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Published: February 10th 2009
After leaving the cute town of Noosa, it was off for big city living once again. We arrived in Brisbane and made the walk to our hostel in the blistering heat. I think everything is warmer when you are carrying your 20+kg backpack (although I cheat and roll mine most of the time). We got checked in and decided to go walk around the city. There are really no sights to see or things of importance, so we spent the day wandering around and just enjoying the city itself. There is a nice lagoon/beach area, but we really didn't feel like being in the sun. We also noticed there were more homeless weirdoes in Brisbane than in the other major Australian cities. I guess you can say its the San Francisco with all their fun homeless hippies. Brisbane the state capital of Queensland and its most populous city. It is also the third most populous city in Australia, behind southern rivals Sydney and Melbourne. The city is situated on the Brisbane River on a low-lying floodplain between Moreton Bay and the Great Dividing Range in south-eastern Queensland. So after doing our explorations, we decided we better start figuring our New Zealand
stuff out. We were able to book a hop on hop off bus though this company here (called Peter Pans by the way!) for pretty cheap so that was good. They also gave us a free BBQ dinner that night and half off tickets to the XXXX (4X) Brewery. So that night we walked our little booties half way across town for the free BBQ, which consisted of one snag (sausage) and a piece of bread. I'm not sure it was worth the walk. We were still able to hang out for a bit and we saw some girls there that we had met in Fraser Island so we sat with them for a bit. Then it was the long walk back to the hostel where Jeff and I immediately went to bed and Chris stayed out with a Kiwi girl he met.
The next morning we went off for our tour of the XXX Brewery. It was actually a really cool tour. They took us through the history of XXXX and how it is the first and most recognizable beer in Queensland. We got to see how they made the beer and all the ingredients that went into
it. I had never been on a brewery tour and I really enjoyed this one. Of course, the best part tasted the beer at the end. They gave us four free pints of beer, which was a great deal. Plus they had a sample of the original beer they ever brewed. It was a 3X and it was my favorite. Really good and tasty. Then we were lucky enough to be there on a Friday, when they were tapping a wooden keg, so we were able to see the difference between how a beer tastes in a wooden keg versus a steal keg. I preferred the steel keg, but the boys liked the wooden one better. There was also a stout, which I never like, but apparently I am becoming a beer drinker because I really liked it. It kind of tasted like coffee. After the brewery it was pretty much time for us to hop on our two hour bus to Surfer's Paradise.
Surfer's paradise is the sin city of Australia. It is full of bars and pubs and clubs and tons of stores for great shopping. There are high rises going right up to the beach (picture
Waikiki, Hawaii) and tons of people always out and about. Unfortunately, our hostel was a 45 minute walk outside of the city. So much for listening to other travelers recommendations! We arrived just in time for dinner, but didn't realize how far of a walk it actually was to the city. Jeff and I set out to grab some dinner and 45 tired and sweaty minutes later we found ourselves in the heart of Surfer's Paradise. We opted to get a kebab (my favorite Australian/Turkish delight) instead of heading to the supermarket to cook- it was way too long of a walk home! After dinner we walked around the city as it was so lively .There were tons of people, street performers and half naked girls trying to coax you into a club. After people watching for a bit, we made the trek back to the hostel and reported back to Chris on everything we saw.
We spent the next day lounging at the beach and spending too much money at some of the shops. The whole town is just always buzzing with people. It has a really cool vibe. We had wanted to go out that night and
grab a few drinks in town and were debating going on the backpacker pub crawl through our hostel. In the end we decided to forgo the pub crawl and just have a couple drinks at a bar on our own. Then... very last minute Chris came up to the room and said there were tons of people going to the pub crawl and we should go. So literally five minutes before the bus was to leave we finished getting ready and ran downstairs. I think we realized how old we actually are in comparison to many people traveling through Australia. We didn't go crazy partying before hand and everyone was already a mess by the time we got on the bus. We took advantage of the free drink you received at each bar and had a fun night dancing. The only problem is as the night got later, the clubs got more and more crowded and became a general mess. We were not quite prepared for that (although we probably should have been) and this ruined it a bit for us. We even left before the last club. That's how you know you are definitely too old for a pub
crawl!
We ended up going to bed about 2am, which wasn't bad considering we checked out of the hostel the next day. Our bus was about a 1/2 hour late, but we made up some time and arrived in Byron Bay by 4pm. Immediately, we really liked Byron Bay. It was smaller than Surfer's Paradise, but with all the fun stores. The town has a little hippie feel to it, but it's not overwhelming so the boys didn't hate it so much. The problem with Byron is that it is expensive. Our hostel was more than we have ever paid here in Oz and that is the norm for this town. We checked in and met a couple that was sharing our dorm room with us. After dinner we played some card games with them in our room and Chris and I went out and grabbed a beer with them at a really cool beach bar. The moon was so bright you could perfectly see the water from the bar. We made it an early night though since I was going to attempt to surf the next day.
So we woke up and went to rent some surfboards
for me. The day before the surf was nice, with sets coming in and small hollow waves. However, when we went out to the beach that morning the surf was all over the place. It was choppy and there was a constant onslaught of waves. Still Jeff pumped me up and we went to paddle out. But... here lay the problem. I couldn't even paddle out. The waves were constantly crashing over me and pushing me back and catching me off guard. I was getting pounded, for lack of a better term. When I tried to get off my board and walk it, the current was so strong I could barely walk. Now, I know I am out of shape because of this trip, but I didn't think it was this bad. I got pretty discouraged and disappointed. We got out of the water there and headed further up the beach to find a smoother spot. Unfortunately, it didn't really help. I was unable to catch a wave all day and was pretty sad. I guess it just wasn't a great day for my surfing adventure. It made me feel a little better when Jeff paddled out without me and
really couldn't catch anything either. At least I know it wasn't just me and the surf was just really bad that day. After a couple hours I was exhausted so we returned the boards and enjoyed the town. I once again spent too much money shopping, but I have not shopped in a long time. Plus I found a shirt that says, "I love Lamp," so you KNOW I had to buy it! 😊
Other than that, we chilled for our last few days in Australia and hung out on the beach. Overall, I really enjoyed Australia this time around, but it definitely doesn't hold the same mystique for me as it once did. After studying abroad here five years ago, it was my favorite place in the world. Don't get me wrong- I still love it, but I just realized that there are so many other places in the world still yet to be discovered.
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nins
non-member comment
haha
GREAT SHIRT!!!