Keeping up with Beth

Brisbane was a long time coming, for a long time there. I Stayed for just over a week and a half I believe, with the deadline of my PNG flight from there. It was an amazing time of freedom after being trapped for what seemed like forever. I can’t tell if I did a lot or not, but I kept being told there wasn’t too much touristy stuff to do in Brisbane. I did do some stuff though!

On the first night there, I actually met up with my friend and we went round to her friends apartment which they had only just moved into. It was super good, and reassuring to meet people and hang out with them on my first night there. They were mostly from around Europe and it was super cool to just hang out with new people from new cultures (that weren’t just Germany and UK)!

The next day I woke up late, what a surprise. I didn’t do too much, but I did go for a wonder down the other end of the city that I hadn’t been to on my 3 hour visit a few weeks before. It was awesome, and I decided to not look at my phone at all until I felt like I had to head back or I knew it had been an hour. Nothing magic came out of it particularly, just the sense of freedom and relaxation with absolutely no pressures for the day and being on my own timetable.

I went back, and got chatting with a couple of girls in the room. One of them had been blocked off from flying to Airlie with the floods, but had a flight to cairns booked for a few days time. The other girl had just arrived that day, and only had a couple of days in Brisbane, to explore as she started travelling solo. We had some awesome conversations and just got to hang out which was super cool. We decided to grab a couple of drinks since they were free downstairs, and then headed over to a karaoke bar since, one of the girls said she loved karaoke and they had many back in Finland.

I needed to go shopping, and apparently the only thing to do in Brisbane is shop.

when I say I needed to go shopping, I mean I needed to get my antimalarials that I decided not to get on the NHS since I’d rather pay for my doctors appointment as you do…

That was my next day planned, just head out to the shops have a look round, buy the clothes I needed for PNG and the medication, and wonder round. One of the girls needed to visit the bank so that was our day set out or us, just wondering round Brisbane like we had been there for years. It was awesome to just hang out and befriend someone so closely and quickly from another country and culture almost. It was very relaxed, just wondering round seeing the city in action and we just headed back after we had spent the money we needed to.

Another day, we spent in the city, and wondered down the beautiful pier of the river that runs through Brisbane, and pass the bridge. It was quite a view and so many different blues!

Eventually the girls both had to leave splitting of in different directions, but it was really awesome to have created such a strong bond in a short time, just because we were made to share a room!

After they left, I got back to doing my own thing of waking up late and taking my time there very easy. I had met a couple of guys from northern England- at least more northern than me, and hung out with them a couple of times. Brisbane seems to be a place of more long term ‘friendships’ as most people are living there as part of the WHV (working holiday visa) so they had a couple of months in the area. So even though 2 weeks felt like ages for me to be in a place, it was nothing compared to how long many travellers stop there.

In my last week, I took a trip down to Surfers Paradise that my tour skipped out, and visited one of he girls I had met in Brisbane, and spent a rainy day down by the beach and seeing what it was like there. It was an awesome tourist spot, with a pretty sweet beach, and loads of tourist shops and activities, and I can definitely see the attraction in being there however the day or a weekend would probably have been enough for me, as a solo traveler I think it’s quite a tricky place to be with so many social activities there.

I spent another day wondering around the city, the other side of the bridge, seeing the Brisbane sign, the big wheel and the Asian building that I know has a really awesome reason for being there but I can’t remember what it is. I also spent a day down the pools with some other people which was really cool- i missed swimming a lot by that point, and I had my last day down at the Koala Sanctuary.

That might’ve been the best day. I left at around 11:00 for the bus and arrived just before 12. It’s a place not to be missed in Brisbane, with obviously many Koalas-130 I believe, as well as so many other native animals of Aus such as the dingo, a crocodile, emus, kangaroos of course and wombats. There was a platypus as well and a few native birds. It was a super awesome day and I managed to get a picture holding a Koala called Spoon after one called Fingle had had enough pictures for the day and refused to give me a cuddle 😦 , and a picture with a snake as well! Just to freak my mum out. My mission of Australia was complete! To see many koalas close enough to get a good picture!