Noosa and Brisbane

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G'day. After leaving Hervey Bay we headed to Noosa. We had such a jobs worth as a bus driver: the Greyhound bus drivers have got the gayest uniform, they have to wear shorts and have their socks pulled up to their knees, our driver looked ridiculous. He especially grated with Jonny who was still hanging like a Christmas stocking from the night before. Firstly he made us buy these discount cards for $40 otherwise he said our tickets weren't valid and we wouldn't be allowed to travel- none of the other drivers care a less. During the journey Jonny got his second warning for trying to sleep on the back of the bus without his t-shirt on- three strikes and your out. The driver was especially annoyed with someone eating an orange aswell?! The fatc the air conditioning was buggered didn't help either, we keptgeting rained on because the system was clogged up- Will felt as if he was back on Fraser Island with Jonny driving the landrover into the waves with his window wide open!

It was lashing it down when we arrived in Noosa, we quickly booked ourselves into Koalas Youth Hostel and just chilled out for the rest of the day. We had a crazy German guy called Wolfie staying in our room, had some good crack with him about the World Cup, he kept making weird noises though like the man in Police Academy. We got up at 4am the next day to watch the Champs Leauge Final, was pretty gutted for Arsenal, they played really well with ten men, Henry slagging off Ronaldinho at the end was a bit weird though.

After catching a quick nap after the game we were awoken by Chris and Sarah, an American girl we met on Fraser, saying they'd found an amazing place to stay for $24 each, the same as Koalas. We packed our stuff from Koalas and went across the road to this new place, it was so awesome! It was like a home from home, it was an apartment with three levels: kitchen with a dishwasher and an oven (A luxury in Youth Hostels), lounge with DVD player and hi-Fi. The next two days at Noosa saw us just staying in our pad all day, doing as little as possible- what a life.

After Noosa we went to the capital of Queensland, Brisbane. It felt strange being in a big city again, High Rise buildings everywhere and 5hitloads of traffic. After having a lazy first day, which consisted of going to see the Da Vinci Code, we explored the city on Day 2. We had a look around the Park and then snoodled (Jonnys word for having a snoozy dawdle??) by the side of the River, it was a Sunday so the place was packed with families "relaxing". We bumped into Rafa from our Fraser Island Trip just lying on some grass, as Jonny would say, small world! I didn't like the look of Brisabne initially, but the area by the park and the river was really nice.

The most noteworthy thing we done in Brisbane was visit the Castelmaine XXXX brewery. We had a tour of the factory and got told about the history of beer and of XXXX, got to see some old TV adverts aswell which were pretty funny, the XXXX mascot looked quite familiar aswell... We got four free beers at the end which more than justified the $16 entry fee.

We left Brisbane on 23rd May for Surfers Paradise, which is where we are now. we bumped into other Chris, the guy Marty's been travelling with, aparently Martys decided to goto Perth for 3 months Hard Labour, so it looks as if we've seen the last of him for a while! A few people we've met have slagged Surfers Paradise off because "It's like Benidorm", to me thats not necessarily a negative thing though, it's quite good to get out of the Big City Brisbane and arrive in the most touristy of tourist places where theres KFCs on every corner. The Gold Coast, where Surfers Paradise is, has two theme parks,a sea world and... a Wet and Wild within a stone throw of it, tommorrow we're off to the Splashtacular (not my words) Wet and Wild- can't wait.

Till next time, Mike

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Photos

Cocknose wouldn't give a XXXX for anything else likes
Will Cookmeistering it by the XXXX Mascot

High Life
Me by the River Brisbane

Pond Life
JJ and Sal in Brisbane Park

King Tut's Put Put
Will speaking Parseltounge with a fellow serpent

Brisbane from above
View from our hostel balcony

Comments

[Catherine]

Pond Life
Nice to see Johnny and Will managing to pull the birds!!