After a short-ish journey from Noosa, we arrived happy and feeling fresh in Brisbane, despite the horrible weather. We had already booked our accommodation to tie in with the Lukes so we managed to get picked up from the bus station and taken to our accomodation. Unbeknown to us, however, there were two hostels owned by the same company and, of course, we were meant to be staying in the other one. Consequently, we spent about an hour checking into the right hostel.

Eventually we awere all settled so Jo and Panda went on a mission to find the Lukes which resulted in hard-core detective work but everntually mission was acomplished. In the evening we all got together at the Lukes hostel, had a few drinks there and then headed all the way back to our hostel to go to the bar underneath us.

The following day we ventured into the city centre which was about a 5minute walk and had a quick look around at the shops. We popped into the Lukes again and made arangements for the evening. Later on, they came to ours as it was their turn to make the journey. However, THE STORM had began and they had to dash through the pouring rain to get to ours. Luckily, once again we were only going to the bar beneath us so we had a few drinks on the sheltered balcony and then went to the bar. At approximately 1am the lights in the club came on which confused everyone as the club itself closed at goine 3am. Everyone looked up to see gushes of water pouring from the ceiling just as the bar staff were screaming for everyone to evacuate the building before being electricuted!! Therefore we left the club out into the pouring rain to start the looongg journey back to our hostel (next door!!)

Typically, as everyone does when it is torrential rain to the point where the roads are flooding, the boys decided to run around the block in their boxers, along with another crowd of boys. This of course, resulted in them being soaked through, however this was not too much of an issue considering they werent wearing many clothes anyway.

We all then decided to congregate in the tv room and watch some films. Just as we'd chosen a film to watch and all got comfy, Tom came running into the room asking for someone who's relatively sober to come with him and see something. We had met a couple - Becca and Matt, through the Lukes so Matt volunteered himself. Suddenly Tom and Matt come running back into the room screaming 'Fire' just as the fire alarm went off. So once again, we were evacuated from the building in the pouring rain. Some clever people, may we just say at this point that it was not any of us, decided that to save their legs, they would jump in the lift and make their way downstairs during this FIRE evacuation!!!!!!! Genius. Anyway, so there we were stranded in the rain, waiting for the building to collapse in front of us, when the fire alarm stopped and we were all told to get back into the building. I think we all felt a bit like dancing monkeys that night, but luckily that was the last evacuation of the evening and we could all resume to watching films in the tv room. Drama drama drama!

The next day, the Lukes left us and that would be the last time we see them on our travels - sob sob. We did, however, arrange a big reunion in their house back in London when we are home, yay!! The day was spent chilling out, doing laundry and bits n bobs. In the evening we had the pleasure of witnessing an even bigger storm than the one the night before. The lightning went on forever and was constant, and it would appear that that very storm caused a lot of damage just outside of the city!!

Anyway, the Friday was the last day in Brisbane so we decided to meet up with the Welshies and to meet up with Jayne and Dom (a couple we'd met in Koh Phangnan who live in Brisbane). So in the afternoon, we met up with the Welshies and after much debate, decided to go for drinks in the Down Under bar (our new local). Here, you got given a raffle ticket with any drink purchased. So after the first draw and us being unsuccessful, we decided to put all of our tickets together. The final draw came round; none of us were quite sure what was on offer, we'd thought he'd said meat tray but had decided we must have misheard him. Oh no, he most definately did say meat tray and guess who only went and won it. Im not quite sure if we wanted to laugh or cry; the meat platter was huge!!!! It was like a butchers shop on a plate; with sausages, steak, burgers, lamb chops etc. We'd also won some drink too which they gave to us in drink vouchers. Unsure of what to do with our meat platter, we discussed selling it; however one drunken man who said he was interested, let us down. So we kept it and invited the Welshies along with Jayne and Dom to a bbq on the roof of our hostel.

Jordan did the majority of the cooking of the meat and it was all very yummy, we couldnt eat all of it so we had to leave some of it in the hostel. The welshies went home early as Joe was still on antibiotics for the eye infection from Fraser Island. Then we all headed out with Jayne and Dom. Dom was very proud of his home town of Brisbane and tried to give us a mini tour before we went into the Casino. However, only Jordan and Tom were allowed in due to not being allowed to wear 'thongs' (flip-flops) so the girls went home whilst the others hung around in the casino for a while. Was lovely seeing them again; all in all our time in Brisbane had been fun and in the morning we got up to head to Surfers Paradise.