We’ve spent the last couple of days in Brisbane. One of our friends lumped Brisbane together with Cairns. Our experience has been a bit different. Cairns we couldn’t wait to get out of, while Brisbane has been a great city to explore. It seems to be a city where everyone is always doing some kind of outdoor activity – running, biking, walking, barbecuing or simply sitting by the river and reading a book. There are lot of green spaces here and it’s fairly easy to find your own individual, private spot (if that’s what you’re looking for) somewhere along the river. It’s a compact city that’s easy to get around, and we didn’t even use the paid public transportation!
We’re staying in an outer city (it’s kind of like the lower mainland where cities seem to merge together) called Hamilton, and it has been no problem getting into Brisbane everyday. When we arrived where we are staying, we discovered that there was a race track not too far from us. That night we went to check out the greyhound races. Can’t say that we do that every night!
Our first full day, we do what we usually do. Walk EVERYWHERE – walk a bit too far/much and feel tuckered, yet a bit more oriented by the end of the day. There is a ferry system here in Brisbane that includes paid public transportation “City Cats” which motor down the river between stations, and free “City Hoppers” which are smaller, slower and have a slightly less expansive route. The City Hopper worked out well for us, and it was a nice way to see the city. We spent the majority of our time exploring the South Bank which (like Cairns . . . the only comparison we could find) has a man made beach/ocean which is free for all and manned by lifeguards, an area called East End which has a bit of an edgy/hippy vibe and New Farm which houses the Brisbane Powerhouse (an old, abandoned power station which has been converted into an multi-use arts centre.) We ended our day at the Powerhouse and were able to catch the free comedy improv show (the Banff Mountain Film Festival was also playing that night, so it was a bit difficult for us to choose what we wanted to do!)
Today was market day. Weekends seems to have markets everywhere. We also took advantage of the city bike share program. Throughout the city there are various docking stations. For a subscription (in the case of a single day it was $2), you can get a code to input in order to get a bike. The first half hour of each ride is free, and you can return the bike to any station (as long as there’s room, but there’s an app that tells you where and how much room a docking station has at any particular time). It was a nice break from walking and a lot of fun! We ended up at markets back at the Powerhouse, the East End and the South Bank (all places we had become familiar with the day before) were we were jealous of the fresh fruits and veggies (especially the mangos that are just coming into season) and managed to graze on some amazing food along the way. We were going to end with a night food market here in Hamilton, but the bikes don’t go that far along the trail, and we were pretty pooped from the past couple of days adventures. We also kind of figured we’d seen our fair share of markets (and ate good market food) for the day.
Tomorrow begins the gamble of whether or not we can get a flight out of here to North America. Anyone want to put their bets in?
Around the City
The beach at South Bank looked like this on Friday morning, but by the afternoon . . . . .
. . . it was packed!! Nice to see that it wasn’t only tourists though. Locals seem to take advantage of the many green and public spaces that they have easy access to.
You could spend hours just walking along the river.
Not a bad place to read a book!
It was nice to have this to cool our feet as it was HOT and we put many miles on these suckers!
Guess Movember’s a thing here too.
Brisbane Powerhouse. It has a few places to eat and different theatres for events. A really cool building (“beautiful on the inside and out!”)
Transportation
Who needs a fast and efficient City Cat, when . . . .
. . . you can take the relaxed and FREE City Hopper?
A great place to chillax, and . . . .
. . . . see the sights.
One of the docking stations for the city bike share program.
Just take a bike . . . . .
. . . . and go!
Entertainment
A night at the races. We stayed in the stands, but the majority of people (who happened to mostly be men) were inside placing their bets. It was exactly like how you see it in the movies.
B & I were playing our own game to see if we could choose the winning dogs. We don’t have a picture of the particular race, but B-Rod was gambling on the dog “Check Yo Self”, while I was rooting for “Fernando”
Comedy night at the Powerhouse.
Markets & Food
Finally . . . . mangos!!
Have you ever asked the question . . . what would happen if I crossed a donut with a croissant?
Well . . . neither have we! But a pair of Aussie electrician brothers did, and thus the cronut was born (or maybe it’s a “thing” that B & I just don’t know about, but have discovered here in Australia). Whatever the origins, it’s not really something we need to have again . . . . meh!
Halo-halo . . . . now that’s an odd mixture of a bunch of stuff that we can get behind!
. . . . . this post has been brought to you by vegemite. Yes, this stuff really is that bad!! I’d rather have a cronut, or . . . one of those meat pies that are everywhere here (that I also don’t get!) Mat mates . . consider my challenge complete!
This brings us to the (possible) end of our Oz adventures (will we make it on a plane?) Stay tuned at a later date for the next chapter in our (or mine or B-Rod’s) journey.