Brisbane - The River City

Hi everyone,
Greetings from Brisbane!. We arrived enthusiastically here early on the 14th June, a Sunday so everywhere seemed quiet and calm. We had booked our hostel before we left and were instructed to get off the airport train at Brunswick Street, unfortunately though the station was called Fortitude Valley and it took us a few train journeys to get to the right place, following that the hostel had given us their office address and we spent ages lugging our backpacks up and down an area called Spring Hill looking for the place. Eventually we arrived at Valley Verandas Hostel and gladly dumped the bags. The weather, although winter was definitely warmer here, in the mid 20s most days. We stayed at the hostel for a few days while getting straight down to business and buying interview clothes, work boots, calling into agencies and applying for jobs. Although after a week and to no avail, we knew we would have to find somewhere cheaper to stay. Accomodation though in Brisbane is only cheap and decent if you are willing to sign a lease, so our only other option was staying in a share house and somehow or another we got 'railroaded' into living on Railway Terrace; a small community of backpackers living in old Queenlander houses in Milton. We phoned the guy who owns the houses in the morning and a half an hour later we were looking at them and an hour later moved into them, it all happened so quickly and we ended up feeling somewhat pushed into living in a house fit for rats but nevertheless we finally had a place to stay and a postal address (although without a post box!). Our back door view was of a car park and our front was of Milton Brewery and its neon flashing XXXX's.
Our job search continued for weeks, from calling the harvest hotline, applying for jobs online to buying the weekly newspaper but with little progress other than a few false starts we were on the brink of going home when what seemed like a miracle happened. We both got jobs with a sales company selling electricity! This although turned into a living nightmare with 10 hour days of knocking on doors and gaining nothing but rejection after rejection, it became unbearable. Finally after 6 weeks in Brisbane luck was on our side, we both got jobs (waitressing and putting in roof insulation). Now it was time to make the most of our time here and see what Brisbane had to offer...
As we entered into a new routine of working and day to day life we didn't log the dates that we visited places but over the last four months we saw the very best of Brisbane. We visited the Botanic Gardens (yes, another one!) and saw some lizards, eels and winos, not the best kept gardens unfortunately!. We visited Southbank, the tourist quarter and arts hub of Brisbane a number of times. Unfortunately the first time we visited the area, the man-made lagoon was closed off as they were refilling it with sand!! but as soon as the hotter weather arrived and it opened up the area got jam packed with people sun bathing and swimming. To be honest its just like a swimming pool with sand and the odd palm tree (think South America spoiled us!).
We also visited yet another Botanic Gardens at Mt Coot-tha near Toowong which was much better maintained with its planetarium, glasshouses and rainforest walks.
The Riverfire Festival took place on the 12th September, an annual firework display all over the city to celebrate the opening night of Brisbane Festival. We went along to secure our spot in Southbank early in the day but found that everyone else had the same idea with their picnics and camp chairs, they sat on the riverbank all day waiting for the event to begin. We spent the afternoon in the Plough Inn waiting for 7pm to arrive and when it did, wow what a magnificent display, the fireworks were spectacular; shooting up from the river, from the top of the Storey Bridge and from all over the city and the Australian Airforce did a 'dump and burn' display with F1-11 fighter jets (Diarmuid was smiling like a cheshire cat!).
The following day we went to the Pig 'N' Whistle on Eagle Street to watch the All-Ireland, the place was packed with Kilkenny and Tipp supporters and atmosphere was crazy, as close to Croker as you could get, thus we had far, far too good of a time....(and Deirdre was smiling like a Kilkenny cat!).
Diarmuid got a loan of the ute from his boss one weekend and we took a drive down the Gold Coast to Surfers Paradise. It was such a great feeling to hit the road again and see some of the countryside. The weather was great and we spent a few hours on the beach sun bathing and watching people learn to surf. Surfers is a real holiday resort and typically full with high rise apartments, hotels and the usual restaurants. On having enough of the heat and the people for one day we headed up to the Tamborine Mountains for a drive and stopped off at a view point overlooking the Gold Coast hinterland with its many lakes. The sun was setting at this point (it gets dark about 5.30pm here every day) so we drove out of the area before it got too late. It really surprised us to see so much of the hill side smouldering from recent small forest fires, we can only imagine what it would be like in summer when these fires are in full blaze.
Our last free weekend in Brisbane we spent visiting the Roma Street Parklands and (Diarmuid spent the day feeding lizards tissue paper - don't ask!) enjoyed a relaxing afternoon escaping the hustle and bustle of the city. Brisbane is a nice city to visit and a great base for seeing Queensland and all to has to offer but we have spent a month or two longer than expected here and with a whole continent out there to explore its definitely time to move on.
So we are leaving Brisbane next Sunday the 1st November and can't wait - Great Barrier Reef here we come... We will be hitting the road in a camper again for three weeks, yipee yipee yipee...
So talk to you from Cairns, lots of love, D & D (we are going to find Nemo, yipeee....)

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