Brisbane Here We Come!

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So after saying our goodbye’s to mum and dad at Rockhampton Airport Katie and I finally left for Brisbane, although not before I caved in and bought another science magazine. Security was laid back and keen to get home, as was the fashion in Central Queensland, which made it easy to breeze through and onto the small white plane on the tarmac which waited eagerly to take me away from the family that I had grown up with for the past 18 years. It was a sad moment yet I couldn’t help but feel butterflies in my stomach when I thought about what was waiting for me. Finally I’d be out of that tiny, half-witted, redneck town that my parents had chosen to call home and off into the world, starting with a city that I had wanted to see for a very long time now.



The flight was only about 50 minutes but we still managed to spot 6 or 7 forest fires on our way. It had never occurred to me that they would burn in such a circular fashion before and I found myself wondering how many of them had been deliberately started by the government and gotten out of hand. Soon enough, however, the lush green of the Queensland rainforests dissolved into the early suburbs of the city and no sooner had we used up all of our willpower to refuse the complimentary biscuits had the skyscrapers begun to rise beneath us. The sight was amazing and even though people had told us that Brisbane was only a small city in comparison to the others Australia had to offer I was still blown away by the scale of it; I suppose I would be though after spending the last 3 months in Yeppoon. We hit the ground. We were here. We swiftly made our way through Brisbane Airport, grabbed our luggage and made our way outside. The heavy hustle and bustle of passengers making their way from luggage collection to the Air Train fondly reminded me of the masses at Manchester Airport and standing amongst the crowds in my cowboy hat and oversized backpack I realised that I probably couldn’t look more like a cliché if I tried.



Within minutes we had bought out tickets for the Air Train and quickly moving through the Suburbs and rapidly approaching the city centre. Every second that passed made this place feel more and more like Manchester and by the time we hopped off at Roma Street I was filled with a growing optimism that I’d be reunited with all of the flavours of city life that I had loved back in England. But speaking of life in England, I was instantly reminded of my overly-spiderman-loving friend from college when we were greeted with the sight of a “Naiomi Sushi” outlet opposite the train station.



Katie made a phone call to the hostel and not too long after a minibus picked us up and took us to our temporary home for the next few weeks. First impressions of Somewhere To Stay were that it was very green, not too far from the city and had a young Irish girl working at reception who was jammed right up her own arse. After running into two of the three resident cats we managed to find our room, basic 8 bed room with enough room for your bags and a towel but not much else. It looked like a good place to start and reasonable good value for the money we paid.



I scrambled onto a spare top bunk and Katie swiftly claimed a bottom bunk for herself. After getting orientated with the place we started to head out to see what shops and bars were local and cheap. Or at least that was the plan, there was one obstacle we had to get past first. Monday night at Somewhere To Stay was pizza night and in order for us to head out and start exploring we had to make our way past reception where they were giving away domino’s pizza for 50c a slice… this diet was going to be harder to stick to than we thought. Miraculously we made it and set off down the local main street, which I was very pleased to see housed a Nando’s less than a minute’s walk from the hostel. The rest of the street was populated by banks, bars, café’s and convenience stores. Coles wasn’t too far away either and we made a mental note to buy some food before we ran out of money and accidentally starved to death. By this time the night had swallowed the city and lights of the Brisbane skyline had flickered to life. It was an amazing feeling, we were finally doing it. We had finally started the adventure that we’d been talking about for close to a year and it looked like it was going to have a very good start.



We followed the lights towards the city centre and not too long afterwards I found myself sat under a Ferris wheel in a beautiful open green park staring out onto the skyscrapers that grew out of the shadows on the other side of the river. The sight was breath taking, the contrast to Yeppoon was almost unbelievable and after taking a handful too many pictures we started to explore the park around us. Now I was already in love with the place, I was finally surrounded by the city feel that I had craved since I left England and at the same time I found myself in a subtropical style park filled with palm trees, lush flowers and the occasional duck. But how naïve were we to fall in love so soon after all we hadn’t even seen the beach yet, as we made our way through the park just expecting more flowers and maybe a water feature we came across the inner city beach. And it was exactly what it sounded like, it was an artificial beach in the middle of the park with sand and bars on one side of the water and instead of an open ocean on the other side there was the rest of the city. It was so surreal to see that it brought us to a halt and we just burst out laughing in amazement.



Finally we landed in a nearby bar and had a drink while looking over the somewhat haphazard view of the bars, beach, palm trees and the towering buildings of the city centre. It was the perfect introduction to our adventure and once we had returned to the hostel I was overcome with a wave of tiredness and I collapsed on my top bunk and drifted into unconsciousness, excited to see what Brisbane was going to offer us over the rest of or stay.

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