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Got up and there was a new girl in our room who had been out when we'd got in last night, she was asleep so we packed our last few things then checked out. I couldn't find my iPod anywhere so left my e-mail address at reception - last time I'd seen it was in the room and I'd not taken it out since :-s Still not sure what's happened to it :-( We were really early for the bus but went and sat at the transit centre anyway. We'd loved Surfers and I wished I was staying a bit longer, but think that about most places here! The bus turned up eventually and we got on, it was only an hour drive up to Brisbane and I slept most of the way. When we got there we saw Zach and Jamie who were about to get on the bus we'd got off which was funny! So said hi and bye to them, then I had to say bye to Lauren as I might not have seen her again! Lauren was staying for 2 nights at a hostel in the centre before carrying on up the East Coast, whereas I needed to start looking for work so was planning to stay in Brisbane and find some here. It's the capital city of Queensland so thought it would be a good place to look.I had been looking forward to coming to Brisbane one of my mum's old colleagues called Steph lives here and I had been in contact with her and she had really kind offered me a place to stay while I searched for jobs! It was nice knowing I would be staying somewhere other than a hostel especially as I needed a good rest! Had a short walk to where I was meeting her but found her with no problems - she is a magician and children's entertainer and drives a big van with "Super Steph" on the side of it! Was so pleased to se her, I hadn't met her before but she seemed really nice. She drove me back to her house, which is in a little town outside Brisbane called Mooroka. It's a bungalow, which she shares with a girl called Shelly who is really nice, quite quiet but friendly. Steph has her own room but also rents out another room which she uses for storage and as an office for her company. This is my room! It has a double bed and everything, I was expecting to be on the sofa! She has a spare Mac in there which she says I can use which is soo helpful for finding work and means I can have way more contact with home and catch up on my blogs, of course! It isn't used too much as an office but I have to make sure I lock it when I am not in and it has the printer and some props in etc. Will make sure I keep it tidy! Dumped my stuff in the room then Steph said she had work to do so would drop me to the train station so I could get a train into the city. She was doing a performance at a nearby comedy club that evening and said I could meet her there later to watch which was something to look forward to! She gave me a list of things to see while I waiting in the city which was cool so I text Lauren to see if she wanted to meet me. The station is about a half hour walk away but Steph dropped me off, had just missed a train so had to wait 20 mins for one and it then took 20 mins on the train to get to the centre which wasn't too bad. The central station is right by Lauren's hostel and I met her no problems, was nice seeing her as wasn't sure if I would again! As soon as I met Lauren I got a text from Steph saying Lauren was welcome to come to the magic show that night which was so nice as I had been pretty nervous about finding it on my own and knew it would be nicer to go with someone. Lauren was up for it so that was great. We got a map and found all the places Steph had told us to go. Walking around Brisbane we both really liked it, feels really safe and is really arty and modern but feels more homely than Sydney. We crossed the bridge to the South Bank and walked to the West End, where there were some cute little hippy shops. Tried on 3 lovely dresses but none were quite right which was a shame! Steph had given us the name of a coffee shop we had to check out called the Three Monkeys and it was sooo nice, had such a cool vibe and was really homely. We treated ourselves to lunch there, I had a lovely toasted sandwich and then we shared the most amazing chocolate cake!! So worth it-none of the chocolate bars out here are any good, they have an ingredient in it to stop them melting which makes it taste of the crappy chocolate you get off Christmas tress. So to have some proper chocolate was such a treat! We stayed in there a bit then headed down to the riverside and a place called Parklands. By looking at Brisbane it's hard to believe it had such big floods a few months ago but you could tell in Parklands. It was still a really funky place, loads of parks and little cafes and bars, but it was most famous for its manmade beach, which from the photos we saw was awesome. Lots of palm trees and sun beds etc, would have been such a cool place to hang out but it had been totally wiped out by the floods. They're in the process of re-building it all at the minute so hopefully it will be back to how it was before one day.We walked back over another bridge and to the botanical garden where we laid on the grass in the sun. There was an exercise group going on which was fun to watch, would be so nice working out in the park as opposed to in a gym! We left the gardens after a while and made our way back into the city centre where we looked in a few shops. Steve Urwin's Zoo is in between Brisbane and Noosa (the next stop on the Oz Experience) and although it is nearer to Noosa, with Lauren's timings the only chance she would have had to go would have been the following day. It's somewhere I had been really looking forward to going and we thought it would be nice to go together but I wasn't sure of Steph's plans for the next day. We went into a little travel centre to have a look anyway and were talking about it to a dippy old lady, who said she would give us student rates even though our student cards weren't official. Saved us a fair bit of money so we got our tickets then as even if I couldn't go the next day I was definitely going to go at some point. Like I say, this woman was pretty dippy and she gave us one ticket for the both of us, when we'd explained we might be going on different days. They were about to close and the other woman was getting exasperated so they then processed a refund and printed off individual tickets for us. What they hadn't done was taken back the first ticket they gave us with both our names on so we decided if we went together we'd try and use that, didn't get our hopes up though as they'd processed the refund online. We went back to Lauren's hostel, which was a Base and it was soo run down and smelly, really glad I hadn't stayed there. We got some food then got the train to Albion, where Steph's show was. Didn't take too long but when we got off we had no idea where we were going! Everyone here is so helpful though, someone came and asked us if we were ok as we looked lost, then they told us how to get to the main street. When we were there we asked a couple if they knew where the comedy club was and although they didn't, they got out their iPhone and checked for us! Wouldn't get that in England! Turned out it was pretty close. When we got there, there was a pretty long queue. Steph had reserved us seats so I went and asked the doorman if he had our names and we got straight in! Normally tickets are $25 each so it was cool getting in for free, we felt pretty underdressed as most people had made an effort (as you would if you'd paid that much) but we went and sat at our seats. The food looked amazing and we felt hungry again but it was way out of our backpacker's budget! The room was pretty big and completely full. There were lots of long tables at angles so everyone could see the stage. Seemed like a really nice place to come out, there were lots of couples and groups of friends who seemed to be out for birthdays. We saw Steph but she was focusing so tried not to distract her! She looked great in her Air Hostess uniform which she wears for the act. After about half an hour, the mc came on and he was really funny. It was a night of magic and comedy but it was mainly comedy. Steph was introduced as the first act on and she was really good! Had some really cool tricks which I have no idea how she did and memorized the names of tons of people in the crowd which was awesome. Was great to see her performing. There were 6 more magicians/ comedians after and it was so good to watch, saw some really impressive tricks including mind games and pick-pocketing. There was lots of good comedy too! Really enjoyed it, was a good experience. Once it had finished Lauren got the train back to her hostel and I waited as Steph packed up and we went in the Super Steph van back to her house. Asked if she had any plans for the next day and she was working so text Lauren - we were going to the zoo! Only problem was the train from central left at 8 so I had to be up and half 6!! Had planned an early night but as I had the laptop in my room I somehow ended up staying online till 3am!!! Stupid, I know, but I just got carried away! Don't think I got anything productive done in that time either! But eventually turned it off and fell straight to sleep, was SO nice being in a room of my own and having a double bed!