Brisbane

A croc
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G'day me maties

Day 1 (Singapore to Brisbane) :  Left Singapore for Brisbane on the 9.55am flight.  Flight was pretty good.  The lady next to me got air sickness.  I think she was pregnant (it wasn't me, I promise).  Flight was uneventful as I was knackered (was up since 4.30am with jetlag as well as one of the guys in the dorm snored like a well fed pig ... I think he may have been american!).  Watched "The Departed" movie and slept a bit.

Gang in Murphies Irish Bar
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Arrived into Brisbane at 7.15pm local time after the 7 hour flight and got a bus to the hotel (The Terraces on Wickham).  Initial impressions are that it's just like Ireland or any other European City... no culture shock yet! Only the accents are different.  It feels a bit like I'm in downtown Athlone (Ireland) hanging with Kylie and Donna :-).

Hit the Hay straight away and slept for 10 hours.  Man I was knackered.

Day 2 Brisbane : Brekkie at hotel and off to town.  Went to backpackers Hostel  opposite Central Station (an elderly Ozzie lady sitting next to me at breakfast in the hotel in singapore told me to go there for all info and tours).   This place was brilliant.  They have a tours office here and they are excellent ... Germaine working there was so helpful.  I organized all my tours up until the 20th.  I got myself a full schedule and will be heading North towards Cairns stopping off at the locations below ... Mo you would be so happy with my organizational skills here.... it's new for me to book more that 2 hours in advance !

Murphies Irish Bar
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1.  Hervey Bay

2. Frazer Island - camping 3 days around Frazer in a 4x4 with 7 or 8 others)

3.  Sailing around the whitsunday Islands ... 3 full days - sleeping onboard with about 25 others - hope I don't get cabin fever - If I do you'll hear about it on the 9 o'clock news :-).

Is the Queen in (queen victoria)
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4.  TownsVille and Magnetic Island for 1 or 2 days

5.  Mission Beach  - White water Rafting and then a skydive  (2 days)

6.  Cairns - Snorkling off Great Barrier Reef  (1 day)

7.  Cairns - Boat trek up Cape Tribulation and into the rainforest area (1 day)

Anzac Square memorial
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8.  Flying from Cairns to Brisbane and bussing it back down the gold coast via Byron bay and on to Sydney.  Must organise this part of the trip in more detail when it gets closer to the time.

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Anyway, thats much of the treck organized.  As for today, I spent if walking about Brisbane.  Not alot to see really.  Quite quiet but the night is still young :-).  You'd love the place Al ... lots of starbucks.

Customs house
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Saw Anzac square where they got this constant flame lighting.  Saw the Story bridge... what the story there?  Sorry :-0.  Also saw the botanic gardens and on to the Customs House and St Stephens church.  It's pretty nice.  didn't bother with the guided tour as I'm just not that bothered today!  I don't imagine there would be all that much to talk about ... this was originally a colony town for criminals specifically that they (the british) made a "free" city.  Basically the criminals took over :-).  The place was just too barren at the time and hot in the summers for the british to "properly" colonize it ... or as Joey in friends would say ... the british "to" properly colonize it ... Mo, you should get this at least  :-)

Irish and english having the craic
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Off to see Steve Irwins Zoo tomorrow so this will take all the day so looking forward to that ... bus trip takes an hour and is made into a kind of guided tour along the way so should be fun.

Slan maties or as good old Steve would say ... "Crikey...is it that time already, Gotta go".

-----  Updated after the original entry above ------------

Well, after the entry above I went for a pint and food in the backpackers hostel bar - not bad.  The XXXX beer is nice stuff.  Anyway it was pretty quiet there so I said feck it - I'll break the prime directive ("Thou shalt not go to an Irish bar when on holidays").  After all there just wasn't anthing else on in town it being so close to new years and all.

Aideens tongue
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The original plan was to go for a pint and then home to my nice cosy bed.  Didn't quite happen that way in fact.  I went down to Murphys pub.  There was a loud band playing but they were pretty good.  I got chatting with this Kiwi guy named Selwyn.  He was a good laugh.  I got a fit for a cigarette (always happens after a couple of pints) and went outside to bum on and got chatting to these girls.  One of then happened to be from Galway (Aideen), the other from Kent in England (forget name) and Cath who is half english half dutch ... sound as a pound the lot of them.  We had a cracking night until about 12 I guess.  Girl from Kent had to head so the others followed ... she lost her glass slipper on the way out the door.  Got some fab pictures with the gang but this damn computer won't let me upload anything .. damn it!

Aideen and Segwyn the Kiwi
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Anyway,  after that myself and Selwyn got chatting to a group of Ozzie girls, two of whom worked in Ireland (Sophie aka Sofa and the gang).  Pretty cool bunch.  Drank away until the bar closed and then went on to a casino that served beer.  Somehow on the way down there we got chatting to this Ozzie bloke Jay.  He was a nutter.  He was tellin me he was a coach for the Brisbane broncos footie team.  He was saying that he was going to organise a trip down to the gold coast on the 21st for the "Big Day out" music festival.  All in all it was great craic meeting the gang.  Be great to stay in touch.  Got some great pics again.  Will upload when I can.  fully recommend breaking the prime directive from time to time.

Karl the doorman and myself
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Ended up getting home after 3am sometime.  I'm pretty tired today as I had to get up for Steve Irwin Zoo trip so only got 4 hours sleep last night!

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Day 3- The Steve Irwin Australia Zoo  :  Left brisbane for the zoo which was an hour north of Brisbane.  Bus driver was a character - cracking jokes all the way.  Got there in no time at all.  The zoo was pretty impressive.  There were dingoes, Koalas, kangaroos, fish and chips - it had everything.   The main arena had a crocodile show.  Steve Irwins wife did the show.   She was very good.  It was well done and entertaining and well worth strugling outta bed for.

Irish and english with Karl the doorman
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Back in Brizzie (what they call Brisbane over here) for 5.30 and booked into the Embassy hostel for the night.  Put on a clothes wash and getting ready for heading north to Hervey Bay tomorrow.  Nice quite night ahead (I hope).

Slan

Kieran