AusTour 4: Brisbane the III

So we didn’t exactly have three days in Brisbane, the first night was only a half night and this was only a half day, but I thought id use this post to describe the last day and some general tie-ups.

That morning we went out in search of breakfast again, Barry’s friends had left that morning at some inane hour for Surfer’s Paradise (yup that’s the name of the town*) so it wasn’t as crowded this morning. We had planned to tour a famous brewery that day, but for two reasons the first was 1) the line was shut down that day and 2) the tour was sold out. We had to leave Brizzie at 3 that day so we had a limited time we could actually do anything. We decided to take a ferry tour down the Brisbane River to conclude our Brisbane trip. After battling the trains once again (a recurring theme for Brisbane) we made out way to south bank and got on the boat. For what it was worth the ride was enjoyable and pretty informative. My only wish is that the annoying automated voice on the first half of the trip could have been replaced by the actual live guy who did the second half. I probably learned a lot about Brisbane that day, but promptly forgot a lot of it. The tour took us past many historical sites along the river including the immigration building, the old wool factory, the Story Bridge** and the (apparently infamous) breakfast creek.
After the boat tour we raced back to Bunk to retrieve our bags before racing back to Roma Street Station for our 3 o’clock bus—I say race but it was really a slow crawl due, once again, the Brisbane train network.
Brisbane: the complete review
We managed to do a lot in the two-ish days we had. I would hazard to say though that we probably could have done a third, but after that would have serious run out of things to do. It’s a big city sure, but it lacks in the whole interesting activities department (and the transport for that matter). Overall the city lacks the feeling of a city like Melbourne, there was just something wrong in the air so to speak, and it’s a city I won’t make any special efforts to see again.
*Australia has some seriously weird town/city names. Some might reference to the aboriginal names like Wollongong, Wagga Wagga or the only place I know that has 8 ‘O’s in its name, Woolloomooloo. Others are blatantly simple like that of Surfers Paradise, or perhaps the Town of 1770. Or you can bet everything you own that the names that you see everywhere in Australia will be the name of a town somewhere. Names like Macquarie, Flinders or Monash.
**there are some other famous bridges in Brisbane, including the Victoria Bridge now in its fourth generation. The first bridge in that place was made of wood and was eaten by marine wood worm. The second made of iron was washed away in the flood of 1893. The third was only temporary and the fourth is what still stands today.

AusTour 3: Brisbane Day Dos

After setting out for breakfast with a small group, we soon made up 18 and pulled about 6 tables together to fit everyone. After breakfast we broke up, Barry and I had decided to do the walking tour from the Lonely Planet—a 5 to 6 km walk that takes anything from a couple of hours to a whole day. It took a whole day. Back to Roma Street Station (where we were last night), this time with only certain trains actually stopping at the station (great!). After being persuaded by Barry that I had the map (and my orientation) upside down we set off in the wrong direction. It was a circular tour so it didn’t matter much, but I just want to point that out because I’m sure he’ll blame me for some easily understandable misdirection in Sydney in his blog. As we set off (and as we sat at breakfast) we learned we weren’t the only people walking the city today. In fact it was the Brisbane Romp, so we were joined by a myriad of costumed teams, families and coworkers. Our first stop was Town Hall, including a stop at the misinformation desk (thanks to the Romp), a walk around the great hall in the centre with a MASSIVE organ and up the top of the clock tower for some views of Brisbane. Next we headed across the Victoria Bridge to the museum district. On the way we discovered that it was unbearably hot compared to Melbourne and happily took shelter in the GoMA (gallery of modern art). Here we saw some aboriginal art (coincidentally, a paper I should be writing instead of this blog), a giant doughnut, a seal and a piano, an arch of boxes and 16 audio video synched spectrum of people singing Michael Jackson’s Thriller album. After leaving the GoMA we continued the walk down South Bank through massive arches of pink flowers, past a giant Ferris wheel, a Nepalese Pagoda, Brisbane’s man made beech and the Maritime Museum. Extending the walk slightly to cross the goodwill bridge and cut through the botanical gardens (not as impressive as Melbourne’s) we made our way up to the Queen Street Mall. At this point we were pretty much dead as we finally snakes our way around to St Stephens Cathedral, post office square and the shine of remembrance. We’d probably doubled the walks length in the end. That night we hit up Brisbane’s most famous cocktail bar. It was interesting to say the least, but again made ever more interesting by the friends of Barry. I also saw a couple of friends who I knew from uni melb/rmit village who just happened to be staying at Bunk too.

AusTour 2: Brizzie Day 1

In the Australians ever present penchant for shortening names, they have affectionately renamed Brisbane to Brizzie. It was the first stop on our Aus Tour 08, as I’ve decided to call it, and we flew in Saturday night 2 weeks ago now. A quick note on leaving (and one Barry was considerably distressed about) was that the airport we left from (Avalon) didn’t require a single bit of ID to retrieve a ticket, check baggage, go through security or even board the plane. The plane itself from an airbus a320, which I think is the first time I’ve been on an airbus and distressed me because I was in seat 15D (15 and D is the 4 letter in the alphabet…Lost anyone?...Sawyers seat). Anyway, when we got into BNE I was past the seat I had spent about 4 hours in the last time I was in Brisbane, I was glad I wasn’t staying this long this time. In fact we were out of the plane and out of the airport in 20 minutes on a bus on route to a destination I didn’t exactly know where was. So it was partly my fault that we ended up at Roma street station, a 40 minute walk to our hostel (Google maps said it was closer), but it wasn’t my fault the next bit went wrong. We decided to take a train to Brunswick station, after figuring out a transit system neither of us had seen or taken before we found a train going the right way leaving in four minutes. We were on the platform for at least 30 minutes. 4 trains should have come and gone in that time…great first impression Brisbane! Needless to say we made it eventually to Bunk Backpackers Brisbane (a hostel in the same vein as Gilligans, large 8 person rooms with ensuite bathrooms and showers). One thing that was particularly disturbing (or artistic genius) was the bizarre decoration around the lobby including chandeliers made up of headless Barbies, a giant coastal map complete with decorations and out in the bar bird cages with Barbies inside. Bizarre. Due to the incredible delays by Brisbane city transport, it wasn’t long before some of Barry’s friends from Swinburne showed up on the later flight (16 of them in total). We had planned to meet them in Brisbane, and they definitively made Brisbane a 10 times more exciting city.