B-B-B-Brisbane

10:20 PM, Saturday 2/2.

So yesterday as I was leaving the travel agency from which I’ve been mooching free internet, I asked the guy working there the best way to get to Darling Harbour, this trendy area of Sydney that sounded kind of like 23rd street in Portland—upscale, expensive, but has good food and drink and is pretty to look at at night. He gave me complicated directions, and as he was trying to draw it on the map for me, he says, “have you had dinner?” I said no, so he said we could grab food at this pub across the street and then go to one of the places in Darling that serves The Best Beer in Australia, If Not The World. Obviously, I couldn’t turn down an offer like that, so I joined him and a Canadian girl for dinner and drinks. We had a great time talking about our travels and differences between the States and Canada. Sadly, I was not as impressed with the beer—not only was it expensive, but my sophisticated palette didn’t think it tasted very good either. Still, the Darling Harbour area was very pretty at night, since it’s right along the water and all the lights are glistening and boats and ferries are passing by. After our beers, we walked to the edge of the harbour where we could see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge, both of which were absolutely gorgeous lit up and reflecting on the harbour. After chatting with some Irish tourists along the harbour that seemed confused by the concept of vertical photography, I headed back to the CBD where my hostel is for a (very short) night before I had to take off for Brisbane this morning at the crack of dawn. As I came in last night, the Danish boys in my room were just leaving for what they were loudly referring to as their “Night of Crazy Fun” and when I left to check out this morning, they were stumbling back into bed, still loudly discussing how “crazy-fun” their night had been. I most definitely will not miss their obnoxiously loud presence in my life.

Today was my first day in Brisbane, or Brisvegas as they embarrassingly refer to it. I'm staying with Chloe and her family which is wonderful for a number of reasons.
1. I had a real shower today for the first time since about Thursday, complete with hot water (the hostel's showers were out of hot water) and real towels, not my travel towel which oddly smells like popcorn and is full of sand.
2. They have a car, and it's much easier to see a bigger part of the city by car. In Sydney, I only saw the parts I could walk to, which kind of limited what I saw. Not that I mind missing out on suburban Sydney, but it's nice to have a complete picture of a city.
3. I have people to talk with constantly, and I don't have to seek out strangers for attention.
4. They are incredibly nice and friendly and have been fabulous about making me feel welcome and enjoying my time here.

We saw the Story Bridge, which is kind of a letdown after the Harbour Bridge but still nice, cruised the Brisbane River at twilight and saw all the gorgeous lights reflecting, took in the downtown's skyline, checked out Chinatown, walked along this crazy beach in the middle of the city and through a jungle (also in the middle of the city), saw the Nepalese peace pagoda from the 1998 World's Fair, and saw a bunch of other older, more historical buildings. It was a great toursity day of sights and good food. It's also beyond delightful not to have to make decisions for a short bit. I'm not having to figure out where to feed myself, where to go, how to get there, when I'll leave, etc...someone else has put in the effort to planning the sights, and it's so nice to be able to take the backseat for a bit.

Happy Birthday to Jonathan, hope it's a great day!