Blog Day 167 Thurs 20th October 2011

This morning we are woken by the sounds of the birds tweeting away. Poached eggs on toast see us on our way towards Brisbane. The drive to Brisbane is pretty straight forward and pretty nice too, it's once we hit the city & try to find the next hostel that Renee has us booked into that it becomes complicated. With one way roads & no entry signs everywhere it takes us a while to get onto the road we need & even then it takes several U turns to finally find Bunk Backpackers. If we thought finding the place was bad, parking is even worse. With just 6 parking spaces, tucked under the building itself, it takes a bit more than a 3 point turn & a lot of patience (good job Trish wasn't driving) to get into the last space left. When we get to reception we explain who we are, introduce ourselves to the manager & get welcomed as 'Super Important VIP Tour Operators' as by Renee's instructions. We get our room keys & find out that we are on the 5th floor, so up we go, fortunately there's a lift. Upon entering the room we are in total shock. There is no bed..but curiosity steps in when we see a staircase, something we haven't seen in a room for ages. Turns out we have our very own apartment, complete with sofa, T.V & kitchenette. Nice one Renee!

After stocking up on supplies (chicken, curry sauce, M&Ms) we walk back into the hostel with bags of shopping and clothes to fill our new apartment. As we enter the reception a right snotty nosed cow behind the desk breaks away from the conversation she was having to tell us " Your not taking all that food to your room are you!?!" it takes us a second to realise that yes she is talking to us like we are a couple of 5 year olds. "That food is all going into the kitchen, isn't it?" she again says in her downgrading tone, in front of a reception full of people. "Room 512!" is all we say back to her and as she looks it up on the computer the biggest 'OH S**T!' grin comes across her face and she waves us on through. Stupid woman! We're VIPs don't you know! Hehehe.

An evening of chilling on the sofa watching Home & Away, Four weddings, Beauty & the geek and reality series The Race soon follows!

Blog Day 168 Fri 21st October 2011

Today we enjoy a lay in followed by a cooked breakfast. After this we have to find the Spaceship office so that we can get a new windscreen wiper fixed. This doesn't take long & while the guy is fixing it we swap some of the films we had for some slightly newer films. Back at the hostel we manage to get into the parking space much easier as a few of the vehicles must have checked out. Then we go of for the usual new area wander. The city of Brisbane is buzzing, a bit like London with lots of smart business people holding cups of coffee wandering around. We come across Queen Street mall & take a stroll around that window shopping of course, that is until we come across a Starbucks. Trish's hand is nearly torn off by Dan as visions of the chocolate cream chip Frappuccino he enjoyed whilst in Malaysia & Singapore fill his head. With the target now in focus we are soon standing at the counter ordering a chocolate chip Frappuccino (no chocolate 'cream' chip) & a Latte. But it doesn't disappoint.

After a couple of hours we head back to the hostel for a bit of lunch and we try to watch one of the movies we picked up this morning. Club Dread we choose though we quickly discover that they are terribly scratched up & refuse to play without skipping. 5pm comes around & we are headed for a bar called Irish Murphy's. We have arranged to meet up with Mike and Alex who we met back up in Cairns for a few drinks. Australia vs Wales is also playing a bit later. Trish & Alex have a good natter while Mike & Dan watch the rugby. It was lovely catching up with them & hopefully will see them again either in Oz or New Zealand as they are also heading there around the same time as us.