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Published: February 4th 2010
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Brisbane
North bank taken from the South bank Our bus arrived at Brisbane transit station at about 11am and we got in a cab to our pre booked hotel. There were no campsites anywhere near the centre of town so we booked into Hotel George William (must have been named after Grandad). Turns out the hotel was 5 mins walk away but saved us walking in the heat with our bags! Our room wasn’t ready so we left our bags at reception and took a walk over the bridge to the South Bank.. Brisbane is a lovely city with a nice buzz around it. Not as touristy as Sydney or Melbourne but has a nice feel about it. We crossed the pedestrian bridge and it was a hot one. We kept walking down the south bank to find the café’s the woman had told us about and it seemed like miles. As Brisbane is on a river and not the coast, they don’t have anywhere to swim - not good in Australia. To combat this problem they have built Street Beach. It is a huge man made beach and sea (swimming pool) on the south bank. It was awesome and we wished we had bought our swimmers. It was
full of kids because they were still on hols but a really nice area. From there we found a place to have some lunch and Cold Rock Ice Cream - great concept. They take the ice cream flavour you want and mush it in with extras, for example Malteasers, on their cold rock. Very nice!! We got a call to say our room was ready and checked in our stuff. Australia has been raping our money, as it is more expensive than London, and neither us feel like we are really travelling as it is a home from home. We decided that we would change our flights so we could hit South America sooner. Oh my god this was harder than expected. Zo was on the phone for 3 hours trying to change them - this meant I had to watch the tennis on the telly with NO sound - god I have it tough!! Zo did a great job, not helped by the useless people at Cathay Pacific, they were as bad a Alitalia!! In the end we managed to change our flight but it meant flying to Buenos Aeries instead of Santiago. Turns out that this works better
anyway. We also paid for Qantas to take over our ‘round the world’ ticket because Cathay are useless! After 3 hours on the phone, $450 and a very hot ear, Zo did what she does best and got it sorted! This shortened our day so we went out and had a drink. Back to our air conditioned room to Skype the folks, a few beers and a goon from BWS, Pizza and good night sleep. Problem was that I bought Sol beer and they are not twist tops, unlike every other beer in Oz. Off out again to find a bottle opener!!
Australia Day Today was the big day for Aussies. Another reason to drink excessively!! The main festivities were happening on south bank so again we headed there. We got stopped on our walk there because they were doing the 21 gun salute and a fly past. One F111 - one plane is a fly past!!! We also got to see the soldiers march away so we got a good spot. When we got to South Bank it was heaving. The street beach was more like Street Flash Mob, there was so many people. They did it
The Cycologists
One of the many street shows along the South Bank on Australia Day. really well and had bands playing all day. They also had free multicultural entertainment to show they are not racist - yeah right! We sat and watched that for a bit and they had a good tap dancing act. We grabbed a kebab for lunch - Zo’s first ever, which I found very hard to believe and sat on the waters edge watching all the action. Went and had a few drinks in a bar which was heaving and got a free t-shirt. Left to have a wander because it was so busy, came back and got another free t-shirt - result! When we left, Zo found $20 on the floor - bigger result!! We then got our position for the fireworks and we had a ‘rock star park’ - prime location!! We had to wait about an hour and they were pretty good. The ending was awesome. I do think we had been spoilt by NYE in Sydney. When they were all done we took a walk back to our hotel and had a few drinks before bed. It was an awesome day and I think we need to do something like that at home. Try and put a
Street Show
On Australia Day bit more pride in our country! Everyone we saw, from many different nationalities, were all proud to be an Aussie and covered themselves in copious amounts of Australian paraphernalia.
Today was our day of sightseeing but there is not much to do. We wanted to go to the town hall museum of Brisbane but they were refurbishing it. We went to Big W to replace our airbed and Dick Smith to get a ipod cable (So hard to find). We decided we were going to do the river ‘City Cat’ - like the Thames Clipper at home. We went all the way out to the West End where we got off to have a look around. Not like the West End at home, it was all residential. Back on the Cat all the way to the other end, past some lovely waterfront properties. On the way back we went and got our swimmers and went back to the Street Beach because we were so hot. Ran into the water only to find out that is was just as hot - still nice though to float around. Back to hotel for a few drinks, late night pop to Hungry Jacks
Tap Show
At the Suncorp Theatre and bed.
We were getting the bus out today to go to Maroochydore. It didn’t leave until 2pm so we had the morning to have a wander and say goodbye to what was a lovely city.
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Aunty Kathy
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Still having a great time I see! Waiting to see if you managed the Whitsundays. Hope you did. Last we heard was that the area was hit by a cyclone. What a gem you have in Zo - a travelling secretary on top of all her other qualities. I do think it was a bit inconsiderate of her though that you had to watch TV with the sound down for all that time! Looking forward to the next installment. Have fun. Lots of love Aunty Kathy and Uncle Lennie xxxx