G'day from Brisbane

We flew into Brisbane from Singapore. The airport definitely makes you feel like your in Australia- what with the hords of kangaroo and koala memorabilia. We were pretty knackered, not handy given that we hadn't really researched Brisbane or booked a bed. Clearly the tourist office had accounted for this and had lots of leaflets on hostels and a free phone to call them all. I should mention at this point we have become the most stingy people on earth after spending 2 months in Asia. We couldn't decide between a couple so got the shuttle bus to the backpacker part of the city. After popping in a couple and discussing rates in true cheap-skate fashion we booked the cheapest bed we could and checked in to the yellow submarine. On first glance this hostel looks cool it is painted bright yellow and has lots of nautical themed murals painted on it. On closer inspection you realise it is pretty disgusting and has rude staff- nevermind we were too tired to really care and went straight to bed. Needless to say the next day we checked out of the yellow submarine and took our tight selves to a nicer hostel- not quite the ritz and a "no rules barred" style fight was needed to grab an inch to cook in the kitchen.

Brisbane is a lovely little city- but little being the key word! We were kind of tempted to work here as its really clean and nice, but after three days we decided there wasn't a great deal to entertain us. The highlights of the city were the botanic gardens and a walk down the river front. The botanic gardens were really cool they had big lizards roaming around and these crazy massive stork looking birds on the prowl for food constantly. We were realising our budget was dwindling quick at this point and Australian prices are crazy much more expensive than home and certainly more expensive than Asia! We couldn't afford to eat out- unless it was subway or Mcdonalds, which thank goodness is globally cheap! So we tended to make our own lunches and try and eat them somewhere picturesque. We hadn't really cooked an entire meal ourselves since being at home so it was quite weird cooking again. We soon realised how great packets of noodles are- not just cheap but simple to prepare too- beat that Gordan Ramsay!

Brisbanes Pig and Whistle

The Sunderland- Newcastle Derby fell when we were in Brisbane, so we had to find somewhere open during the night (what with the time difference) showing it- how appropriate we find a city centre bar showing it... The Pig and Whistle. Not quite the same as the Big Markets version, it is in the middle of the main shopping street and open aired- as opposed to be full of drugged up charvers with jugs of woo woo making shapes to Cascada. So watching it there wasn't quite the same as home and needless to say we left the venue very unimpressed- bloody mags! I wont go any further talking about the football. Firstly, because Johns not here to keep me sounding like I know what I am talking about. Secondly, the best team lost so there no need to go into the nasty details!

Crikey- that crocs a Real Beauty!

Other than wandering around the city the only other thing to do in Brisabane is got to Australia Zoo-which is Steve Irwin's Zoo. We were a little apprehensive, being safari adventurers now we thought we may be a little jaded and over zoos. How wrong we were- this zoo is brilliant. Its very crocofied, but what else would you expect? Some of these crocodiles are massive, bigger than the ones in Africa and very scary looking! We got to feed some elephants- the ungrateful ele left snot all over your hand though! There is a really cheesy animal show held in the "crocoseum" they have loads of audience interaction and make you do animal impression and shout things like Crikey and other Steve phrases. This was really good, unbelievably cheesy and you feel like a complete idiot but lots of fun. They had a wicked tiger enclosure too and the tigers were playing and fighting which was excellent to see particularly as most zoos you go to are full of asleep animals- perhaps they supply coffee to the animals here??? Another vicious little thing we saw was a Tasmanian Devil, these things were really funny because they just ran around looking like they had a poorly leg and dragging it behind them, but don't be fooled there evil little gits and they have a stronger jaw strength than a pit bull! On a cuter (and more Ausy) note we got to stroke some Koalas and Kangaroos. Koalas are the cutest things ever- we were going to try and steal one and keep it as our travelling pet and they cant be very hard to look after they just sleep all the time. We also saw some huge water dragons, a really old tortoise, otters which were hilarious to watch. I think that was about it but no doubt I will have forgot some animals!

Theres pictures of the Irwins all around the zoo, which is sad when you think about what happened to Steve and his poor family. They seemed to have done lots of good for animals all round Australia and he seemed like a really cool guy. Anyone ever going to Australia definitely has to check out the Australia Zoo... Crikey it's a mint day out!

Bye Bye Brisbane...Hello Surfers Paradise

After about three days we left Brisbane and headed to Surfers Paradise on the Greyhound coach. Surfers is alright, it doesn't quite fit its title, as it's not paradise but the beach is really nice. The sand is so nice it squeaks when your walking on it. Theres nothing really different in Surfers but its on the way to Byron and is worth checking out just for the water park. The water park is amazing, its huge and full of lots of different slides we hadn't seen anywhere else. Its really difficult to try and describe the slides but I am sure you get the jist, slides, water and in different shapes. We didn't bottle any even the massive ones that look pretty much vertical! We had an awesome day here and stayed pretty late playing on slides over and over. To be honest theres not much else to say about Surfers we left after a couple of days and headed to Byron Bay.