A day in Brisbane

At the tail-end of my Western Aus trip, after my utterly amusing redeye flight out of Darwin, I found myself with a couple days in Queensland before returning to Sydney for the start of 2nd semester. Here, I describe my first taste of Brisbane, though I’d return a few months later for another day in this city.

 
So post-flight shenanigans, I found myself in a hostel called ‘Somewhere to Stay’, a place outside of the city conisting of 2 big old houses with nice views of the skyline. It’s actually across the river from the city in South Brisbane, but definitely walkable. 8am was too early to get into my room, so sleep was once again delayed until I could get into my nice single. In the meantime, I wandered around and bought some cheap apples and breakfast, and got my eyes checked at an optometrist (yet again). Unlike the previous 2 incidents this year, my eyes are red around the iris due to my immune system fighting some bacteria that must have gotten underneath my dry contacts the one day I actually wore them. I paid $61AU for the appt, plus $25 for the prescription drops. Awesome.

Went back to the hostel, watched Hitch in the lounge, and then was able to get into my room at 10:30. I then proceeded to sleep for 2 hours, and it was glorious.

I felt fine when I woke up, so I caught the hostel shuttle into the city. South Bris is separated from the city by a nice river, which ahs 2 or 3 bridges going across it. It’s all really pretty with the skyline until you get into the city, which had a lot of construction going on. Still, I rather liked Brisbane on the whole and will probably try to spend another day there in the future. The streets have a very “open” feel to them, lots of shops and cafes. I wandered through the QUT campus, also very open and modern-looking – much nicer than USyd I think! The Botanic Gardens were nearby, but didn’t have many blooming gardens since it is winter here – winter being upper-60′s and partly cloudy (at least today). There was a big tree covered in purple flowers there, juxtaposed with the skyline in the background. Que bello! I ate a late lunch at a pancake restaurant – slow service but delicious. I spent the rest of the day wandering along the river and browsing some shops. I looked at an amazing photo gallery and wanted to buy everything and see all the places photographed! Sigh. Around sunset I walked back across the bridge and had some fun with my camera and the interesting bridge architecture. By the time I made it back to South Bank (South Bris, on the river) it was dark. I ate dinner on the water at an Asian place and paid way too much for a small plate of veggies and chicken. Ah well, worth it for the view I suppose. Brisbane’s skyline is nice and simple, not too cluttered with buildings.

Just off the river, I stumbled across a cool little pathway covered with a purple-flower fencing going along and above the path like a tunnel, leading to a bunch of cafes all lit up. And tonight the markets were on in that area, so of course I wandered through all the white tents. It definitely was not as exciting as the Mindil Beach markets in Darwin, but I still enjoyed it. One stand was giving free hand exfoliations, so naturally I did that and my hands were all smooth afterwards. I even caved and bought the facial cleanser because my face felt so dirty and dry after the Western Aus trip. It felt like leather, that’s how terrible my skin was. Gross.