Brisbane

On the 6th March we headed off on the Australian leg of our trip, starting with a week in Brisbane. We got in about 10:30pm and I had a shuttle booked to take us to the YHA where we were staying for the week.

I'm a big fan of hostels, and this one lived up to expectation. We had a private double room with bathroom booked, which had nice views out over the city. The highlight of the hostel however was the 5th floor. This is where all the cool stuff was... There was a games room, big TV lounge and study area which we didn't use. But the best thing was a huge, fully equipped industrial kitchen with indoor seating area, as well as a rooftop terrace with outdoor seating and a pool, with fantastic views over the city. All for less than the price of a budget hotel room... If I'm staying anywhere for more than a few days I want the option of being able to cook proper meals, instead of having to eat out all the time.

From Monday to Thursday Will was working at QUT (Queensland University of Technology). He turned up Monday morning to find he had been allocated his own office to use during that time, complete with his name on the door. It's always nice to be made to feel welcome! His building had very funky light switch decals... Will spent Friday at CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation) and also managed to fit in a visit to the University of Queensland.

Will would head off to QUT each day (about a 25 minute walk along the river away) and I would spend the day exploring the sights of Brisbane. I had never been before, but I really enjoyed it. It's a very livable city and I liked how well set up it was for cycling and walking with lots of dedicated car-free trails, particularly along both banks of the river. The main thing that puts me off considering it as an option for the future is the heat and humidity. We were there outside the main summer months and it was around 33 degrees each day. I could cope with that, but wouldn't want the temperature much higher! The other thing is, a lot of the wildlife like insects and spiders are huge! Luckily I didn't run into any snakes, but I did find some rather large golden orb-weaver spiders around the place. They can weave webs over a metre long and strong enough to catch small birds! The webs are a gorgeous golden colour, hence their name...

We also saw quite a few decent sized lizards around the place as well.

I enjoyed my exploring. The Roma St Parkland was an oasis of green in the middle of the city. I saw loads of my golden orb-weavers here!

The South Bank was also a cool place to wander. Here you had museums, the state library, the art centre, bars and restaurants, along with tourist attractions like the Nepal Peace Pagoda and the Wheel of Brisbane. I spent an interesting morning wandering around GOMA (Gallery of Modern Art).

 South Bank also has a man-made beach which seemed to be well utilised.

One thing we really liked about Brisbane was the CityHopper which is a free inner-city ferry service on the river. You could just jump on and off for free at your leisure. It runs until midnight every night, and was a nice way to watch the city go by..

One day I caught the CityHopper all the way to the end of its line at Sydney St which took about three-quarters of an hour. From here I walked to New Farm Park for a look around, then went on to The Powerhouse which is an old powerstation which has been transformed into a very cool performing arts centre.

Brisbane has some very cool bridges criss-crossing the river, and they looked their best when lit up at night.

On Friday night we had a date night courtesy of a couple of group-on vouchers I managed to find. First was a 3-course meal complete with bottle of wine at Rush CBD which was a pretty happening bar/restaurant in the city centre. The voucher was $75 which was a bargain for a very good meal for the both of us, plus bottle of bubbles...

Next up was using voucher number two on the Wheel of Brisbane ($8 entry each instead of the usual $19!). This wasn't quite as impressive as the London Eye, but still a very cool way to admire the city at night.

The final part of the date night was a visit to one of the laneways to check out an interactive light projection show which was part of the World Science Festival on in Brisbane at the time.

 

One of the exhibitions was a light projection on the underside of a concrete railway overpass which you could control. I was having a play with this when I got approached by a film crew who were making a 'Visit Brisbane' tourism commercial. They spent a bit of time filming me, so you never know, you might be watching the commercial one day and catch a glimpse of me!

So, that pretty much sums up our time in Brisbane. On Saturday we spent a brilliant day at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, but I'll do a separate post for that as there are LOTS of animal pics...