Brisbane!

---

Arrived in Brisbane Last Friday, Halloween night. I thought it would probably be a quiet night cause I didn't know anyone in Brisbane but maybe not... Staying at Bunk in the Valley, pretty nice place, 8-share female dorm makes meeting new friends pretty easy. Friday the 2 Irish girls Therese and Sue and the Scottish girl Dianne and I all went out for some drinks. The hostel bar offers $10 pitchers of Snake Bite (beer, cider, raspberry cordial) so after a few rounds we were ready to dance! I learned some new drinking games from the Irish girls, have to try those out when I get home. Then there was a scandalous game of Never Have I Ever, which is always more sensational when it's played with new people that don't know all the secrets already!

Saturday Dianne and I went for breakfast a great place down the block, same street that has cute little weekend markets. After breakfast we wandered down and checked out the stalls. We went into town later, got lost along the way but eventually made it. We window-shopped for awhile until I found some stores that accepted American Express... oh dear... that was my line for the day "Do you take Amex?" We decided to get out of the heat to the air conditioned theatre so we saw Burn After Reading, so funny! Pretty relaxed day overall. We ran into Ellie, the English chick I met on the Nimbin tour, on the way back to the hostel. So that night, Eliie, Dianne, Ellie's American dormmate Sara, and I went for dinner and chatted for awhile. I called it an early night but was gutted to find out that when they went dancing, Bon Jovi was the 2nd song played.....

Sunday the four of us went for a walk to South Bank, had lunch at a cute little cafe and checked out the man-made beach there. It was kind of cool. It was like a huge pool but with palms and white sand. I didn't have my suit but we waded for awhile and got splashed by little kids. We took the ferry back to the other side of town, which seemed a lot like the seabus. We totally looked like those tourists that take pictures on the seabus while business people and students roll their eyes or turn up their iPods.

Monday I had a quiet day. Dianne and Sara went to the Australian Zoo (home of the Irwins) but Ellie and I went for breakfast and a walk. We found a little park and read for awhile til Ellie had to go back to catch the shuttle. Sarah flew into Brisbane in the afternoon and we got some groceries later. I'm not a huge fan of tuna, so why I got packages of tuna and crackers I'm not sure, except it seemed easier to get prepackaged snacks... still haven't attempted to try them. Monday night was Dianne's last night so we went to the hostel bar and got a little tipsy. Sarah was 3 hours ahead in mind so she went to bed but Dianne and I stayed out and made some new friends. Definitely stayed out past my bedtime that night, but we had a blast!

Tuesday I slept in... Sarah was up at 6 am, crazy woman. We met up at noon and walked downtown. The mission was to get the "beached as" shirts from Supre before they sold out. So cute, though I doubt anyone at home will understand, it was fun to walk around in matching shirts though. We had lunch at an overpriced cafe. Best burger ever, maybe not fully appreciated as I wasn't really hungry after having like 3 big glasses of water. We people watched during lunch, it was pretty entertaining, Melbourne Cup Day so girls were walking around all dressed up with heels and fancy dresses and hats. We happened to be by the theatre at about 3:40 so we went to Stepbrothers, really funny but I think it would have been more so if I had been drunk.

Wednesday we got up early and got a shuttle out to Redcliff to take a day cruise to Moreton Island. It was a bit windy and occasionally rainy but it was a blast to sit up on the bridge, boat speeding along hitting the waves! We had lunch on the boat then went snorkeling among the wrecks, placed there over the years as a breakwater. It was amazing! little fish everywhere. All sorts of colours and sizes, jellyfish, little rays, sea stars. The water was clear and lovely, not too cold despite the rain, though it was a bit eerie among the wreckage... We were completely exhausted by the time we got back to the hostel, but it was an amazing day!

---

Comments

[AndreaMagee]

What is Cup Day?
Hey Kat, sounds like you and Sarah are going to have a great time being tourists. As an every day seabus-goer, I know what to look for. What is Cup Day and why is it fancy? And what's the Beached as joke? Have so much fun and we all miss you!