Brisbane 25th July (nearly, but not quite 'Bris-bland')

We took the five hour Greyhound bus trip to Brisbane which was pretty uneventful.Staying at Banana Benders Backpacker's which is again very basic but very friendly staff and a great location.Walked down to the South Bank area which is replica of the London South Bank with the bars, restaurants, big wheel, art museums, market stalls and live music.The view from the river bank here isn't really a touch on the London view, but there is a good vibe and lots of activity going on and seems like a good place to chill out and watch the world go by.The weather started to get cooler so we found a Sushi bar to warm up in.There seem to be quite a few Japanese people who are living here but then it must be the nearest large city to Japan.Headed out to Brunswick St in the evening for a Saturday night on the town Brisbane style and came to a large pedestrian area which is packed full of bars.Sampled a number of them and ended up in a club where we were watching the techno dancers (I think that's what it was but I'm sure one of our nieces will tell us if different!) Anyway the uniform is loud coloured flared trousers and you fling your legs around for about 2 mins before needing a rest!Where's their stamina - we used to do 'Jingo' for at least 2 hours.On the look out for some live music but realised this is too trendy for live music so we settled for a bar with 80's and 90's music.A good evening and nice to see so much life compared to the sleepy nightlife we've sampled in the towns so far.

26th July

We decided to have a cultural day at the museums so back along the south bank to the Museum of Modern Art which had some great sculptures and Aboriginal art.Walked along the river and across to the Botanical Gardens and sat in the sunshine for a while.We've been so lucky with the weather so far and it's obvious why Queensland is called the Sunshine State.We continued our walk following the river and found the market and yet again our timing is impeccable and we were just in time to watch them packing up. In the evening we went to the cinema and enjoyed a cheese platter and a bottle of Merlot in the cinema while watching 'Bruno'.Very funny and we both had hysterics throughout!Although Brisbane isn't an ugly place it's also not the prettiest, but has all the ingredients for a city to spend a couple of days in.