Viva Brisvegas

I know its been forever since an update.

On our last night in Noosa we were visited by a cockroach.  It crawled all over my back and then into the girl's bed above me (Mieke).  She threw it on the floor and we could not find it anywhere.. until Tanja packed her bag the next morning and it came crawling out.  You will remember Tanja as the girl who almost peed her pants from the moth frenzy of Fraser Island.. Needless to say she screamed and went a little crazy.  She was saved by a brazilian who picked up the critter and took it outside.

We packed up... and said our goodbyes to Tanja and Mieke.  Our plans are to meet up with them, Greg and Mikkel in Brisbane in a few days for Mieke's birthday.  Greg and Mickel were staying behind to go the zoo today.

We travel with Fleming and Pal until Brisbane and then left them behind.  This is pretty much what traveling is all about.  Making friends and then leaving them behind.  We stayed in a place called City Backpackers which wasn't too bad. The first day we got there the first hour or so was wasted up by Krystal  talking to different staff members at the greyhound desk because she left a folder on the bus a week ago which contained some somewhat important information. We spent the afternoon wandering around Queen St. which is basically the shopping district. While we were there the current Australian Idol, Guy Sebastien, was doing a free show right on Queen St so we got to see him. We went and got a kebab and walked around some more then tried to have an early night. I say tried beacuse the most annoying Germans in our room stayed up until after 1:00am talking very loudly...in German... with the lights on... while five other people tried to sleep. No respect.

Our second day in Brisbane it rained cats and dogs.  I had to come back to hostel twice and change because I was so soaked.  They claim to be in the worst drought ever.. Krystal and I had agreed to meet up at the Art Museum.  We both braved the wind and the rain.. arriving soaked and angry.. only to have the gallery closed until Dec 2.  We both cried.  Thank goodness the rain covered my tears. We ran into Greg and Mikkel but we all were pretty tired and did our own seperate things. Krystal and I had a date night. We went for hot chocolate and donuts and then went to see a movie. Children of Men. It was really good. 5 stars. I would recomend it to everyone, except my mom....it's quite violent. After the movie we went home to find the Germans already asleep. Thank Goodness.

Our fourth day in Brisbane was much nicer.  We toured around downtown again and went to the museum.  All the stuffed snakes and spiders where a little creepy.  Brisbane is dubbed Brisvegas because of its casinos.. but really.. it seem to have less than Edmonton.  The city actually looks a lot like Calgary or Edmonton.  About 1.5 million people live here.. and its actually just on a river not the ocean.  You could easily confuse it for most medium sized places in Canada.  Both Krystal and I really enjoyed being in a big city again.

Then came craziness for Meike's birthday.  We had some Jagermiester... because of the germans... and some beer.   It was a blast.  Although we had lost the 2 norges we still had the super six... which made it a ton of fun.  Quite possibly our drunkest night in Australia to date. Happy Birthday Meike. Tomorrow we head to Surfers Paradise with Mickel.. Greg is going straight to Byron Bay... where we will meet up with him.