 'The Lost Girls' it is a great book if you like travel adventure books and also pretty girly - you'll love it.

We had another lazy morning on Wednesday before heading out for afternoon into the City. First stop was the Commonwealth Bank to hopefully pick up our bank cards. Yippeeeeeee!!! they were there and we got a lovely chap who explained the bank info nitty gritty stuff but also set up saving accounts for us with good interest and sorted our online banking and showed us how to do all the basics. Happy days :) we walked all after noon visiting Chinatown, finally finding the Story Bridge (a bridge you can climb like the Sydney Bridge). We passed the City Hall and Treasury Buildings and also walked through the Botanical Gardens. A lovely afternoon but our legs were feeling tired after 5-6 hours of walking around we showered and chilled before relaxing on our bed watching a film.

On Thursday, we headed out for our last afternoon in Brisbane to Southbanks our favourite part of Brisbane, nice chill on the beach reading and sunbathing (although weather was pretty cloudy). Had lovely swim in the pool, very refreshing! Found an awesome sweety shop, bought a pick a mix for our coach journey to Sydney tomorrow :) There is a London eye type wheel in Brisbane, surprisingly called the Brisbane wheel, which we had waited until our last evening to go on, wow the views were amazing well worth doing. Afterwards we went on search for food, decided on a kebab wrap Gary had doner and I had chicken, we sat in the park munching away watching a big group of people participating in an outdoor yoga class, I so wanted to join in!! Once we consumed our wraps we continued to walk along Southbank admiring the restaurants, live music, soaking up the atmosphere of people enjoying good company and good food. We came across an ice creamery called Cold Stone and for those of you who know Marble Slab, it's like that, you choose flavoured ice cream and then you choose from huge variety of choc, sweets, cookie dough etc to be mixed into your ice cream. Awesomeness!! Gary chose a 3-scoop milkshake, I had tub of 2-scoop ice cream and we sat and enjoyed them on the beach taking in the gorgeous view of Brisbane river and city at night :) After a lovely afternoon and evening we started to stroll back to YHA pigging out even more with buying some chips to share between us on the way hehehe. Our roomies were tucked up asleep in bed which made packing more interesting but we managed to pack the majority of our stuff, before having a shower and crawling into bed ourselves.

Up and out we waved goodbye to our room 409 and checked out 10am. We were able to leave our big bags in a luggage room and enjoy the afternoon upstairs flat hunting for Sydney :) we managed to arrange 3 viewings for Saturday and possibly 2 more on Monday. They are shared between city based or beachy, with us not knowing the area or where the best job options are, we thought best to look at various locations. Then blog writing and photo sorting time enjoying a cuppa and demolishing the last of our cookies before walking down to the Transit Centre. We got there around 4pm and had Mcdonalds before getting on the coach at 5pm. As we were getting onto the coach I realised the anklet I had been wearing since starting our travels was missing from my leg :( I was gutted as it was a special present from my parents to wear while travelling, and as we were getting on the coach to Sydney we didn't have time to go and check places. Not only that but for some reason I had also started developing a nice rash across my face and neck so I was quite happy to be getting on a coach for 16 hours to hide away. The journey was okay, we weren't sitting together at first which was a bummer, but after the first stop in Toowoomba, an hour and half from Brisbane we managed to get sat together yay. It soon became apparent that we were stopping every 30-40 mins or so, which wasn't too bad at first but 3 times on the journey we stopped for 30 minute breaks or otherwise it was 10-15 minutes. By 2am we were getting very fed up with the amount of stops as we wanted to sleep. Oooh I forgot to mention, because we didn't know whether we were stopping on the journey we decided to take McDonald burgers with us as a form of sandwich if we got hungry, with it being Good Friday no where else was open in the station for an actual sandwich. At 8.30pm we had our burgers only to realise Gary got 2 double cheeseburgers (the cheeky b*****!) and so within 4 hours Gary actually had 5 McDonald burgers!!!!!!!!!! Good Friday also hit on Mandy's birthday so managed to give home a call for quick chat to wish her Happy Birthday and catch up with her and my mam :) that was cool. The back-end of the journey was better we both managed to sleep, but at 2.30am we were woke up with 4 people telling us we were in their seats. So the whole 9 hours or so we had been on the coach no-one had been given allocated seats, this group come on, wake us up to tell us to move, when there was at least half the bus empty!!!! grrrrrr! We arrived in Sydney 45 minutes early (not quite sure how) but yay we made it woop woop. Within 15 minutes we managed to find our YHA and drop off our bags, although we had to pay for a bloody lockers, cheap skates!!! Ooooh and one last thing about our coach journey......... I saw a wild kangaroo!!!