Brisbane - one whole city in 24 hours!!

A view of the rooms at Tinbilly's
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The Brisbane adventure was a short one, and so to will this journal entry be!

I arrived at about 3pm and checked into my hostel, Tinbilly's Backpackers. I dropped my stuff off and went to reception to ask what there was to do. I was going to sign up for a XXXX brewery tour, but it turned out that I would have to do it the next day and I didn't think getting hammered off free booze and then having to sit on a Greyhound bus was the best thing for me to do! So I forewent that opportunity. (If forewent isn't already a word then I am claiming it as my own invention starting now!) Instead I decided to just take a walk and see what Brisbane had to offer. I took a walk through the awesome South Bank area where all the families come to hang out. There is a wicked swimming pool area and there were street performers doing shows as well. This area runs right next to the University and I was incredibly impressed with the visual appeal of the whole area. There were arches covered in flowers and fountains and all that good stuff. It was already starting to get dark so I walked back across the bridge, but not before stopping to ponder how truley lucky I am to get to spend a day wandering around without a care in the world. I then headed back to the Queen Street world famous shopping area (Uh oh! I can hear Dad's heart palpitating with fear all the way over here!) the shops were about to close so I just scoped out what I should come back and see the next day. Then I headed back to the hostel for an early night. On the way home I enjoyed a Subway sandwich...thought you might be interested in that detail...no? My Bad.

If for nothing else, do it for the shopping!

Brisbane by the Uni (South Bank Area)
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The next day I woke up fairly early and checked out. After putting my stuff into storage at the transit centre I headed to the Botanical gardens to chill out and read a magazine for awhile. The gardens were so relaxing I almost fell asleep a few times! Then I walked back to the infamous Queens street shopping area and began my damage! It was at this point that I finally gave in and bought myself an extra duffel bag to hold all my splendid purchases! I was doing pretty well for myself, finding all the proper sales but still maintaining some resemblence of self control, until one moment, 45 min before I had to catch my bus, when I came across a store that said this on the window: "Everything in the store $9.95 and under"! I mean, what am I supposed to do with that?! Everyone should be so proud of me as I managed to get in there, pick out my wares, try them on, select the top 12 items or so and get back to the bus on time! There's gotta be some type of award for that or something!

Brisbane by the River (the other river city!)
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And that was all for my Brisbane experience. Some people had told me to skip Brisbane but I actually found it a very pleasent city, with some beautiful scenery along the river. I would recommend atleast taking one day to go there. If for nothing else, do it for the shopping!