DAY 11, AUG 19 – After all the drama of missing the flight, I arrived in Brisbane nice and safe. But of course I had to take the shuttle to the hostel…another $15. I arrived at the airport at 7:30ish, but didn’t get to the hostel til 9ish. I swear you get the fastest service from these airport shuttles…NOT! Anyway, when I arrived at the hostel I couldn’t check in until 2pm so I put all my things into the storage room and decided to explore the city. After walking around, I was quite hungry and stopped in a small sushi cafe to have breakfast/lunch…which by the way it is the cheapest thing in Australia. Two rolls for about $6 or less…so great! I finished it off with a delicious banana honey smoothie from Boost.
Later, I met up with Katerina and we explored South Bank. It was by far the warmest day I’ve experienced in OZ…a whopping 24 degrees (Celsius of course). We decided to sit around and enjoy the weather at a fake beach/lagoon in South Bank. Katerina also showed me a unique ceramic exhibit in the art gallery close by. I’ve never seen anything like it. Most of the pieces were larger than life but also included smaller intricate pieces. It’s too bad the artist didn’t have a website, but luckily the museum did have postcard size advertisements for her exhibit (which I grabbed on the way out). After the beach and gallery, we met up with her friend Florence to have lunch at a cute little café in the hip part of town. It reminded me a bit of Colley Ave ;) I wasn’t too hungry and everything was a bit expensive so I enjoyed another smoothie, mango strawberry flavored this time around. The café had amazing food, which I’d probably return to if I get a chance. Florence had this English style hash potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, etc that was very tasty.
After lunch all I could think of was a nice long hot shower and a nap. I walked back to the hostel while they left to explore more of the city. The hostel room was nice, clean, roomy, and included a drawer locker under the bed. One of the girls was friendly enough to say hello though we had a bit of a language barrier. She was Korean and didn’t understand English very well. We made it work with a bit of sign language involved. So after meeting the roomies I headed for the showers. I must say their shower facilities were cleanlier than the last hostel I stayed and conveniently located beside my room. Following a luxurious shower or at least as luxurious as it can get in a hostel, I walked around to get familiar with the hostel’s amenities. Base Brisbane Embassy had a huge kitchen and entertainment room, 2 large deck/balcony areas, and large laundry facility. I was impressed…especially for $22 a night for an 8 bed dorm. Even better was the fact that they upgrade me to a 6 bed dorm for free.
While waiting to meet up with Katerina and John for our evening outing, I went downstairs to watch TV in the entertainment room. I met a nice Irish guy named Stephen. I chatted him up for places he’d traveled in OZ and any suggestions he may have for where to stay, things to do, etc in those places. Shortly after, I met Katerina downstairs in the bar for a drink until John showed up, our Canadian friend we made while @ the Blue Parrot. We had a few there because drinks were decently priced. Upon Stephen’s recommendation, I suggested this place called Victory. We tried to find it, but no luck with a lack of directions given by Stephen. So we just walked up the street to see what else this city had to offer. We eventually made our way up to the balcony of Beaches which was blasting decent music. After ordering a round we quickly found out that by 12 o’clock they were closing. A bar closing at 12 on a Thursday night…weak. But it’s okay I was pretty tired, Katerina had to make it for the last train to town and John had to get up early to check out. I passed out quickly despise the loud rowdy boys in the hall.
Welcome to BRISVEGAS…as the locals would call it.
No comments:
Post a Comment