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Published: October 3rd 2010
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Busy organisingA Happy Birthday for Amy, Couch surfing and weapons of mass distraction
The coach into Brisbane was a long and late journey, but the scenery was pretty good, passing through Surfers Paradise (the Las Vegas of the Southern Hemisphere) which I’m glad we missed out, before arriving in Brisbane which was much bigger than I was expecting. The coach driver was a funny guy and the most sarcastic Aussie we had met so far. At one point waiting for the traffic lights to turn he started almost chatting to himself about, how these were the longest lights in the world and he’d once grown a full beard and moustache whilst waiting for them to change!!! Anyway we had a small walk to the hostel which was up a bloody hill (why lord why!!) and on the way we saw a load of huge fruit bats flying from the trees, all I could think of was how cool my mum would find it, remembering from my childhood how she’d always wanted a pet fruit bat!!
We got to the hostel after 11pm and we just made it before they locked up, we were so tired we decided we would
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Brisbane from the hostel balcony sort out paying etc the next day and made our way to our room, assuming as we’d arrived so late that we would be in a room on our own, so not to disturb people- nope there were already 3 other people in there so we did our best to be quiet but I think we failed miserably!! Oh I should say being very tired perhaps made this worse but the hostel, which is brand new, is set up upside down, so to go to level 5 you go down in the lift, so you can imagine how surreal that was on arrival late at night. Anyway we got into bed glad to be able to go to sleep only to find we were right next to the train station, which as we know from Sydney doesn’t stop during the night!! Next morning, after getting some sleep, we couldn’t enjoy a lay in as we had to get up before 10am to pay and sort out how long we’d be staying. We’d used up some E-nights again as it was an expensive hostel (thus being pleased with ourselves for getting a reduced daily rate) but as we were at the
desk we saw an offer for 4 nights(which is exactly what we needed before we went to Ben the CS guys house) at an extra cheap price. Unfortunately we couldn’t redeem our E-nights but this also meant that after staying three nights on them at the maximum stay limit we’d either have to move hostels or pay for one expensive extra night. I was really pissed off, tried to take it out on the reception girl who just let it fly over her head and did the robotic repeat what you just said and don’t listen, so instead I spent the day fuming at everyone else - apologies!!!
Once I’d calmed down and realised that it wasn’t the end of the world (its funny how the smallest of things become a big deal when you’re travelling) I was able to say goodbye to Amy without scaring her too much, as she was heading off to stay with a family friend for a few days (hopefully we would be able to meet up with her again before she then headed off to Perth). I then went and had a shower, enjoying how clean and new this place was compared to
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Moody Mandy Byron Bay (from here on in we would only use the YHA places). However this was the weirdest shower I’d ever had, not in nozzle shape or anything but in who was in the same room…I’ll explain…..as I entered the bathroom with my key card I was aware of two guys with dreadlocks looking at the pictures on the walls near the ladies. I didn’t think anything of it and went into the toilet before having a shower. Suddenly they got let into the ladies by another girl and started to use the showers. They were French guys and so were their female accomplice I think and they thought they were so clever and so funny as they showered singing in high pitched girly voices so that no one would “discover them”.
I came out of the toilet to grab a shower cubicle and caught the girl by surprise, she only shrugged her shoulders and walked out pretending she wasn’t involved. I spent ages waiting for them to finish messing around so that I could feel comfortable in my own girl’s bathroom, and of course the anger started coming back. Lucky for them I was naked too otherwise I
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Happy Mandy would have ratted them out and thoroughly enjoyed seeing them escorted naked from the premises, if I’d really thought about it should have gone straight away after the toilet but I think I doubted my own eyes (or ears) at first.
Anyway with the next fume of the day over one thing I have notice from this travelling lark is that the world is indeed a smaller place than it once was. What with the internet, international travel and all its not surprising to bump into the same people at one hostel that you saw at another, being as everyone is doing a similar route. Anyway I’ve had this happen a few times, with mini me guy (from Tasmania) and ginger dude, two people I never spoke to but seemed to be following us, but I was not expecting to see anyone from my “old” life as it were. I was in the kitchen of this huge hostel and bumped into (well viewed from a distance coz I never liked him) a guy I used to work with at Hearing Dogs. He’d quit a while ago when I still worked there and was, as far as I knew, working
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Brissy at night in Tesco and I never thought he had the kahunas to come travelling on his own. He now had a beard which made him look even more like a pervert, I’m sorry when your hair is that colour (and by “that” I of course mean ginger) you really shouldn’t grow a full on beard to make yourself stick out even more. I duno maybe the Aussie ladies like a pale, ginger British man??
Anyway I digress as always, the next few days were a bit of a blur involving lots of sorting ourselves out (laundry, food shop, next planned location etc) which for the first day was great as it meant we didn’t need to get up for anything in particular and could lounge around all day in a really nice hostel. However as always sitting around trying to plan the rest of our trip in Oz, with the Whitsunday’s, Great Barrier Reef, Darwin and Uluru still to organise it soon became a pain and the hostel a cage. We always knew that our stop in Brisbane was time to sit still for a moment and get our plans and visa’s for China etc sorted and before I was
looking forward to stopping but its funny how that green grass turns brown very quickly once you arrive on the other side. Luckily I had Dr Who to look forward to to get me through the next few days!!
We cooked a dinner of pancakes one night, which as much as I love them, for dinner it just wasn’t right and I felt myself craving something more savoury later in the evening. Another evening we joined in on the hostels $5 pizza night, which was brilliant and gave us, 6 slices each at least (of course I couldn’t eat that much so Nath had cold pizza for lunch) from the hostel’s attached restaurant/café. This was a great deal but on our last night we went down to just have some food and found our deluxe pizza slice was in fact a rubbish wafer thin slice of pizza with some fancy looking ingredients spread thinly on top - not impressed and still hungry we finished with a cheese sandwich, oh well guess you cant eat like a king every night - certainly not in Oz where it’ll cost you an arm and a leg to eat out!!
In the
end I didn’t get to watch Dr Who whilst we were at the hostel of the three TV rooms the only one that I though I’d be able to bully the people into watching it was the one full of old people. However these wrinkly folk were not as easy to push over as I thought and on suggesting we watch Dr Who next (and after explaining what it was!) their words were “we’re not watching that rubbish”……right so I wont be giving up my seat on public transport for you miserable bastards again then!! So instead that night I joined Nath upstairs in the movie room, licking my wounds and watched a film instead. Which would have been enjoyable had it not been for phlegm man, who spent the entire time half hocking up a loogie before swallowing it again. It was so disgusting and so distracting, people were starring, and Nath and I had to make comment, but this fell on deaf or foreign ears (maybe they were full up with phlegm!! The night before we left I phoned Nat in NZ using up the free phone card I’d been given by Trail finders on booking, it didn’t
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We thought the lift music was a little strange - dur dum, dur dum, dur dum, dur dum............ give me much time but long enough to laugh my arse off listening to Nat and realising how much I missed her. I hope one day she comes over to the UK again as I doubt we’ll make it back to NZ now.
So with our e-night used up and needing two more nights before we were due at Ben’s I booked us into a hostel down the road as it was the cheapest available and also had its own licensed pub!! We left the YHA ready to drag our bags down the road an unknown distance in the heat, when after about 20seconds we had arrived, it was next door!! the first thing I noticed was the t-shirts for sale on the wall and on pointing them out to Nath he had already seen them and was enjoying their presentation on the large breasted blondes that were manning the reception desk!! I think they said something along the lines of “weapons of mass distraction” which they certainly were, so whilst Nath formed a small lake of dribble around him I checked us in and waited for him to swim his way back to our room and to reality!
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Brisbane Old town centre This hostel was a stark contrast to the YHA with its wonderful scent of damp and piss wafting from our broken air conned room. We dropped our bags off and soon left the building but not before opening the window to try and get some fresh air in.
We planned to meet back up with Amy for the day as she was already bored at her family friends house and still had a couple of days before she was due to get to Perth. We joined a free walking tour (although they ask for tips) with a funny Aussie guy who did his best to motivate the rather drab and unenthusiastic group that turned up. I felt sorry for him and thus tried to compensate by being very enthusiastic myself. It was a hot day so I’m glad the tour was only a few hours but it was very interesting, the young guy did pass on a lot of information. The weather at one point decided to alter drastically and pee on us as we were in one of the only green open spaces in Brisbane!! After the tour we went back to the university campus that was meant
to be cursed as the grounds and buildings were funded by blood money. A local man who owned large portions of the city had for years been murdering people in secret and selling their bodies for money!! Anyway we went to the campus to go into one of their old buildings (about as old as the house I grew up in!) to see if this floor he spoke of was haunted but we didn’t see anything surprisingly.
After such a busy day it was of course time for tea and cake, before taking a walk along the waterfront to find a restaurant for dinner to celebrate Amy’s birthday. It was hard to find a place that wasn’t over priced but I guess it’s like all waterfront places. We managed to get some reasonable food at a local pub bar type thing and raised a glass to Amy’s 24th birthday which reminded Nath and I how old we are. We then saw Amy safely onto the bus and headed back to our damp room -yippee we couldn't wait, I love bed bugs I don’t know about you! The next day I had organised for us to go to a travel
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Does this tree make me look slim? clinic to make sure we didn’t need Japanese Encephalitis (the vaccination that is not the disease) but being as that wasn’t until the afternoon we sat and enjoyed the movie room at the hostel. We caught the end of “the Magician” a film I’d wanted to see when it originally came out, but having now seen how it finishes and not the storey itself it kind of ruined any reason to now watch the whole thing. Anyway when this finished and we sat waiting to watch “the hangover” (love that film) whilst we were all thinking “someone downstairs notice its finished and put the next one on”, a guy used his mobile to call the front desk to load the next movie, classic move, wish I’d thought of that!! We were on the third floor after all.
Anyway that afternoon we made it to Dr Debs travel clinic and were basically told, we didn’t need Japanese Encephalitis and that Malaria shouldn’t be a problem and that the best thing to do was not get bitten. Although I tried to explain that one mosquito could seek me out behind a lead door, she didn’t seem to grasp my concern. Instead
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An Ibis, we saw loads of these around Brisbane we concluded our consultation, got the hard sell from the nurse trying to sell us prescription drugs and then clobbered with a bill of $90 each, yes each even though we had both been in the consult, received the same info in the same consolation time and were not administered with anything, we were charged separately. Unfortunately as you may well know doctor’s receptionists are renowned for being bitter miserable women who would knife you before answering any extra questions let alone taking criticism for bill payments, so the mono brow lady that served us only got a payment and a smile from us as we left.
From here we legged it to the Chinese visa consulate to get the forms to fill in only to find we had missed them being open by about 2 minutes. Luckily a guy in the hall saw our despondent faces and grabbed one for us before the security guard could lock up - phew. That evening I needed to sort out some money transfers so reluctantly used up our valuable minutes on the mobile to call home, only to find I didn’t have any of the vital information needed to get through
security. This of course was THEIR FAULT I decided and in my stress I got rather pissy with the man on the other end. Looking back at it after a swift hypothetical slap from Nath to calm me down, I found what was needed and called them back. Yes I know it was my fault but I just lost it for a moment with flash backs to my inability to access my money when we were in the states. That evening we noticed that the hostel was very much split into those in the bar downstairs and those on their computers upstairs. We of course were part of the later and although found the lack of contact between people even though they’d travelled to see other parts of the world a little backwards, ashamedly we joined in to; sucked into our own little digital world away from other tourists. (Well we did have blogs entries and photos to sort out)
The next morning we checked out of our soggy room and Nath salivated one last time at the t-shirts. we headed into town again to meet Amy and hand in our Chinese visa forms. Amy needed our help in
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The old cinema paid for with blood money! finding her a hat, as she had been travelling without one, and feeling older and thus superior (hehehe) I suggested as the weather got hotter she really should think about getting one. Little did I know that Amy has the biggest head in the world, not in a narcissistic way but physically. It didn’t look that big and she is a pretty girl but as soon as she tried any hats on you realised she should have other smaller heads orbiting her like planets, so needless to say finding her a dainty ladies hat was impossible. After finding that the only ones that fitted were the men’s hats she decided to wait till she got to the Whitsunday’s. That afternoon we went on a cruise of Brisbane as we’d been recommended to use the water taxi as a cheap way of cruising the river. It turns out that the river, which is a murky brown, has strong currents and is also full of bull sharks - no wonder they have a man made outdoor swimming pool for the summer.
Along the way we passed the area known as Kangaroo Point and came across loads of waterside flats. I knew
this was roughly where Ben lived so Amy and I guessed and dreamed about which one he might live in - in a few hours we would know! The tour was great but before long it was getting late and Nath and I needed to head back to the hostel to grab our large bags and then unfortunately, drag them back to the exact same boat to get to Bens house further along the river. It was a hard drag and we needed to stop many times but we made it, so once the exhaustion and heavy breathing had subsided I was then free to get nervous about meeting Ben. I had signed us up to this Couch Surfing thing on recommendation and I was vaguely aware of its existence before but being our first “surf” I was still nervous as to what to expect. I hoped we’d like him but more so for some reason I hoped he would like us. It felt like waiting for an interview or something hoping you make the right impression to get the job or in this case the couch.
I looked around nervously as we exited the boat and noticed a
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Our free guided tour of the city (well apart from the tip!) loan stranger leaning on a near by wall. I was hoping it was Ben as I went straight over and introduced myself and Nath. I needn’t have worried at all; Ben oozed with that laid back Aussie attitude and was very friendly and enthusiastic talking to us about the area as we drove to his flat. His flat was literally one block away but with our big bags (I’d pre warned him) he had thought ahead to pick us up. We entered the remote control gate to one of the blocks that over looked the river - excellent, shame we it was dark otherwise I’d have known if Amy and I were right. Our room, yes we had our own room, had a fold out mattress in it and bedding all ready for us. Ben had been hosting and surfing for a while now and had a glowing record (one of the reasons I chose him) so was all prepared for us.
Bens flat was excellent, very modest with a few stunning photos he had taken framed on the walls, an impressive collection of wooden bowls and carvings he had made himself and a great view out over the
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The queen with a purse! Brisbane River. We had some dinner whilst getting to know each other and after we’d eaten Ben took us out around the local area to walk off our meal. We headed for Kangaroo point, which wasn’t covered in Kangaroos as I had hoped, but was a nicely lit path along the river, passing people rock climbing it and having BBQ on the public BBQ areas - that would be a great idea at home if only we had the weather for it!! On the way back we were passing someone’s house along the main road, when Ben spotted for us a Possum on top of the house bin, helping himself to the contents. They are sooo cute and I know they are destroying the habitat of New Zealand, but they look just like cats to me, so I was glad to be in a country that honoured them and didn’t flatten them (on purpose). Ben clearly had a plan set out in his mind, not only of what we would do but also what information he would give out at first (as we were to learn), and luckily for us he felt we were nice enough people and not too
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Impressive fig tree weird, so he offered to take us to his parents small holding in “the countryside” at the weekend - we jumped at the chance and could hardly say no to that great offer - proper Ozzie home life!!
Ben had work the next day so went straight to bed once we got back, and thinking about it he probably needs the “time off” from being a host all of the time, so heading to his room early is probably the best thing he can do to still enjoy having people over without feeling overwhelmed. Saying that Nath and I were tired from the excitement of our day so we too went to bed. Next morning, Ben had left us with a key to his house, something me both still find amazing from a stranger who had just met us - I guess we must have made a good impression.
We headed into town to make the most of the free internet we had found at the local library, as usual without meaning to the time just slipped away and I felt like I had achieved nothing. So in a thoroughly pissed off mood (as usual) I took it
out on inanimate objects and foreigners!! Which was only made worse by the former fighting back, adding pain in my foot to my already growing list of negative emotions. We were as usual late as well to be back at Ben’s to cook dinner and on walking back it had only just occurred to us that we had none of the food we were going to cook and needed to find a supermarket- which is better said than done it would seem in Brisbane. After finding a supermarket down some dark alley way (turns out there was one right next to Ben’s that we could have used!!), we finally arrived back at Ben’s (after him) and started making our “bland traditional English food for him-bangers and mash”. He was very polite and said it was lovely; but I must say it didn’t really taste the same as home, it could have been the aussies mash, or the weird gravy or even the meat (which I assumed wasn’t kangaroo) or perhaps it was just that I cant cook for shit!! Hopefully Ben’s parents are better cooks than we are, just so the poor lad gets at least one decent meal this
week!
After our truly awful attempt at cooking Ben took us out for a car tour of Brisbane and to one of the best views of the city. Having only seen the city by boat and foot, we suddenly realised just how big it was and how busy- they should rename it Busybane! I think there was a soccer match on or something but the roads were buzzing and made the streets come alive with people sat drinking and enjoying themselves again something we hadn’t seen when we’d been sat at the hostel. Ben took us up to the top of Mount Coot-Tha, which overlooks the entire city and was just stunning. You could even see the dark strip of the winding Brissy River as it worked its way through all the sky scrapers. This area was also very busy as with everything touristy there was of course an overpriced café/restaurant, thankfully the thought of eating was still making us feel sick after the dinner we’d cooked so we ignored the feelings of nausea and headed back to Bens.
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