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Published: September 21st 2007
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Jon misses his football :(
Kicked the first thing that was round... We arrived in Australia after a short but sweet flight (Jon still smiles every time they offer him free drinks on the plane!), and we were very happy to land here. Fi had had reservations about Brisbane as she couldn't really remember it from the last time, which she figured meant it wasn't very good!! But we were very pleasantly surprised. As we came into the city from the airport, we could see exactly what we were looking for...lots of buildings, lots of restaurants and bars, and lots of people! Brilliant. The airport shuttle unfortunately was a little long winded and we are not sure the guy knew exactly where he was going, and seemed to do things in an odd order, including picking up people before dropping off the ones he already had! We decided we will take the airtrain back to the airport, and would suggest anyone coming to Brisbane by plane do the same!
Our first night we walked into the city from our hostel in the West End and thought it looked great. More importantly there were lots of things to do, although we realised that money might become an issue here! We only had the
Treasury Casino
Went in with $50, came out with $100! :) one night in our hostel 'Somewhere to Stay' but this turned out to be no bad thing as it was a little further out than we had wanted, and was set in a rickety, wooden Queenslander (type of house). Although we had a TV so that kept us happy as we hadn't watched any since leaving home.
The next day after finding our new hostel, and checking in, we set about finding our way around the city... The new hostel was only a 15 min walk from the centre which we decided would become our daily exercise. As it turns out, we must have walked about 10 miles that day! Brisbane is set on a river, which makes for some beautiful riverside settings. As with any city, it is split into neighbourhoods, but being non-locals we favoured the city centre as it seems safest! Police are around everywhere, standing on the streets just waiting for things to happen! We actually got reprimanded yesterday by two police for....crossing the road!! We kid you not. Apparently it is against the law here to J-walk (cross the road while the red man is showing, or not at a crossing). You can get
fined $150 (65 quid) if you are ticketed which luckily for us they weren't that day. I think the 'stupid tourist' card also helped!!
Since getting here we have been fairly busy, trying not to spend money is hard so we tried to do things that were free! This included the museum and art gallery, both which turned out to be extremely boring (sorry Brisbane), no wonder it's free. We also walked along the river to an area called South Bank Parklands. There is supposed to be a man made lagoon here, but unfortunately it is being renovated at the moment so we missed out. The City Botanical Gardens turned out to be a big park, not a weird animal or plant in sight (although to be honest we are not exactly pros in these areas). Luckily on our bus tour the next day, we went to the Brisbane Botanical Gardens, which are just out of the city. These were much better, there were loads of exotic gardens from rainforests to Japanese gardens, and even a Bonsai house, which by the way are just small trees, not half as exciting as we had thought, although I'm sure Mr Miagi
No honestly, the cockroach was this big!!!
The now dead cockroach's mother follows us to Brisbane... would have been proud. There were also lizards running about all over the place, including a 3ft (according to Jon) iguana.
The rest of the bus tour was fairly unexciting and not really worth the money we paid, but at least we have seen most of Brisbane, even if it was sitting on a bus...not even an open top bus! Do they expect rain or something?!? Hardly, don't think they've had any this year as they are in a State of Emergency as far as water is concerned. You are only supposed to have 4 min showers, although it's not like someone actually times you. Chinatown in Brisbane was pretty disappointing as it seemed a bit sparse, and there was not much to see or do there. If not for the Chinese gates, you would walk past it. The only exciting thing to happen there was a tornado...ok ok it was a very strong gust of wind, which threw this guy on the floor along with the chair he was sitting on, table, umbrella and all food and drink! Was quite funny..for us!!
On Tuesday we went to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, which is about 11km from the
city, and holds over 130 koalas, 130 roos, and other animals such as crocs, wombats, snakes and dingoes. One of our favourites was a cockatiel which said hello and goodbye! Was hilarious! Jon wanted to cuddle a koala, which unfortunately they won't let you do for free, so we got to pet one instead. Koalas sleep for 18-20 hours per day as the only food they will eat (eucalyptus) has only 5% carbs so they have no energy. Although we were impressed in the way they could sleep perched on the top of tall branches, bit like lollipops to look at!!! The other highlight of the day was feeding the roos. They are kept in this big enclosure which you can enter. So, armed with our dollar bags of food bought at the shop (which Jon felt the need to taste - bit like chicken apparently), we entered the enclosure looking for our first victim. The roos don't even blink at the sight of you, they are obviously very used to humans and most can't even be bothered to come and get food. Jon particularly liked one which did though, and perhaps wanted to take him home?? The crocodile was
a freshwater one and only about 4ft long..not the scariest thing to see. Fi was more scared of the peacock wandering round the park (Jon reckons Mickey - his cat - could have taken him) but Fi was chased by one as a child, so knew how vicious they could be!!
After all our walking around, we decided to have day off and go to the park. There is a big one near our hostel called Roma Parklands which suited us perfectly. So after a visit to the supermarket to get supplies we headed to the park to have our aussie BBQ. Public BBQs are very common in Australia in parks, and they are great as you literally ignite them and wait for them to heat. They are always clean too, as there is an unspoken agreement to leave them in the state you'd want to find them, shame this wasn't true for the hostel kitchen!! Although Jon thinks Fi is too fussy about this! Fi does not want to eat the last persons food along with her own! Not fussy...clean. Anyway, the BBQ was great and we had a lovely relaxing sunbathe in the park!
So apart
One of the many bridges
(And gargoyles according to Jon) from a night out drinking in an Irish pub, a night out to the Casino (Jon is the brains, Fi is the conscience - went in with $50, came out with $100), and some more wandering around, we have not done much else!!
We are now looking forward to going to Cairns tomorrow where we were originally supposed to start our trip, working our way down the East coast to Sydney, over 6 weeks.
Enjoy the photos! Leave comments if you can, it's great to hear from people!
Lots of Love,
Jonny & Fi
xxxxxxx
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sarah
non-member comment
Hello!
Looks and sounds wonderful! Keep having fun :) xxx