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Published: April 27th 2007
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Brisbane, Brisbane, Brisbane....what can I say? In fairness, I think we just started on the wrong foot. Upon arrival at the transit centre, myself and Brenda made our way to the Brisbane City Backpackers, whom we had already made a booking with. We arranged to book into a four person dorm (as Lindsay was joining us on the 26th), long story short...the nasty man on reception informed us we were booked into a thirty person dorm! Not to sure how he managed to get through school because there is a big difference in 30 and 4. I didn't even know such living quarters existed! After a fairly heated argument in which he claimed that the error was ours, we decided to walk out...it just wasn't worth dealing with such an incompetant neanderthal of a beast. He warned us on our way out that we were cutting off our noses to spite our face because everywhere was booked up. Well, he wasn't too far off the mark...the next few places we tried were completely booked out for the week. So we came across a place called "The Yellow Submarine", it had availability (and I can see why), so without hesitation we
paid for 3 nights! To be honest the hostel was soo bad it was actually funny, place was like a play pen in a mental house. Lets just say there was rat poison under Brenda's bed, a random faucet conveniently placed over my bed, and drawings of spaceships/cartoons and writting (detailing a bit more than i needed to know) all over the walls...seriously felt like it was something from the looney bin! The name of the hostel isn't too big of a surprise because even out the back we were informed that people smoke "marijuana" all night..ha.. no wonder no one else seemed phased by the kip! ha.. was truly an experience.
That afternoon our third travel buddy Lindsay arrived in from Melbourne (god love her she had a slight hangover). We introduced her to our new prison cell and then ventured out of the hostel for some pizza. Given the circumstances we felt it was best to avoid the room for as long as possible..hence a big box of vino was purchased and quickly consumed.
The following day we headed into the city to see what exactly Brisbane had to offer, to be honest...not that much. We
met up with a colleaque of Brenda's named Mark for a coffee and then myself and Lindsay walked around the Queen Street Mall area and took pictures with randomly placed pieces of art. Later that nite the three of us just took a stroll along the waterfront to take in the Brisbane city skyline and redeem our free drink and get a $6 meal in Tin Billy's (I can highly recommend the chicken schnitzel).
On Saturday (28th of April) we were like kids on christmas morning, it was the moment we were looking forward to most in Brisbane--the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary!! As it was a bit overcast we immediately ran to the koalas! We were determined not to miss the photo opportunity with the little guys. Especially because Lone Pine is the only place here that lets you actually hold the koala's. We had the priveledge of holding a wee koala named "Bagel," she was soo cute, but surprisingly heavy for her size...i dunno whats in that Eucalyptus they are soo fond of but I'm not going near it. Both Lindsay and Brenda got their photo's taken and just as the woman was prepping Bagel for my picture,
Oh boy!
"Help! Someone get us outta this prison!" she (Bagel) decided to "relieve" herself....given that you have to hold them by their bottoms I decided it was best to wait a minute or two before holding her...ha.
After getting our pictures taken with the koala's we ran to the kangaroo sanctuary, where more than 130 kangaroos and joey's were bouncing all over the place. We came prepared with kangaroo pellets, so we quickly became their new best friends. The little joey's were adorable and didn't freight at all. The bigger guys were a bit more intimidating, especially when one decided to hold on tight to my arm with his wee claws...yes, i have a war wound (aka kangaroo scratch..ha). After this we continued to walk around Lone Pine and attended the koala talk and the birds of prey show. One of my other favourite elements of the show was the sheep dog show. Basically it was a border collie and another yard dog herding the sheep. It was pretty cool to watch, especially since my wee doggie (Muffin) is a border collie... i could really see alot of her traits coming out in the dog in the show. After that we went to a lorikeet (type of
bird) feeding session, where I got to hold out food and let them flock to me...well when lots of birds are involved, lots of dropping involved...need I say more?? Yes, lucky Susan got a wee bit of luck that day..ha.
Later that nite we headed back into town to grab some food in an irish pub, and then headed back to the hostel to wash up and get ready for a saturday night on the town. We got a taxi to an area called the Valley and headed to a place that had been recommended to us called "RG's." We soon realised this place was possibly an even bigger meat market than "Cheecky Monkey's" in Byron Bay, so we decided after a while to move on and check out another place called "The Empire." This is where were got talked into doing the "Charlie's Angel" pose for the camera..ha. Then we got a text from a fellow Paddy we met in Byron who told us they were in a place called "Mustangs" and that it was pretty good. So we headed over there for the remainder of the nite..then the fun part...trying to get a taxi to take
us home (seriously this place was as bad as Dublin on a Friday nite, it was next to impossible). Luckily we were able to get one eventually to bring us back safely to the Yellow Submarine..aka the mother ship!
The next morning we had to check out by 10am, and make it over to the transit centre to catch our bus to Noosa. Surpisingly we got up no bother (think it had something to do with the excitement of getting out of the hell hole..ha).
If I had to rate Brisbane out of 10, I would give it a 2. Its definitely not a city/place I would really be pushed about coming back to if I were to visit the east coast again.
Next stop: Sunshine Beach, Noosa Heads!! WAHOOOOOOOOOO.... and Brenda's uncle David has agreed to let us stay with him while we are there. We are all just soo excited at the notion of staying in a house, having our own rooms and tv to ourselves! Bring on da sunshine!
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Amy
non-member comment
Brisbane
Hahaha, the Yellow Submarine looks like a crazy place! That random faucet placed over your bed is the weirdest thing I've seen in a while. Very, VERY random. At least it was an experience! :P Aww, the wee roos and Bagel are so cute! Looking forward to hearing about Noosa. By the way, Happy Birthday in two days!!!!!!!! :D