We didn't arrive in Brisbane until about 12 at night but the coach journey from Surfer's Paradise had been surprisingly quick. I didn't even get time to nap. The hostel had stopped doing pick ups by this time so we waited for ages at the bus station to get a taxi. After we had been waiting for about 45 mins someone at the station decided to tell us the taxis had stopped ages ago, so we had to walk down to the street and hail one but it took us ages to get anyone to pick us up. When we finally arrived we were all so tired after a long day that we went straight to bed. We had all managed to be put in the same room though so that was good. We got up quite late the next morning, then went to explore the rest of the hostel and the city. The hostel was nice and had a good atmosphere. We even had a balcony in the room. It was in the area of Brisbane called the West End so was about a 20 minute walk to the city centre. There were still plenty of shops, restaurants and bars in the area though. We walked through the city and over the bridge to take a look around. I hadn't heard many good things about Brisbane from other travellers but it seemed really nice and I liked it alot. The weather was great and really hot the whole time we were there and it was a very pretty city, especially around the river. We stopped for some lunch and had a look around the shops before carrying on exploring. Brisbane has great shopping, it's just a shame I don't have any money to do it! That night we met up with Leejay and Chris and went to the cinema. All the boys went to see one film, but us girls decided to watch a comedy called 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall.'

The next few days we didn't really do much apart from chill out at the hostel as we found it really hard to get up early for some reason. I suppose I do regret being so lazy now but Brisbane is fairly quiet and there isn't much to do. I think part of the reason is because there wasn't a beach. Everywhere we have been pretty much has had one, and if we can't be bothered to do much or don't want to spend any money we will normally just go to the there. Brisbane does have a man-made lagoon but that's not really the same thing and it wasn't very nice. On the Wednesday night we went out for some drinks in the West End. There were some really nice bars there and we ended up going to a club called Uber, which was surprisingly good and much had better music than most places we have been to so far. We all had a really good night out, and that was partly resonsible for us not getting up to much the next day! On the following night we all went out for a chinese was was really nice. We didn't get there until quite late so we were the only ones in the restaurant. It was nice though because I haven't eaten chinese or any asian food since we were in Asia and I had finally got my appertite for it back.

Friday was our last day in the city and we got up to explore and walk around the streets as it was Anzac Day. This is sort of Australias equivilant to Rememberance Day, but it seems to be a good excuse to have a party here. Unfortunatley we didn't manage to see the parade but there we still loads of people walking the streets in their military uniforms. We spent quite a lot of the afternoon in the travel agents trying to sort out our Fraser Island and Whitsunday Sailing trips. Claire, Justin and I had already booked ours so we had to try to get everyone else on the same one which turned out to be way more of a hassle than it should have been. On the bright side I bought one of my better purchases, and something which is actually useful (even though clothes are too obviously!) - some wheels for my backpack! I was so excited! It is basically a frame with wheels that you can sit your backpack on and pull it around instead of carrying it. I know it sounds a bit lazy but I can't even lift my own bag it's so heavy so I think it will come in handy. That night we went out to take part in the Anzac Day celebrations. We went to a backpackers bar called Tin Billy's which was nice and lively and then to the Irish pub we had been to for lunch which was completely packed! We had to get up early the next morning to catch the bus to Noosa but that didn't stop everyone from having a few drinks! Only because it's tradition of course...!