Brisbane Arrival

Very artistic suspension bridge over the Brisbane River.

Yesterday we left beautiful Port Douglas and came to Brisbane.  At first I was really disappointed with what I was seeing as we rode from the airport to our hotel.  It just looked like some big city, which was disappointing after the tropical beach scene.  As we walked around town hunting for food, we got to see a different side, and started to appreciate this city.

It could not be more different than Port Douglas: big city vs. quaint beach town, people dressed up for a night out vs. barefoot in beachwear, skyscrapers vs. nothing taller than a palm tree, street sounds vs. bird calls, and beautiful weather vs. somewhat stifling humidity.  We soon started to feel very comfortable here, it felt very safe and clean.

Our hotel is right across from the botanical gardens, so that was the first thing we checked out.  It wasn’t what we expected, it was more of a public park with some plaques here and there saying what it was.  It was gorgeous though.  We were also able to hear a lot of birdsongs here, some really crazy sounding ones!  One sounded a bit like a car alarm, one was super loud and a bit maniacal sounding, I think that one was the kookaburra, but we couldn’t see the source of the sound.

We walked along the river for a bit, they have a very nice pedestrian/bike path that follows the river and after a while joins the botanical gardens, so you’ve got a park on one side and river on the other.  Very lovely walk.   When we finally decided it was time to turn back, we turned in the direction we thought our hotel was and just walked until we got out of the park.  We started to hear music as we got close to the exit, but we thought it was just coming for a restaurant or something.  It turns out we walked out right onto the Queensland University of Technology campus, where a small casual orchestra (as in they were wearing jeans and t-shirts, even though the conductor was wearing his tails).  We sat there for a moment enjoying the beautiful campus, perfect weather, and lovely music, until they got to a part in the piece that they couldn’t perform quite as well.  We realized they sounded a bit better from further off, and continued to hear them from about a block away as we made our way back.  It was a magical introduction to the city.

The Botanical Garden goes right up to the edge of the Queensland University of Technology campus.

The QUT campus was a beautiful mix of old buildings and new modern ones.

We also made our way down to the big shopping area, which was much more intense than we expected.  Mom said it reminded her of Grafton Street in Dublin, but it was much bigger and brighter, with neon and lit up signs all over, and much louder.  We have buskers on Grafton Street playing music, but here they had musicians in bandstands with amplifiers.  This was the place to be, if you wanted to enjoy the nightlife.  It felt like half the town was there, all dressed up to party.  We checked out a couple of cute shops, got our bananas from the grocery, then headed back to crash for the night.

Today is koala day, so we had to make sure we were well rested!  Koala pics to come soon.