Of Walks, Reunions and the Next Adventure - Brisbane

It's been a while! But my access to internet has been severely limited since leaving the wonderful Souyave residence. Right now I am sitting in a cafe in Adelaide having a hot chocolate and waiting for the Grand Prix to start. I figured I would take this time to update you guys on what I've been up to. Which is a LOT. The rest of Brisbane, all of Cairns, and all of Melbourne. I'll do it in stages so you don't end up reading a novel instead of a blog post.

So, the day after the koala sanctuary I met up with my friend Ross who lives in Brisbane now, and told him to show me the Brisbane that tourists don't see. So we went for a walk round the city. For hours. And hours. After about 4 hours I asked if he had any particular destination in mind and he said he never actually came to Brisbane city (being a geologist and always "on site" wherever that may be) so he didn't know anything about the place either. But it was still a nice way to spend an afternoon, and I was already very grateful to him as he got me through the difficult first few weeks of Sydney when I had no one to talk to.

A new day, a new blast from the past. I met up with my friends from Hong Kong, Tanya and Clara. It was quite surreal, and they were nothing like I'd imagined them to be. Then again the last time I'd really hung out with them we were 6, so they weren't going to be exactly the same as my memories. They did actually show me some different areas of Brisbane, such as the casino, which we just walked through without gambling because we're good girls and would NEVER do that kind of irresponsible thing...... and then convinced ourselves to go for a drink in a bar. I say convinced, because at 9pm we acknowledged how old we are now, nothing like our 6 year old selves who stayed up all night partying, and wanted to go back to Tanya's to go to bed. I know, it's lame, but we did manage to take ourselves to a bar for a drink, and then went back to look at old photo albums where we all wore the same dresses from the only shop that sold western clothing and had many many parties with elaborate cakes our mums made.

I'm on the far left, then Clara, then Tanya. The good ol' days where our parents would also dress siblings in the same outfit. Bet you can guess who is Tanya's sister in the photo!... I had so much hair!

Tanya, myself and Clara nowadays

Rather than take the bus or train into the city, you should definitely take the Citycat at least once. It was a nice trip in, despite the Change Nazi from whom I bought my ticket and who was furious that I as a young person (she actually said "you young people," apparently I'm representative of my entire generation) come on board with our flashy paper notes and take all her change... erm.... isn't that what your change is for? Okay, I amend my recommendation: Rather than take the bus or train into the city, you should definitely take the Citycat at least once, but remember to carry exact change, even though it doesn't tell you how much it is until you are actually on board and can ask. So just guess.

We went into town to check out the markets, and Southbank market rates up there with Sydney's Rocks Market for me. I loved it! Such great things to buy, really interesting and different, and I loved all the jewellery there. There was so much I wanted to buy but mostly they were things that wouldn't fit in my carry on baggage, so when I eventually live in Brisbane (which could happen... sure... please let me in!) I know where to come and get all my things to decorate my house.

Brisbane was one giant reunion really, because the next day I went to visit out family friends the McQueen's. The two boys are the 2 blond boys in the photo above and are now rugby players living in Hong Kong. I am so jealous! Well, I'm no rugby player but I'd love to live in HK. Plus they have a cat in Brisbane called Charlie who likes me. Who really likes me. Cats don't like me. So I love Charlie. And I love the McQeen house and its inhabitants. It was so nice to see everybody again on this trip.

Anyway, then I went into a whole booking an American embassy appointment palava at 1am trying to call America, and Melbourne in the morning. Basically I was trying to sort out getting my student visa here in Australia instead of England as England was being a royal pain in the backside and had become ridiculous over the demands of the Olympics on the US embassy's time (which should surely have no effect whatsoever except if the employees have been fobbed off with tickets to the games). Anyway, it took over a week to sort out, but it is finally sorted and the UK have come through (which is always nice). But it was a very stressful last morning in Brisbane which ended with some tears, but then I got ahold of myself and swore at the visa system and felt a lot better. After that I said goodbye to the house and to the wonderful Linda and went to the airport. Good thing to note is that Virgin Australia, despite being a budget-ish airline, actually have TVs on the plane! That was a nice surprise.

And then I was arriving in Cairns, waiting in the dark for a bus I thought would never come, and then arriving after hours at my hostel where I was sharing a room with 7 girls at $15 a night, which was absolutely a bad idea and not worth trying to save money over. But more on that next time.

TTFN!