See You in Brisbane!

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2/24/10
Our “bus” arrived to take us from Byron Bay to Brisbane but it was more of a van than the bus we had imagined the “Brisbane 2 Hour Shuttle” to be. Regardless, it was $25, went straight there and had air conditioning…all the essentials. Before getting on the bus I happened to notice a ridiculous event.

At the bus station suddenly a big rig truck pulled up in the bus zone…I thought clearly he was confused, drunk or both. So the guy gets out, comes around to the other side, opens the door and proceeds to help out 2 young girls along with their luggage…these girls thought it was hilarious and were taking pictures in the truck, with the trucker, outside the truck, waving to the truck…now there are a few reasons that made me cringe watching this happen; 1) If I showed my mother pictures of me hitchhiking with an Australian trucker I don’t think I’d live to show anyone else the pictures 2) you just have to habe no common sense as a woman to get in the car with a random trucker in a foreign country and 3) just recently hitchhiking was made illegal in Australia because a man in the south had been having a jolly good time picking up several hitch hikers and killing all of them. All I can say to those girls is “good thing those aren’t your last stupid pictures…good thing.”

Anyway, the bus ride was fine but we got dropped off outside the bus terminal not inside (since it wasn’t a real bus) so we had to manage to find where we should’ve ended up so that our hostel could pick us up. After waiting a bit we were picked up by “Bunk” the best hostel in Brisbane! Oh and we had to turn our watches back because the state of Queensland doesn’t do daylight savings, it would be like turning your watch back an hour when you went from NJ to Boston, strange.

Upon arriving the guy ran up the stairs to reception, thinking he was busy made me justify him not offering to help me with my bag (really should’ve gotten a back pack) but he had just run to the desk and waited to check us in…The whole place was really modern and there was a great bar next door so we were pretty excited. Then Charlotte almost ran into me as I stopped suddenly after opening the door to our room. She asked what was wrong and I said, “the bed is right here!” I actually can’t believe the door didn’t HIT the bunk bed because the room was slightly wider than the two bunk beds that were pushed together with a thin wall between them that stopped just above the beds allowing us to peek over at each other when we wanted to. But there was a lovely view from the wall of windows where my bed faced and we did have our own bathroom…a few more downsides however were that the beds squeaked so loudly you could hear every time someone moved one of their toes. We also found out after using the shower that there was only a tiny lip on the floor which wasn’t high enough to contain the water coming out of the shower so after one person showered it meant walking in water to get to the toilet or sink.

A plus though, was that we got free dinner that night! Our voucher was for free fish and chips. Now I don’t normally eat fried food unless it’s french fries, but I do eat free food so I was up with that! The portions weren’t huge and the fish tasted like the sea as Charlotte pointed out but it was free and that’s all that mattered! We then decided to walk around and I believe this was the night we found a great little bar with more fantastic live music. The cover was supposed to be $18 each but he let us all in for $18, not sure why but didn’t question it! Turns out the opening act was a million times better than the actual act which we didn’t stay too long for. The opener’s name was Leena, an amazing Australian artist from Melbourne who played the guitar and a couple on piano. If anyone’s ever heard of Missy Higgins she sounded a lot like that, if not well just think soulful folk with an Australian accent. The guy after her wasn’t good enough to remember his name and his lyrics were ridiculous, he still managed to have a posse of girls fawning after him however.

The next day we prepared to go to an amusement park, seeing as there were many in the area. Before catching a train we got a quick breakfast where Charlotte and Ryan tasted their first banana bread! Ryan doesn’t like nuts so I think the giant walnut chunks turned him off but I think Charlotte was a fan. After we got the our stop we got out and saw that tickets to the park were $72…after weighing our options and having a very nice ticket man give us the site for discount vouchers, we decided to return, having wasted $20 on train tickets there. I believe this is the day we had Mc Donalds and went to the movies. This time we saw To Paris With Love, awesome move, John Travolta was amazing as usual but the other lead actor guy was so cheesy I had to try to ignore him. The next day we checked out because the metal festival was in town and rooms were selling out…awesome I know…but before we moved to our next hostel we temporarily put our bags in storage and got the free shuttle to the koala sanctuary where I would finally get to hold a koala!!!!!! We stopped at a scenic view place and then entered the lovely animal world. The koala I held was cuddly and cute and I loved every second, and it wasn’t long because he was a bit tired of being held I think. It actually took a couple of tries to get him to stay on Charlotte long enough to take the picture, who afterwards said she was scared of the koala and his eyes looked like he was going to kill you lol. Next we went to feed kangaroos that were just hopping around, well mostly sleeping in, a giant field. It was fantastic! We saw other animals but those were the most important encounters. Oh and fyi koalas make crazy noises! Not cute little growls but something in between a pig snorting and a donkey doing whatever sound it is a donkey makes…videos to come!

After getting the bus back we went to our second hostel which was nicknamed the party palace. It was huge with a great roof deck but we didn’t do much partying. The area however was great, close to the river, a big mall and lots of shops and things. The next day we used our discount vouchers and went to Dream World! It was lots of fun and still boggles my mind that Charlotte loves going on the scariest rides but will not go on an elevator…Actually I think she really confused some people on the last ride we went on because after riding in a car, strapped in, shooting up completely vertically so that you’re staring at the sky, she had to turn around while exiting because the only option to get out was an elevator or “lift.” The woman was quite rude and wouldn’t let me and Ryan walk down the stairs with her for some reason. This was also after I delayed the ride several minutes when the man asked me to take off the coin pouch I had tied around my belt loop, in my pocket and pushed underneath the harness…it was kind of ridiculous because first off I had worn this on every ride that day and second they had to actually release the harnesses in order for me to actually get it off! Anyway it all ended with us not being able to purchase or even look at what could’ve been the best picture on a ride ever because someone on it did an offensive gesture…with our luck it was probably Ryan accidentally throwing his middle finger in the air during the ride. I’ll tell you about my adventure on the island next blog as I’m tired and need to go to bed! Right now I’m back in Sydney so next blog you’ll hear about how I got here and what I’m doing as well!

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