Brisbane and Nimbin

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We took a flight from Melbourne to Brisbane in order to tour the Queensland coast, and to meet our close friend Gers.

Brisbane, known to Aussies by the nickname 'Bris-Vegas', is smalltime, when compared to Melbourne and Sydney. Plenty of bargain shops and pokies (gambling dens with poker-type slot machines, very popular in Australia). However, on an impromptu night out with Ahsan (he lives there), we saw a glimpse of the up-and-coming Fortitude Valley district nightlife.

After two nights in Brisbane, planning our trip and replacing our camera, we took an overnight jaunt to Nimbin. This small village is well known throughout Australia as a hippy retreat, and was established as such over thirty years ago, off the back of the 1973 Aquarius festival. This new-age village, featuring alternative energy plants, organic farms, galleries and a very odd cannabis museum, made an interesting interlude from mainstream Australian society.

Our bed was in a homely and relaxing countryside YHA hostel. We were glad to be away from the main stretch, where we had heard that 'the freaks come out at night to roam the streets'.

We made our way back to Brisbane wondering if we could find our friend there, as planned. We did!

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Comments

[Dr Claw]

Get a job McElhinney ...
... you soap-dodging hippy!

[Dan]

Found you!
I found your blog! I had to go back to work today..really crappy! Hope you guys are enjoying yourselves..that was an awesome couple of days, we had much fun :) Its [e-mail]