So after our action packed couple of weeks heading down the East coast we finally arrive in Brisbane, which will be our base for the next 2 weeks for Christmas and New Years! It has not even been 10minutes of arriving in Brisbane when Jo slices her foot open on the Escalator (we haven't even left the transit centre yet!) After a quick clear up and a couple of plasters later we head to the YHA hostel and surrender our 2 weeks rent money up front (a very painful task indeed!) and settle into what will be our home for a while (aka a room which resembles more of a prison cell with bars on the windows!) But we dont let that deter us and we head straight out to buy some tinsel and mini xmas trees to brighten up the cell/room....much to our roommate Claudine's delight :)

Our time in Brisbane consisted of walks along the river, exploring the town, tasting local delicacies (i.e Subway..), trips to the South Bank and even a visit to the Queensland Museum and the 21st Art gallery (how very cultured for backpackers i hear you say)...or in other words...it was free and the weather was s***e! Much to our suprise the art gallery was pretty fun with interactive art , a room full of live birds, and a slide to get from level 3 to level 1 (mainly for the kids but that didnt stop the adults having a go too).

It's wierd to think we were in Brisbane for Xmas as it didn't feel very Xmassy at all so to get us in the festive spirit we do a spot of Xmas shopping for each other and go to a Xmas Night market. It was ok but had nothing on the European Xmas markets or even the ones down Southend highstreet! And that's saying something!!

Xmas day comes and we head into town (in our Xmas hats!) grab a hot chocolate and open our prezzies to one another (spookily much the same). We then head off for a Xmas day walk along the South Bank , grab some traditional festive food (i.e Maccers) when the heavens desice to open :( Typical Aussie Xmas in the sunshine i think not. So we head back to the hostel and watch far too many episodes of The Simpsons and finish the day with a BBQ on the rooftop. It was a good day altho definately made us both appreciate Xmas at home alot more.

Between Xmas and New Yrs we had a couple of nights out in the favourite backpacker haunt, Downunder Bar. A must for any backpacker as is cheap, plays good old cheesy chart music and is full of sweaty foreigners...nice! Many a good memory there.... And also a trip to the local Casino...thanks go to John & Owen for letting us gamble with their money. Unfortunately we didn't become millionaires but did manage to win a cheeky round of drinks or two thanks to Roulette. If we get better at it, this could pay for our travelling trip and who knows we might not even have to work....haha!

New Yrs was spent on the South Bank by the river watching the fireworks! Not as impressive as Sydneys but still a wicked experience.

Before we know it the 2 weeks in Brisbane has come to an end and as we do in each place we visit, we can successfully say we 'walked the crap' out of Brisbane. We were first a bit dubious of what to expect from Brisbane as when we would mention to people that we were spending 2 weeks there, the usual response would be along the lines of 'oh good luck!', 'wow that long??' and 'oh god' so we weren't getting our hopes up. However much to our suprise we both actually really liked the place and could happily see ourselves staying longer. But onwards we go to our next stop...the Gold Coast!