Lions, Tigers, and Bears

DAY 13, SAT AUG 21 – No not really lions, tigers and bears, but sounds exciting right?  Exploring and taking in the nightlife, culture, and city got old fast so today I thought it was time to really see what Australia has to offer…their magnificent wild life!  In the afternoon I headed for Lone Pine…The worlds first and largest Koala Sanctuary. I was excited to see these cute little creatures.  I read in the brochure that there were other wildlife to see like kangaroos (aka joeys), emus, wombats, birds, dingoes, and gators.  It was going to be an action packed day. 

The bus ride took about half an hour or so but after this visit it was well worth it.  I quickly made my way to the entrance to get a closer look at the koalas and hopefully get to hold them.  Sadly I missed the koala talk, BUT not the feeding time.  Rangers were placing fresh eucalyptus branches for the koalas to eat.  Boy, did they get excited.  They climbed and hopped around, quickly making their way to the nearest branch.  While I took photographs as they ate, some of them winked at me a few times.  SO cute!  If they could talk, I imagined they were saying…oh yea that’s the stuff.  And after eating said…that hit the spot.   And although they probably winked because they were finally relieved to eat, I’d still like to think they were winking at me and saying hello.  I walked over to see if I could hold one, but when I read a sign it cost $39 to hold one and take a picture, plus the cost of a photo package.  I later found out that it only cost $15 to hold one and take the picture.  So sad I missed this experience.  But no worries, I won’t leave this country until I get to hold one!  Also I find it interesting to know that eating the eucalyptus leaves places the koalas in a sedated state…equivalent to being high on marijuana I suppose.  Funny association, but that’s what someone told me.  The leaves are the only things the koalas can eat because their bodies require the nutrients available only from the eucalyptus plant.  Despite this fact, I thought that this is the life…eat, sleep, and be merry.  No stress, work, or drama.  Oh wait…that’s what I’m doing J I know it won’t last too much longer but I’m going to make the most of it for as long as I can. 

After taking a lot of pictures, I walked over to the kangaroo area.  I walked around observing them in their own element and soon found out that you can feed them.  Oh lord…now this is going to be a real treat!  Not only do I get to see them up close, I can actually come up to pet and feed them.  I was SOO stoked but nervous too.  I heard that joeys kick and that’s a little intimidating because they have really strong legs.  But as I slowly came up to them they were nice enough to let me pet them, but some also ran off.  Hahaha. BUT a few were hungry enough to eat straight from the palm of my hand.  They’re tongues were a bit slimy but didn’t leave too much of their slobber behind. Lol.  I couldn’t believe I was in Australia feeding these joeys! 

Besides all the roos there were Emus too.  But before I began to feed them, a small boy warned me that they would knock the bag from my hand so hold on tight or hide the bag.  I didn’t believe it, but they were aggressive and were not scared or shameful of coming up and pecking at my hand.  Although it was fun to feed them, their swift pecks began to hurt my hand.  I quickly ran away from them before they could eat all my feed or my hand for that matter.  I made my way to the other side of the park to feed the rest to the red joeys.  There were so many hopping up to me and were more willing to eat the feed because they hadn’t eaten yet.  SO fun!

Once all the feed was gone I walked over to the parakeet park.  There were certainly A LOT of them.  They were going nuts during the feeding time, chirping loudly and flying swiftly past me in the air.  Many guests were holding the feeding wands while the birds landed on their shoulders and on the wand.  It was a bit scary for me, as I’ve been attacked by a bird before.  But I braved my fear and came very close to the feeding area to take photos of their colorful feathers. I tried to get up the nerve to hold one of the wands but they made me too nervous, even though I knew they wouldn’t attack me.

Next, I visited the other areas of the park where more birds were located (thankfully in cages though ironically I don’t like animals in cages.  But like I mentioned I’m a bit scared of birds flying over my head), a gator, huge lizards, farm animals and the Tasmanian devil.  The Tasmanian devil definitely didn’t look like TAZ the cartoon character, but still great to see one in person.  Lastly, I was completely surprised when I saw a sign for a platypus tank.  I never thought I’d actually see this creature in person, much less all the other ones I did get to see.  It was really cool to see the platypus swim in the murky looking water.  I definitely felt blessed to be in the presence of such beautiful and unique wildlife.  It’ll be an experience I’ll always remember.

Valentino

DAY 12, FRI AUG 20 – Surprise, Surprise…RAIN!! It seems to follow me wherever I go.  I’m finding that these kinds of days call for a visit to a museum of some sort.  Fortunately, my hostel was close to all the good museums in Brisbane and had quite a bit to offer as far as the exhibits were concerned.  Katerina and I thought it would be great to go to the Modern Art Gallery to check out the VALENTINO Exhibit.  What a show it was and worth the $20 entry fee.  The amount of detail and craftsmanship into each of his pieces were incredible.  I thought wow…I wonder if he actually sewed all these pieces.  Turns out he just designed most of them and collaborated with his seamstresses.  Still…the man is brilliant.  I wish we could have taken pictures inside of the exhibit, but unfortunately like all great exhibitions photography is prohibited. 

We later treated ourselves to a nice dinner at a restaurant.  We ended up eating at an outdoor restaurant around the corner from my hostel called Pig and Whistle.  Great name for a restaurant, huh?  Well we thought it would be cheap bc of the name but surprise, surprise everything on the menu was kind of expensive.  I enjoyed a nice spicy chilli sauce & cheese nachos.  It was surprisingly delicious.  The sauce closely represented spaghetti sauce…it was quite interesting.

After dinner we explored what Brisbane had to offer for its nightlife.  We ended up at this hole in the wall bar called Fat Louie’s which took us some time to find.  We had a few rounds to make it worth the effort.  They had pool tables and young people who barely looked like they could drink legally.  It reminded me of a rundown college bar.  Next, we walked another several blocks to head to bar called Friday’s, a restaurant located near the docks on the second floor.  It had an expansive deck overlooking the water as well as an indoor dance floor.  Of course that’s where we headed ;p  And the best part…I finally found a bar that carried Captain Morgan’s Spice Rum.  I could finally relish in a proper rum and coke with lime.  It made my night!  We danced the night away until it was time for me to catch a cab back to the hostel. 

Good Night to another great day in Brisvegas!

BrisVegas!

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.