Brisbane - First Night Out

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We took a break from the beach and headed into Brisbane for 4 days. Overall, it was a good experience, but nothing super exciting. 5/10 recommend. Maybe I have just seen too many different cities this past year, but this one was nothing particularly special. The free boat ferry was super nice, although we somehow managed to go the wrong way every time we got on it. I don't think our relationship would have survived another argument over whether we were going up or down river.

Our airbnb was pretty much a frat house, with people partying and fighting all night, and a kitchen so dirty that rivaled my college apartment during finals week. We had our own room and bathroom, so we were able to keep to ourselves and avoid the chaos. The best day was when we went to North Stradbroke Island and saw our first koalas and kangaroos, plus incredible views and beaches. 10/10 recommend. But let me tell you about our night out on the town...

I of course wanted to go on a rooftop bar to see the sunset (again forgetting about the whole east coast thing). I found one called Eagle's Nest that was just down the street from our airbnb, and looked good enough. The plan was to start here and then cross the river into the CBD, where the real nightlife is, I assume.

We got to the Eagle's Nest and realized that there was a large party taking up most of the bar. All the tables said "reserved for Sam's birthday party," but nobody was sitting at the outside tables. Joey and I ordered drinks and sat down next to another couple who obviously not part of Sam's party. The woman, Donna, was obviously super stoked to have someone to talk to other than her boring date, and struck up a conversation with us. She told us to check out the Storybridge Hotel, got our contact info, and left. Here's where it gets good.

Before leaving, Donna's date told us to "watch out" because Sunday nights are typically gay nights in Brisbane. Right on cue, a 50 year old very gay, very drunk man came around the corner and spied Joey. He came over and looked at the sunset which was mediocre at best and said how beautiful it was, as well as how beautiful my boyfriend was. Within 5 minutes, he was trying to convince Joey to dump his ugly girlfriend and become "do something on social media" with his beautiful face. This man literally could not take his eyes off Joey. I tried making a joke by saying "he's taken," and the man turned to me, looked me in the eyes, then went back to flirting with Joey. Being the obviously more beautiful, intelligent, and interesting half of this relationship, I did not really enjoy being ignored. Luckily another gay man came to our rescue and added me into the conversation, as well as adding some topics other than Joey's beauty.

He asked if Joey was hungry, and Joey said no. Being a straight male, he doesn't understand how to capitalize on the fact that when someone is flirting with you, you should always try to get free food or drinks out of it. Being a straight female, I did understand. When he asked again if Joey was sure he didn't want any of the food from the party, I answered OF COURSE we would LOVE some free food. duh? So there I was, happily eating shrimp in cocktail sauce while I was ignored by two gay men who were flirting with my boyfriend. A woman came over and introduced herself as Sam. She looked at my plate of shrimp and I knew we were no longer welcome at this bar.

It was like 7:00, so we weren't really ready to go into the main bars. We went to check out the Storybridge Hotel, and it turns out Donna actually works there. She had a few beers with us, and told us all about her life and her kids who were about our age. She was a nice lady, but apparently didn't give out her employee discount to random kids she met at the bar. Oh well. Next thing we knew, it was 8:45. By the time we got home, it was already 9:00, way past our bed time. We were pretty much sleeping from 7 PM until 7 AM every day because of jet lag or being upside down or something. This was about as crazy as we could get.

That night was one of the funniest nights of my life, and this post probably would have been a lot funnier if I had written it right away. Instead I spent hours making a crappy gopro video that didn't even make me instfamous. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, it's just a catch 22.

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