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Published: October 4th 2006
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Australian Zoo
Home of Steve Irwin (outside of Brisbane) Heading north up the East Coast of Australia...
So my overnight 12 hour bus trip to Bryon Bay from Sydney wasn't that bad considering I did find a way to sleep almost the entire time, however it was hard to hold my head upright when I arrived mid morning on Saturday because my neck was so cramped! We did stop for a meal at 1:30am at some rural mobile stop (gas station) and a large group of locals actually showed up wasted just to drive us all crazy (as if they do this every Friday night for "fun"), but other than that, the trip was good.
Byron Bay
So my first hostile/dorm room experience was in Bryon Bay, so I arrived in a full room (5 dorm beds) but no people...so I headed off to see the glorious beaches of byron...(which has squeaky sand by the way, although I can't tell you why it squeaks)...I spent a good hour watching this bird on the beach for a while, not sure if it's a pelican or an ancestor thereof, but check out the photo. He had a personality and I found him hysterical. After a lazy afternoon on the
beach, I headed back to my dorm room to meet some people. Back in my room, I met a great canadian named Sophie from Montreal and it was nice to have someone to split groceries and cook a good meal with before heading off to the bars. I have not been drinking a lot on my trip. Maybe a beer here or there with dinner etc but nights on the town are few and far between... a) because I can't afford it and b) because I have too much I want to do the next day. And it had been weeks since my last night out, so another new friend dragged us to this over the top crappy/touristy bar (but fun in its own way) called the Cheeky Monkey where they give out free beer like water...unforunately this ended up being bad news come Sunday morning when I couldn't get out of my top bunk till almost 2pm...I tried several times but each time ended in a trip to the communal bathrooms and me swearing off alcohol forever. (children drinking is bad for you!) Sunday I didn't do much other than have a walk around the little laid back beach
South Bank's Gardens
Me inside the beautiful artistic walkway around the playgrounds and picnic areas of south bank. town and watch some rugby on tv at a nicer bar called the Beach Hotel later that night with some more new friends from the dorm. (dorm rooms are a great way to meet people when you travel) Rugby was really fun despite the fact I don't know any of the rules...but Brisbane was playing Melbourne in the australia finals so the energy was intense...Brisbane won and figured hey people should be pretty stoked when I arrive there tomorrow!!
Brisbane
So I got on a 3.5 hour bus to Brisbane come Monday morning and I spent my afternoon in the Roma Street Parklands (world's largest tropical garden in a city center) and went to meet Nathan (Neet's friend) after work to get a ride back to his house. He showed me around the city a little and by nightfall the three of us (Neets is here too) were chillin with some dvds. Neets is here for a class she has to take to get her commercial pilot's license...but she had the day off on Tuesday.
So, we took the bus into the city and I must say the bus system here is AWEEESOME! You get on these
South Bank
Man made beach/swimming hole on edge of Brisbane City buses that have their own lanes straight into the city and they drive so fast (with no traffic/in their own lane with barriers etc) that you feel like you are on the subway or even in Harry Potter or something! Nathan lives outside the city in a suburb and we got dropped off in the center of downtown in something like 18 minutes which based on how far I think he kind of lives this was quite impressive. The train (subway) is like a train station with tons of platforms and departure tvs similar to an airport...(yet tickets seem to be on the honor system) all in all, the brisbane public transportation was pretty cool but at the same time just very odd to me (but in a good way).
Neets and I toured around and got some necessities out of the way (like rechargable batteries for me since I could spend a fortune on batteries alone the way my camera goes through them) and we headed to the South Bank Beach which is a man made swimming hole/beach next to the river in the city...it's a really neat/nice area and I just wish we gotten there before the
Roma Street Parklands
I had to walk through a big train station to get here, this picture is only a very small part of the park, world's largest tropical park in a city center (Brisbane) wind/clouds/nippy weather so we could have gone swimming. After some exploring we headed back to Nathans for dinner and another movie!
Nathan was nice enough to even take off work to show me around, so Wednesday I got to see things farther away from the city...first stop Australian Zoo (home of Steve Irwin). At the zoo I saw Kangeroos, wallabys, koalas, cassoways, tasmanian devils, wombats, tigers, elephants, camels, emus, crazy birds and of course "salties" (crocodiles). We went to a show with birds and crocodiles and at the end this guy sang a sappy song and they showed a slideshow of Steve and his family in memory of his recent death. I love slideshows and that was cool but no offense to the guy (he had a decent but girlie voice) but I could have done without the vocal performance. After the zoo, we headed north to "Noosa beach" on the sunshine coast (stretch of coast north of brisbane) and on the way we drove by the Glasshouse Mountains. We stopped for a dip in Noosa (and there was MORE squeaky sand) and headed back to Brisbane via Coolum/Mt. Coolum. It was a good day, however a minor foot
Me at the Zoo 2
Camera died so waiting on good animal shots from Nathan but for now it's just me and some tropical plants. injury from the night before had me wanting to do nothing but sit around and stay off my feet for a while.
Tomorrow is pretty much traveling into the city to catch my flight north to Cairns, and praying that I can walk on my foot with the weight of my backpack. I hope all is well and don't forget to keep me updated on you...miss you all but in good spirits and doing well.
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Sean
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Whats Up
Hey Kristen, Looks like you are having a blast. I am soo jealous as I sit here in my office looking at all of the stuff you are doing. Seems like an amazing experience. I see you have met some friens.......That is a real suprise. Things here are good. We have had summer weather this week, which has been nice. Well, I hope you keep enjoing yourself. Be safe. Sean