Brisbane

Sunday, July 15

Sunday morning began with us sleeping in until 8am. We got up, packed, and checked out, all in an attempt to catch the 9am shuttle back to the airport. We made it there by 10am for our 11am flight. It would seem we were cutting it close, but as the entire airport had only 2 gates (not 2 terminals, but 2 gates - 1 per airline), we had plenty of time.

We then got on board our flight from the Whitsundays to Brisbane - again traveling in somewhat dreary weather. Fortunately, our arrival in Brisbane included blue sunny skies and low humidity. Having been to the airport once before, we knew exactly where we were going - picked up our backpacks, and headed to the train station.

We then hopped on the train (which was very unlike the Sydney train - people talking, lots of noise) and headed into downtown Brisbane. We found our way to the hotel, dropped off our luggage, and set off to explore the city. We started in an outdoor mall area (fairly common to Australia - we had seen similar layouts in both Sydney and Cairns), found an Asian fusion restaurant, and got a rather late lunch. The mall was lined with lots of restaurants and shops (as seen below), including this store we thought Stephen's sister would appreciate - apparently she makes fabulous handbags.

After being fed and watered, we left the mall and decided to walk along the main river in Brisbane.

We started by crossing a really cool bridge

(A less cool one in the distance)

Once we got to the other side, we wandered along the river, venturing in and out of street markets, and even taking a ride in the Brisbane Ferris Wheel. Here is Stephen and one of the cooler views:

The whole area was lined with parks, playgrounds, public pools, an Asian art exhibit, even a mini-rainforest, and plenty of bougainvillea.

While walking through we saw a rather large crowd forming and decided to see what everyone else was looking at. It turned out to be a street performer - we spent close to a half hour watching him interact with the crowd and do moderately impressive juggling tricks. However, the true entertainment was his comedy.  Captured below is his preparation for juggling a knife, a flaming torch, and a baby. At this moment, he was asking for a baby (and claimed that if he ruined the baby provided, he would happily help make a new one).

After his show finished, we continued on for a few more hours, watching the sun set over the town and through the botanical gardens:

Our evening concluded with free drinks on the top floor of the hotel and dinner in the open air mall nearby. Tomorrow we head to the Gold Coast (about an hour south of Brisbane) - hoping it will be fairly uneventful!