I want to take this opportunity to apologise for my awful spelling an grammar over the last few blogs. Writing on a small itouch can sometimes prove a challenge, especially on a bumpy bus or when your eyelids are not wanting to stay open.
So there we were lining up for the bus and because I only booked it that morning and didn't print off my ticket, I was a bit nervous that we would have a b****** of a driver and wouldn't be allowed on the bus. I also noticed that my name wasn't on the list. Instead, the driver took my bag, put it into the bag holder under the bus, and called out a register when everyone was on the bus. My name wasn't called. I decided that in this case honesty wasn't the best policy so I kept quiet.
We arrived in Brisbane an hour after we were meant to due a minor hiccup with the gear system on the bus. There were thankfully absolutely no issues with me being on there. It was a 2 and half hour journey, short by Australian standards, and we greeted by busy roads and huge skyscrapers. It was a nice contast from the small Coastal towns we had recently visited, but I knew that would want to limit my time here.
We checked into a hostel called Bunk, a hostel so big it had it's own map in case you got lost. It was also pretty cheap by brisbanes standards and had a bar attached for easy cheap drinking. We dumped our stuff, saw the canadians, again, and had a quick walk around Chinatown. Everything was shut by this point so we just had a look at in shop window, bars and the hundreds of restaurants that lined the streets. I spied a couple of Vietnamese restaurants but they didn't seem authentic as they just had chinese dishes on the menu disguised as something else and I didn't want to waste the little money that I have. Some of the clubs we saw were impressive, in size and glamour. No place for a skint backpacker with a crumpled dress and flip flops. So we decided to have a quiet one and watch the acts on the open mic night in the club attached to the hostel. Some of the singers were amazing but most worked in the hostel so did the same playlist every week. The 'quiet night' turned into three $10 jugs of cider and a couple of vodkas and cokes. It was heaven to drink cider again as it's so damn expensive over here but I couldn't say no to that offer. I got pretty merry but not over the top. Still haven't lost the ability to hold my cider. Or so I thought...
The next day I was hanging. I could barely lift my head from the pillow except my need for water forced me to get up. The girls, it seemed, felt equally as bad but we thought we'd make the most of being in a city. We slowly made our way to the city centre where there were all your typical range of shops, from ridiculously over-priced to cheap as chips, to suit your every need. After my shopping slip up in Noosa I didn't have the funds nor the room in my bag for anymore clothes so we just roamed the unusual looking shops that we could never find at home. In the end we decided that maybe we should be at least a little bit cultural and went to a museum. Yes, you read right, a museum.
To be honest it was just like any other museum, with hundreds of stuffed animals and rare insects pinned to giant framed boards. They had a few interesting exhibits on the leatherback turtles and the aboriginal tribes but other than that I was feeling so rough that I wanted nothing more than to get back to the hostel and curl up in my bed.
Half way back to the hostel we left poppy to watch a film in the cinema and that's when I realised that I left my camera in the toilet in the museum. I left the others and legged it back to the museum as fast as my flip flops would let me, cursing myself for being so stupid. It wasn't the camera I was worried about it was all the amazing photos I had taken that I knew I'd never able to get back. It hadn't been long since we had left so I checked the toilet first but there was no sign of it. I asked several woman around the entrance if they had seen a camera but no luck. Eventually, with a face like thunder, I dragged my feet to the customer service desk with no hope of ever seeing my camera again. Tim, the tubby bald security guard, was holding my camera my camera up with a big grin on his face. I actually hugged him. That's the second time I hugged a complete stranger during my trip. I was so releaved!!!
By this point my energy was completely drained and I went back to the hostel to meet Grace who'd had a nap in the meantime. We got pizza, excellent hangover food, and poppy joined us to watch some of the pub games going on in the hostel. My favourite was an impressive game of limbo won by a 6-foot man would you believe. The girls ended up talking to a couple of loud, over the top lads one of which looked and acted exactly like Stifler out of American Pie, and became equally as annoying. I wish I got a photo. We discussed that night what we thought of Brisbane and to be honest I could've done with missing it altogether as it was just another expensive city with big brand shops and over-crowded roads. It could've been London for all I cared. But saying that, it was a clean buzzing city and i easily could see why people would want to live here for a career.
Our bus to Surfers Paradise the next day wasn't until quarter past one so we went back into town to buy Rachels birthday present. We took the free bus nice and early and guess who just happened to be there at the transit station. It was johnny b and robin, the cheeky Swedish lads the we met on Fraser island. Johnny is the one grace got with and we didn't think we would ever see them again so graces face was an absolute picture. Thankfully all was good between them and we found out they were also coming to Surfers paradise that day. Grace was over the moon, as were me and poppy, as they were good lads who were just up for a laugh like us. We climbed on the bus wondering what other surprises we were going to encounter.