Brisbane, AUS

Day 1.  We had another early morning on the day of our departure from Surfers, and made our way to Brisbane by way of shuttle to the transit center, local bus to the train station, then intercity train for the just-over-one-hour trip up the coast. We didn’t get much scenery on the way, since the tracks seemed surrounded by forest. The country stations we stopped at on our way to the city were amusing, in that they seemed very much in the middle of nowhere – the only manmade artifact in a sea of trees. Where did the boarding passengers come from? Where would the disembarking passengers go? The stuff of idle speculation for someone who has nothing else to do but look out the window because he finished his book and foolishly didn’t pick up another one…

Our hostel in Brisbane is Chill Backpackers, which is a short walk from the Roma Street train station. The hostel is one of the better value ones that we’ve seen so far. It seems like it was built as a hotel, with simple rooms, a friendly reception area, and a very nice dual-rooftop patio setup with kitchen, small (and free) movie theater, pool tables and eating/lounge area all blending together to create the type of forced mingling that leads to spontaneous conversation. If we were staying in Brisbane for a couple more days I would be happy to stay here, and if we return (which is one of our possible scenarios at this point) on our way back south, this will be our stay again. We had arrived before noon, but the room was ready, so we checked in and dumped our big bags, then set out for a browse around town. On the train I had flipped through our Lonely Planet guide for the city, so knew that the Queen Street Mall was the place to go. We walked over to this mall, which is another outdoor pedestrian mall, much like Stephen Avenue in Calgary. We had our tour through the mall, looking for a place to eat, but the restaurants along that strip were somewhat out of budget for us, so we settled for the food court in one of the adjascent indoor malls. Broadening our scope a tad, we wandered around the surrounding streets while I looked for a used book store. At the hostel the girl at the desk had done a quick search for me, which showed so many points on its resulting map that it looked like the streets had pimples. I hadn’t taken down any addresses, assuming we’d trip over one at every other step, but this was not the case, and I ended up having to inquire. We found a shop that was exactly what I had hoped for. Both a retail shop and a service shop; selling used books and repairing damaged and antique books. I should have taken a picture of the walls behind the counter, which look like I hope my library will one day (even including the awesome rolling ladder, though this one was a less prestigious “sliding” unit). I picked up a couple of books: the second Bourne book, which sequels my most recent read, and Burroughs’ Tarzan of the Apes, which will be my next “classic” read. During our stay in Surfers we had watched part of the most recent King Kong movie, and I had asked the used books guy if there was a book that the story is from. He looked it up, and it turns out that (according to wikipedia) originally, King Kong was a movie, and that there are several books based on this movie… who knew? Now equipped with some reading material, we started the walk back to our room for a rest. On the way back we stopped briefly to listen to a busker who was playing guitar on the street. He was an old-ish guy, with an enormous beard, and was rocking out on that guitar. If he had CDs for sale we might have bought one. Christina slept for three hours, and I read for three hours. Then it was dinner time. We returned to Queen Street for another look at the culinary offerings, and settled on a second-floor place called The Beach House. In fact, we settled on this one almost before reading the menu, since Christina heard the sound of live music from the patio. It was a funny place, with a unique combination of bar and restaurant. There were two bars on opposing walls. From one you would place a food order and receive a token, which would flash when your order was ready to be picked up, and from the other you would order your drinks. This arrangement seemed awkward at first, since it’s a little more running around, but the establishment must save quite a bit by omitting the need for wait staff. The food was good (Hawaiian pizza for me and chicken ceasar wrap for her, so not a very high bar set), the beer and wine were well priced, and Christina particularly enjoyed her Rosemount Traminer Riesling. We enjoyed a very leisurely dinner, savouring the food as well as the excellent atmosphere. The attractive crowd was generally about our age, or a little younger, and dressed to look sharp. It had the feel of a place people go to meet for dinner before a night on the town. Our entertainment was also quite good. The girl playing guitar was talented, had a very nice voice, and played a well chosen selection of classic tunes. Altogether, it was a pretty great evening.

Day 2. The morning was rainy and grey, so we didn’t hurry to get out of bed. It wasn’t until half past ten that we decided that we were hungry enough to venture out, through a break in the weather. A wander through the streets brought us to a well sheltered cafe, to have breakfast and catch up on some journalling. I ordered a mushroom dish that included a mixed grill of fresh spinach and sliced mushrooms accompanied by some type of fried cheese slices, a quarter of roasted tomato, and olive toast. Christina had an omlette, though “had” isn’t really the right word, since she “traded” plates soon after tasting mine. The shelter came in quite handy during the torrential rains that came up while we were eating, and which lasted long enough for Christina to order a second cappuccino. During a period of light drizzle we made our escape, and returned to our room to make a video call with Mom & Dad K. We hadn’t spoken to them since before staying at the Thomas farm, so it was good to catch up. We spent a few hours reading in the room to defer the inevitable expenditure which would follow our departure. In recent days the goal of living within budget is not one we can claim to have achieved as often as we would like, and the safety found in the lack of spending options to be had in the hostel feels something like comfort. While we passed the time inside, we planned for the next leg of our trip, which would see us up North to Noosa Heads. After checking the weather and seeing a poor forecast in that region for the next two days we decided to extend our time in Brisbane for one day, while we waited for the rain to sort itself out. Fortunately we were able to keep our same room for one more night, and were able to book our forward stay as well. Armando and Aurora are actually in Noosa right now, but will be leaving as we arrive, for their tour of Fraser Island. We have decided that the tour is a little out of our price range for this trip, so will have to enjoy it second-hand if we’re able to meet them later.

As dinner time approached we bandied about the idea of returning to The Beach House, but ultimately decided to expand our horizons. We found a table at a restaurant which we had investigated yesterday evening, but which, at that time, had not been able to offer us a table quite to our satisfaction. We had that table today. The venue was called Jo-Jo’s, and offered an expansive mix of multi-cultural and fusion cuisine. We played it pretty safe, with Christina ordering a pad thai noodle dish, and a chili chicken stir fry for me. Both were very tasty, but (as with nearly every single meal in Australia so far) felt somewhat overpriced. Not being blown away by this place we then gave in and moved down the street to The Beach House. Live music was on order again, as well as a double-crunch cheesecake that I couldn’t keep off my fork. We had a couple of drinks each and enjoyed the entertainment, which wasn’t quite as good as our prior visit, but still ran through a well chosen set of songs and kept us clapping. We left more out of a desire to stop buying drinks rather than any boredom or dissatisfaction. Making our way back as slowly as possible, we happened across a latin event which got Christina’s hips shaking from a block and a half away. A truck loaded with speakers and a dj was obscured by a crowd of people being led through salsa steps by a broad bellied instructor. A few turns after our arrival the free lesson dissolved into “undirected activity”, giving folks the chance to show off their new skills. Most of the bravest were, of course, not learning new steps at all, and seemed to be regulars on the circuit. I was happy to watch (my salsa steps being a little dusty), but naturally Christina was shaking and stepping and spinning with the best of them. We hung out there for a while, then continued on our way.

We walked across the Victoria Bridge to Southbank, where the arts center, and parklands were lit by artistic displays, and nice views across the Brisbane River showed how pretty the city can be at night. There were a couple of different buskers playing music, but the second one we crossed was playing something that I first mistook for a steel drum, but after a closer look could not identify. The sound was similar, and it is played in much the same manner, but it was a convex instrument (instead of concave, which I believe steel drums are) and had a symmetrical arrangement of “dimples” around the interior of the surface. It was a haunting sound that was neat on it’s own, but would be pretty amazing with some accompaniment. We did not explore this area too thoroughly, since we plan to return the next day for the weekly Farmers Market. It was another fun night in Brisbane, and now we have one more to look forward to.

Day 3. We woke up to blue skies, which motivated us enough to get ready and head out to Southbank to explore the Farmers Market. We were briefly derailed in this by a stop into the cultural centre where a free exhibit was on display. We checked out some of the contemporary art, then continued our walk along the river path that lead to the Parklands area in Southbank where the market was hosted. We browsed around for a short time, looking at the goods which seem so similar to farmers markets the world over.

A couple of buskers were playing throughout the market, but one in particular was very good. He played spanish guitar, and had some pretty fast fingers, so we chose our breakfast venue by proximity to his location. This placed us on the opposite corner of the “square” (intersection, were there any traffic), at a cafe/bar/jazz club called “DM”. I had a Wagyu beef burger, and Christina had the fish & chips. The food was tasty, the music was pleasing, and the people-watching was entertaining, so we lingered. Once we’d had our fill we continued walking along the river. Normally this would be a very nice walk, with the river on our left and the botanic gardens on our right, however we seem to be in the middle of construction season, so the gardens are obscured by rudimentary fencing and the indolent dance of hardhats, reflective vests, and tools.

Our walk made a loop around the Stanley and Little Stanley blocks, which expanded from the temporary market stalls to permanent shops, cafes, and gelateries. Southbank is a very nice part of town, and if we happened to live in Brisbane I could see us spending our weekends there. We crossed the Victoria Bridge on our way back, which placed us back in the Queen Street Mall. The mall was quite packed at this time, and there were a few key entertainments on offer. One was a series of demonstrations, of an unrelated nature, taking place at the top of George’s Square. They had people upset about refugees, people upset about the killing of baby seals, and people upset about pollution, all holding signs and handing pamphlets.

Another was a live-action advertisement for the imminent production of Grease being performed by a local group. They had a large stage set up in the middle of the street, a band playing jive music for a dance competition (tickets to the production being the prize), and a choral number sung by the costumed cast of the performance. Finally, we sat for a while and watched an Indian group playing modern hindi music, while a few (very few… like 4 or 5) people danced. It was very nice to see the lively and cheerful streets packed with people enjoying themselves and taking advantage of the beautiful day. We would have missed this had we packed out this morning, so both Christina and I felt that hanging around was the right move. This afternoon has been occupied with the domestic duties of groceries and laundry as we prepare for tomorrow’s departure.