Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
We arrived in Brisbane mid afternoon and checked into our hostel which was quite central and really big and clean. We have had fab room mates, 2 lads from Saint Helen's who constantly took the mick out of our accents and generally took great pleasure in winding us up. We checked out the Irish bar in the hostel on the first night and found it was really good! and not far to crawl to bed although we were both on top bunks which we found halarious.
We took our first full day in Bris Vegas (we are still not sure why people call it that) easy and did the walk from the Lonley Planet guide which took us to the Botanical Gardens, South Bank, the City Hall clock tower and various other sites of interest. We had a spot of lunch on the South Bank which has a little man made beach and was heaving with kids on school holidays but was a really nice spot.
We had an early one to prepare for our big day at Australia Zoo. Started early and got the train and then a shuttle bus to the zoo and arrived in time for the Otter feeding and then saw the big Croc show in the Crocoseum where a rather crude "Big Stevo" was brought out much to everyone's shock. It was strange because we both said how it didn't feel like he was gone, everything there still had him involved in some way, it was really nice to see.
The animals were amazing and you could walk through the Kangaroo enclosures and stroke and feed the Roos which was great. The Koalas were also available for patting and you could feed the elephants as well. Spent the whole day here as there was so much to do and it was such a great place. took the train back to the city and it broke down which was a good job as Lu was about to wet herself so I think she secretly wished it would break down! finally got back and went for a few drinks in the Fiddlers (yes it has become our local!)
Friday was Australia day which is a public holiday over here. We had heard from a Brisbane guy the night before (and read in the lonley planet) that the absolute place to be in Bris Vegas on Australia day was at the Storey Bridge Hotel where the cockroach races took place. We were excited and eager to get there so we set off in search of the place. I don't think our (well, my) map reading skills have progressed since Bangkok to be honest, as it took us two hours to walk there, we were sweating like pigs and then, the hotel was in sight, like some kind of mirage...... only there was a guy walking towards us with a trophey and we knew.... it was over.
Dissapointed and very very thirtsy (to quote Lucy " I need a bloody pint of a schooner at least") we got on a very croweded little ferry with a load of very drunk Auzzie guys to get back to some kind of civilisation, only to be told that the river was closed. How the heck do you close a river? well apparently they do, because of the fireworks. Anway, it all worked out for the best as we stood on the Goodwill Bridge and watched the display which was great, not quite Syndey on NYE but not far off. We then had dinner and a few of those drinks we so desperatly needed and ended up been daft with some local Auzzie boys in the Tin Billy Bar before heading home in the early hours.
After all the silliness, we spent the next couple of days trying to be cultured. We went to the Cultural centre on the South Bank ( a good place to start!) where we explored the art galleries and Quensland Museum. We then headed to Roma Street Parkland which is the largest urban subtropical garden in the world apparently, although we are not entirley sure what that meant ,it was pretty impressive all the same! there was a little lake, waterfalls and people were having wedding photos.
The next day we firstly headed to the Brunswick Street Sunday market and then continued on the flower theme and took a bus to Mt Coot -Tha. We got off the bus at Summitt Lookout where you could pretty much see the whole of Brisbane and then took a walking trail down to the bottom and made our way to the Botanical Gardens Discovery Gardens where we spent a coule of hours. There were little Bonsi gardens and a hot house and it was a really pretty little place. We headed back to the city and went to the cinema before preparing to leave Brisbane tommorrow.
- comments