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Published: September 29th 2013
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The journey from Noosa to Brisbane took around 2 hours. When we arrived at the bus terminal our hostel Brisbane Backpackers Resort came to pick us up. It wasn't the nicest hostel we had stayed in but one of the cheapest we could find in Brisbane. The hostel was huge making it hard to meet anyone- we definitely prefer the smaller more intimate hostels. After checking into our 8 bed dorm and meeting our room mates we headed out to South Bank to explore the city. It was great being in a big city again but the weather wasn't so great as it started pouring down with rain. We had a walk through the market stalls, along the river front then went to seek shelter from the rain inside the public library and took advantage of their free wifi for a couple of hours.
Once the rain had died down we went back to the hostel where we bumped into another couple from the Whitsundays Wendy and Stijn from Holland. We got talking and arranged to go out for some drinks after we had eaten dinner. We went to the West End with a number of bars to choose from
but unfortunately they were all out of our price range. Just a small jug of beer was $21!!!! In the end none of us wanted to pay the extortionate prices they were charging so went to the bottle shop on the corner and picked up a few bottles of beer and cider to drink in Wendy and Stijn's camper-van. We chatted in the van for a few hours and reminisced over their pictures from the Whitsundays but by 11pm Jon was falling asleep sat upright so we called it a night.
At 9am we woke up and the sun was shining!!! We quickly scarpered out of bed and headed out for the day. We walked all along the river at South Bank and this time actually got to enjoy the scenery, boats and clear skies around us rather than the dark, gloomy one we had the previous day. It was great taking a stroll along the river front but also quite testing having to walk past all the lovely looking restaurants and bars along the way. From South Bank we made our way to the Gallery of Modern Art to see the Aboriginal exhibition which was spread out over
four floors. It was very interesting but also very dark and quite sad to see how the Aboriginals were almost eradicated when Britain colonised Australia and how they've been treated with a lack of respect and understanding ever since, even during the country's recent history. There was one piece of art which was quite disturbing of an aboriginal man repeating on a video link "I forgive you" each time he said it his eyes were filling with tears until eventually he just started crying uncontrollably.
After two floors we had seen enough so made our way outside to enjoy our picnic we had made on the grass just outside the gallery. Once we had finished our picnic we went back to the library as we had some travel admin to catch up on including flights and accommodation to book. When we got back to the hostel we had our re-heated satay beef for dinner and then arranged to meet our friend Mollie who we had previously met whilst in New Zealand. We went to the bottle shop and brought a cheap bottle of Merlot and got the free hostel shuttle bus into town. When we got to Mollies hostel
we sat on the roof terrace catching up and drinking till about 11pm and then ventured out to Caxton Street to try and find some bars that weren't ridiculously expensive. Unfortunately this never happened as they were all so expensive so gave up and called it a night not before getting Jon some snacks for the walk home.
The following morning we got up and had breakfast and went out for the day with Mollie. We met at the lagoon at and hopped on the free river boat to Fortitude Valley Markets. The markets were pretty tiny and there wasn't much there (maybe due to the bad weather) so it didn't take much time for us to walk around. We then went for a walk through China town admiring all the crispy ducks hanging in the windows. At around 1pm we found a pub called The Elephant where they were offering a Sunday special - $2 burgers! We couldn't say no. Of course it was too good to be true as you had to buy a drink as well that was $5 but still a nice afternoon all in all especially as I got to try some delicious cider.
Before heading back to the hostel we made our way through Brisbane city centre and all of its shops and then said our final goodbyes to Mollie. That evening we watched a film in bed and went to call it a night until the Manc girl in our room thought she was bringing a random guy back for the night - Jon soon put an end to that. The lights went off and the kissing started. Jon lasted all of 30 seconds before turning on the light, asking her what the hell she was playing at and kicking the random guy out of the room. We all slept pretty well after that!
It was great being in a big city again, especially as the weather wasn't always good. Next stop Byron Bay.
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Doggins
Doggins Bloggins
Great blog!
I live in Brisbane and even for us, going out is very very expensive. Looking forward to following the rest of your trip