Tales of Oz - Brisbane

Tues Apr 8th - Day 1
The grand adventure has landed in Oz!!!! I can breathe! And my bed is soft. And no one stares at me just for existing. And I can understand when people talk (mostly, sometimes the Aussie accent gets a little thick)!!! I’m in love with the city already.
Thanks to an issue with the navigational computer on the plane, we were delayed 2 hours in leaving Hong Kong. Then there was an overturned truck on the only road out of the airport, so what would normally have been a $35 cab ride actually cost me $50. But after long delays, the Grand Adventure is coming live from Australia.
Luckily, with the delays, I got here closer to check-in time and my room was ready for me. It was a shoebox with a bathroom attached. So not worth the money. After I dropped my bags, I went right out to walk around the city center. My travel guide is so good. Everything in it is right in the area. I found almost everything in my first wander.
The architecture here is really interesting. There’s some modern mixed right in with Victorian and everything in between. I took a bunch of pics of buildings and stuff. One of the buildings is the Treasury Building, which is now the Treasury Casino. It’s beautiful. I haven’t gone, because I didn’t measure up to the dress code. It’s super swank.
I didn’t really do much tonight. I did manage to find a room for the next 3 nights at a hostel. It’s called Palace Backpackers and it’s nice. I have an individual room (which, again, is the size of a shoebox) but it’s less than half of what I paid in the other place.
After booking my room, I just came back to the hotel and watched "Bring it On" on my computer. Because, of course, it’s just my luck that on my first night here in "the sunshine state" it rained.

Wed Apr 9th - Day 2
This morning I moved into the hostel. Luckily, they had my room ready for me early, so I could move right in. Of course, the elevator is broken and my room is literally on the roof, which is 5 stories high. It was not fun dragging my super-packed luggage up all of those stairs. Well, to be honest, I only dragged it up 3 floors, then a nice boy carried it the rest of the way for me.
This morning I went on a river tour that took me to the Lone Pine Koala Reserve. It was amazing. The mansions along the river are spectacular. More of that crazy mix of architecture that makes Brisbane awesome. And a lot of them have really interesting histories. At one point on the river, we passed this island, which is the natural habitat for the largest fruit bat colony in the world. The bats are huge, too. You can see them hanging from the trees in huge groups.
The tour ended at the Koala Reserve and ticket prices included admission. The first thing I did was wander around and look at the animals within enclosures. There were a bunch of birds, including lorikeets and kookaburras. Also, they had a few fruit bats, so we could see them closer than we could on the river. There were dingoes and wombats, too. But I couldn’t find the echidnas.
I went to the snake exhibit. There were some cool venomous and non-venomous snakes. My favourite thing, though, was the water monitor. It looked like a little dinosaur. It was just swimming back and forth across the aquarium.
After I saw the lesser animals, it was time to get up close and personal with a koala. Lone Pine is the only place in the world where it is legal for humans to handle koalas. So you pay for a photo package and that’s like your admission to cuddle. While you stand there (very still) the keeper puts the koala in your arms. In theory, they latch onto you like you’re a tree. My koala, (whose name was Gandalf) however, didn’t like me. He refused to come to me at first and when he finally did, he decided that he had an itch. So he was grooming himself the whole time I held him. It was cool, though, cuz the keeper waited until he was finished grooming to take him back.
After koalas, I decided to check out the kangaroos and wallabies. They were in an open reserve, kinda like the deer at marine land. You could even buy food from the store to feed them. It was super cool. They kangaroos were super mellow and had no problem letting you close (most of them were napping). Even the moms with little joeys let me feed and pet them (not the joeys. You’re only allowed to pet the moms). The wallabies on the other hand were way more skittish. They weren’t so big on people. And the emus, which were supposed to be contained and weren’t, were really curious. They’re so big that they’re a little scary close up.
Near the kangaroo pen there were crocodiles (there were enclosed and little). There was also an iguana (not enclosed). He was such a mug, posing for pictures and turning his head this way and that. There were also a vulture and a peacock roaming around loose. It was really cool.
By that time, I had to get back to the boat. When I got there, though, before we cast off, I got to feed catfish. There were so many of them. It was crazy! They were kinda gross, though, and greedy. I’ve decided that I don’t really like fish.
After the boat got back, I took another wander around. I found the greyhound station and confirmed my ticket to leave here on Saturday morning. When I returned to the hostel, I talked to the travel guide and it turns out that he’s from Calgary. Small world, eh? (He he he I’m Canadian and I said "eh?") He helped me book my trip to the Australia Zoo for Friday. He also booked my hotel in Surfer’s Paradise for me. It’s super cheap, but I’m going to be staying in a dorm. It’ll be a little weird, but I think it’ll be good.

Thurs Apr 10th - Day 3
Last night I went to the club in the basement. I was expecting a pub-like atmosphere, but it was definitely a club. I intended to have 1 drink, hang out for a bit and then head back to my room. But clubs have dancing. So, I stayed a little longer than intended. Then a guy started dancing with me, and bought me a drink and it was super late by the time I finally got to bed.
I got my hair cut this morning. It’s ok, but the layers are shorter than I had wanted. I went to the hairdressing school, so it was pretty cheap. Of course, the whole reason I waited until I got here was so that there would be no difficulty in communicating. Wouldn’t you know that the student I got was Asian and English was obviously her second language. Luckily, one of the teachers is there at the beginning to make sure the student knows how to do the style and then again at the end to check the cut and smooth things out. It took forever, though. Over an hour, start to finish, for a trim.
Today, I was one busy little tourist. I have the dead camera batteries to prove it. After my haircut, I went to Brisbane City Hall, which houses the Brisbane Museum. There’s not much there. It only took me about 15 minutes to see the whole thing. There was a lot of info about immigration to Australia, but I’m not so interested in that. After the museum, I grabbed some breakfast and went shopping. I need some new undergarments, which are impossible to find in Taiwan in western sizes. I found a couple of things that I liked, but it’s SO expensive.
After a bite to eat, I headed across the Victoria Bridge to The Culture Center on the South Bank. That’s where the Queensland Library, Museum and Art Gallery are. Today I saw them all. Well, technically I saw the Library yesterday and didn’t stay today because it was so busy.
The art gallery was first. It was alright. I didn’t like any of the paintings. There was a lot of modern abstract, which is just... blech. But there were some super cool sculptures and some neat realist/ naturalist paintings, which weren’t so bad. There was even one whole exhibit of "message posters". They covered all sorts of themes; from women’s lib, to gay rights, to HIV awareness, to Australian politics. That was pretty cool, even though I didn’t really get some of the politics ones, cuz they referenced specific people and events.
The last stop in the cultural center was the museum. It was way better than the art gallery. There was an exhibit about Queensland icons. Some were cool; some not so much. But the best part was the special exhibit called Museum Zoo. There were skeleton pieces and so many stuffed animals it was like a taxidermist’s wet dream. It was actually kinda creepy, but in a cool way. The whole exhibit was designed for kids, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy it. There was also a whole exhibit about Queensland’s endangered animals. That was interesting, but it made me sad. All those poor little bilbys and turtles.
After the museum, I walked along South Bank. It’s a really pretty riverside walk with some interesting sights along the way. The first thing you come across is the rainforest - complete with raised wooden sidewalks, and tropical flora. It goes on for about 200m and it’s really pretty. Shortly after the rainforest you get to Street’s Beach. And it’s right on the river’s edge, but there’s no swimming in the river (due to the propensity for shark attacks and the fact that it’s gross) so the "beach" is actually a swimming pool. There’s sand around it, and it’s bigger and more naturally shaped than most pools, so it’s pretty cool. I was going to swim today, but it was windy and rainy (and windy + rainy = cold, even if the temperature says it shouldn’t be). So instead I continued my walk.
After a while South Bank meets up with a pedestrian bridge across the river. It’s high and long and I walked across that too. The view from the bridge is so amazing. Once I got back to North Bank, I walked a long way around a bend in the river to get to the botanical gardens. They were pretty much the same as any other botanical gardens I’ve been in. But they were pretty. One thing they did have were spectacular fountains with water lilies. Also, a million different birds. I saw a kookaburra in the wild. Also there were a few different kinds of duck (I think) and maybe a heron of some sort. Opposite the botanical gardens, is the Parliament house. I didn’t go in, but it’s a beautiful building, so I took a picture of the outside.
Anyway, I’m exhausted. Late night + early morning + walking all day = super early bed time. Especially because I have to get up early for my Zoo trip tomorrow. Crikey! I’m really going to the Crocodile Hunter’s Zoo!!!