We arrived at Brisbane in the early evening and headed off to our hostel. On arriving we were told that there had been a fire the previous evening and that our room was unavailable. Instead they would be moving us to their sister hostel and we would be able to have a double room - good compromise! It turned out even better when we arrived there, as we bumped into some people we knew and they told us about a japanese couple having 'sexy time' in the dorm and a bunch of young ruffians fighting the previous night...thank god for a double room! That evening we wandered to the Cinema to check out Ashton Kutcher and Cameron Diaz's latest rom com - not an oscar contender....

Saturday we decided that we needed to do some shopping as the temperature was plummeting and our shorts and vest tops would not suffice. After many hours exploring Brisbane's shops were were equipped with jeans and jumpers and were ready to discover the city of Brisbane. We had a wander around the city taking in Southbank and the Botanical Gardens. We bumped into a lovely python on one of the board walks (see picture) and had lunch at Streets Beach. This is a man made beach and lagoon in the heart of the city and is a great place to chill out and people watch. In the evening we decided to treat ourselves to a bloody steak and a thirst quenching bottle of australian red. We had a lovely meal over looking the river and southbank and the guilt of spending vast amounts of money vanished as we polished off the wine and coffee.

The next day we went back to Southbank and visited the museum and Queensland Art Gallery. The gallery displayed lots of Australian paintings and had a really good exhibition on Aboriginal art. We jumped on a tour and pretended to know what the guide was talking about for an hour. Although we did not know much the gallery was very impressive and it was very interesting to see the aborigional collection. In the afternoon we went to the Castlemaine xxxx factory where we had a tour and learnt the fine art of making beer. The tour was very interactive and made you appreciate the fine delicacy of this important beverage. We were given four free beers and we had the pleasure of meeting some fine local australians from the outback. We were under the impression that they were a couple but after a few drinks it transpired that they were brother and sister! Hmm...

Brisbane is supposedly the most desirable place to live in Australia. We agreed that it had a cool cosmopolitan feel, a cafe culture and lots of galleries and museums, but were unsure if it would be our favourite place.