Brisbane

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Thursday was our first trip into Brisbane. We walked down to the Mudgeeraba train station, where we bought our day tickets to the city. The system in Brisbane works using zones, so by buying our tickets from one of the furthest zones and heading right into the city’s core, it basically gave us unlimited travel anywhere we wanted. It was a shame though that we arrived just as the train was leaving. Though a half hour wait wasn’t really much, it still tends to be discouraging. Lol On the train, heading into the city, the scenery was quite nice. Australia really has some lovely scenery when traveling long distances. Plenty of rolling green hills to see along the east coast.

Once into the city, we headed for the pedestrian outdoor mall, which was a suggestion of Graham’s. It was a really nice city, not too unlike Sydney. But Brisbane seemed better laid out, and less cramped than the skyscraper filled latter. We walked out to the river, and checked out many of the bigger buildings along the shore like the library and the Performing Arts Centre. We even found out that the museum (the Queensland Museum) had free admission, so we spent a little time in the air conditioned building learning about Australia’s history. Next we walked by the convention centre. I don’t know what it is, but there’s just something about the sheer size of convention centres and their open spaces that makes me love them. Lol Along the river was a huge ferris wheel, similar to the London Eye. Further along we saw some universities which boasted some great locations in the city. Reminded me of Ryerson or UofT. And best of all though was the Lagoon. Ya, I know I’m not a beach person, but the public pools and little sand beaches just looked awesome right there in the midst of the concrete jungle that is the city. We trekked back to the core, and enjoyed some McDonalds for dinner. Hey, at least we packed sandwiches for lunch! Lol We then train’d it back to Mudgeeraba and chilled out by watching tv to finish off the day.

Kevin (and Hillary)

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Photos

Train
The train goes straight from Mudgeeraba to Brisbane. Very handy.

City
Once you get into the city, the train's a lot like a subway.

Open Spaces
One of the pedestrian walkway type of streets.

Library
Definitely a very cool building. Can't see much of it though from the pic. lol

River
Across from the library is the river.

Arts
And across the river, is a whole bunch of huge buildings, like the Performing Arts Centre, the Museum and the Convention Centre.

Buildings
Some very nice Architecture.

Back
Once over the bridge, this is what it looked like looking back.

Museum
How does it feel to have wings? Heavy.

Mirror
The wonders of the reflection.

Convention Centre
There's just something about huge spaces that I love.

River - 2
Hillary on the boardwalk that goes down the river.

Cricket
Not one of those sports you see people playing all that often in Canada.

Lagoon
The city had a lagoon nestled by the river! Great for staying in the city, but feeling like at the beach!

Pedestrian Bridge
Awesome pedestrian bridge. Just watch out for those bicyclists!

Colours
Is it too cruel to point out that I couldn't see the difference in colour between the green and the gold?