I had to get up at 6:45am to catch a bus to Brisbane. I arrived at 10am weirdly as they are an hour behind in Queensland and checked in at my hostel called Tinbilly's which I had deliberately booked as it's opposite the bus station to give me precious extra minutes in bed! Unfortunately it was raining when I arrived so I headed out with my rainproof and decided to have a look at the shops whilst the weather was bad. The clothes are much cheaper here than in Sydney so I bought myself a sunhat.

When I went back to the hostel to grab some lunch and take my bag up to the room there was an older lady in the room who had been staying in the room for 4 weeks whilst she is waiting for accommodation. She told me that the Asian guy staying in the room had been sat up in the bed in the middle of the night staring at me so that made me feel slightly nervous about my first night in a mixed dorm!

I walked to Southbank which has a saltwater pool and normal lagoon. Despite the weather there were still people swimming in it. The area has lots of eateries there and green spaces alongside the river which would be a really nice area to have a picnic at. I then walked through the botanical gardens and ended up walking through the university campus whilst trying to get back to the main road.

I decided to get a bus to Mt Cootha as it's supposed to have amazing views of the city. The views did not disappoint but unfortunately as it was a bit cloudy the view was a little spoilt - it's supposed to be really good at night but I was heading to a free party and BBQ so had to make do with the daytime view.

After a couple of hours of wondering around up the mountain I headed back to the hostel to get ready. After the woman telling me about the Asian guy I was a little disturbed to find that the lock on the bathroom didn't work so I decided to put the bin in front of it so that I'd hear the door if it went!

I headed across the road to PeterPan travel agents who were hosting the goon party. I sat with a couple of German girls and tried my first glass of goon which is like sweet wine but contains milk and eggs weirdly (not good for my lactose intolerance!). We had some nibbles and chatted to an English guy who has been working nearby. After a few glasses of goon we headed across to the bar for our free BBQ. This consisted of a frankfurter on a piece of bread with some onions and salad - quite different from any barbie I've been to but it filled a hole nicely.

One of the Aussie guys who works at the bar and was chatting to us at the party was having a laugh with us by dancing in front of us whilst we were eating and lying across the table we were eating at and then he kept bringing English people over to meet me and excitedly saying "she's English!" When I said I didn't want to leave Australia he said he could marry me to give me residency;) I met a guy at the bar from Manchester who thought I was very posh and brought me a drink as I was a fellow Brit.

After the dinner we had a limbo competition that myself and one of the German girls took part in and I got down to the last five but then ended up falling at the last hurdle right onto my knees. The Aussie guy got me to dance with him and when I told him that I was leaving the next day he said he didn't want me to go as he liked me, and as I didn't know what to say I said "that's really sweet". The girls from the travel agent who are Brits came and danced with me too and I stayed with them till about 11:30pm when I decided it was time for bed as I had an early coach to catch.