Brisbane - they've got one thing on their minds!!!

Arriving in Brisbane without accommodation was a bad idea.  We spent about 2 hours trying to find somewhere for all of us together, but eventually settled for all of us in one hostel for the second night, but for the first night Nikki, Mike and I were going to have to stay out of town in a caravan park.  After parking up and getting the bus back into town, Rick, Zabrina, Fran and I had a wander round town.  Rick had read about a cool bar in the Lonely Planet, so we headed off there to get some food.  Except we couldn't find it.  Anywhere.  But in true Ricky B style we struggled on, and eventually it turned up.  It also turned out to be pretty expensive, so we just had a drink and went to Subway in the end!  We wandered over to Southbank, and sat by the water with our sandwiches, which was lovely.  After that, it was on down the water to where the pool and little man-made beach were.  We sat in a bar overlooking the pool, and relaxed in the sunshine.  I gave Ro, from the Inca trail, a call, since he lived in Brisbane.  It turned out he was only the fourth Australian we had managed to unintentionally avoid.

While in Melbourne, I had mailed all the Ozzies we had met on our travels so far, and told them our plans so that we could meet up if we were passing by.  So in Melbourne, we were supposed to meet up with Conrad, from Ilha Grande, since he lived in St Kilda.  But it never really happened.  On the way back up to Sydney, we were to call in to Wollongong to go for a few beers with Will from the Inca trail, but due to some geographical ignorance, and a poor memory, we missed him too.  In a nightclub in Sydney, Rick bumped into Adam from Ilha Grande - the girls were suitably impressed that he was trying to remember on which small island off the coast of Brazil it was that they had first met eachother - who told him that he worked in one of the hostels there.  We were all supposed to call in to him and say hello, but didn't get a chance to do that either.  So now it was Ro's turn.  No longer doing the travelling thing, Ro had since rejoined the civilised world, and found gainful employment, which meant no drinking on a school night.  So he couldn't come meet us either.  Oops.

After a while, we got a call from Mike, to say that they had arrived in Central Station.  So we met them, and then headed back to Bunk, where the others were staying.  Nikki and Mike had had a top time in Wet 'n' Wild, but were pretty knackered.  We had a couple of drinks in the bar there, and joined in the bingo that was going on - Nikki even managed to win herself a free night there, which was quite convenient seeing as she was booked in for the next night!  Rick, Zabrina and Fran headed out to a gig, but we just headed back out to the van.  There was a bit of a wait for the bus, during which time Mike nearly died of tiredness, but before too long we were tucked up in the van, fast asleep.

Next morning we checked into the hostel, and went for breakfast in a cafe around the corner.  The next few hours were spent in travel agents trying to book our Fraser Island and Whitsunday Islands trips.  It was proving a bit of a nightmare because we wanted to book ours as a package, but still be able to do Fraser with the girls, who weren't staying long enough to do both.  It turned out that that wasn't possible, so the girls decided just to do a day trip of Fraser.  We then decided to go on the same trip as Tim, Mike's step-brother, and the Dutch guys he was travelling with.  The problem them was trying to agree on the Whitsundays part.  Tim's group weren't actually staying on their boat, so we were trying to decide whether to go on his group for the Whitsundays, or go on a different boat, which looked really nice.  After much discussion, deliberation, and some disagreement, we couldn't be bothered trying to decide anymore, and just went with the nicer boat.

That afternoon, while Rick went for a bit of a kip, the rest of us went back to Southbank, for a wander round, and were treated to quite an eyefull of a couple who were, for want of a better expression, really going for it, right there in the pool for all to see.  It had been raining, so there weren't a huge number of people about.  I arrived over to meet the others after grabbing a sandwich to find Mike, Nikki, Fran and Zabrina with cameras all a-pointing at your one in the water, with her legs in places they really shouldn't have been.  It got funnier again when Mike and Zabrina decided to jump in and join them - the original couple were completely oblivious to their attempts to upstage them!

Show over, we went for a drink and a bite to eat, and then walked down to the Brisbane river to catch the CityCat across to the other side.  (Not before catching another couple doing something that should probably be reserved for areas of the walled and rooved variety.  Well, we already knew that there was something in the water.)  It was a pretty quick trip, we only just managed to get a photo taken before getting off again!

The others headed to a bar after that, but I wanted a bit more of a look around Brisbane, so I headed for a wander.  I liked this city, and was a bit disappointed that we had to move on so quickly.  I had a walk down to the botanic gardens, then back up through town to see the PO square, Anzac square, and the other main tourist sites highlighted on my map.  It was a nice place to go for a stroll.

Back at the hostel, we had a few drinks, then went out for food at the Fat Rick's.  The others had a few more drinks back at the hostel, but I was knackered and went to bed.

The next morning I was up early, so went on the net for a while.  Between the two of us, Derv and I managed to get her Skype set up, and still had enough time to have a 10 minute phone call before her machine crashed!  After that it was check out, Fat Rick's brekkie, and off to Noosa.  I really liked Brisbane, and given more time I would have hung out a bit more, met up with Ro, and maybe even my cousin who lives there!  There's just bever enough time...

Click here for the Brisbane photos