We arrived in Brisbane at about 1pm after our short journey from Noosa and we ended up spending the next 2 hours in the transit centre waiting for our transfer to the hostel. When the hostel bus finally arrived it was a short drive to our hostel which was called Bunk. The hostel was really nice and was a little like Gilligans (our hostel in Cairns).

We quickly dumped our bags in our room and went for a walk. The hostel was right near China town and I actually managed to persuade Michelle to go for a Chinese. She wasnt too happy especially when she thought she may have to eat with chop sticks hehe! Although as soon as the food arrived we both happily tucked in!! After dinner we took a walk down by the river and Story Bridge before heading off to bed.

The next day we spent the whole day touring Brisbane. Our grand tour started on the free city loop bus. Then we went to Anzac Square before going to the (again FREE) Museum of Brisbane. The museum had two main displays, one was on the history of immigration to Australia and the other was about a huge mental hospital on the outskirts of Brisbane!!

The Queens Street Shopping Mall was next on the agenda, the mall was really nice and had a good selection of shops. Brisbane is a really nice city as it is not too big but has lots to do and see plus it has some lovely walks by the river.

After shopping we went over to Parliament House to take a few pictures and ended up having a tour but to actually get into the building you have to go through security scanners and have your bag x-rayed and the scanner decided to go off on me! Once inside the tour guide showed us round and we even got to see the 'main' room where there are many debates and the laws are passed. It is a simular set up to our parliament although they now only have one house which is an elected.

We then went over to Southbank to have some lunch and took a nice walk through a park where there was a city beach to the Museum of Queensland (where Wiggles the Wombat will soon be going to for an event she has to attend!) This Museum was even better and had lost of different displays including one on Australia's endangered animals. The endangered animal display has the Wallabies that we worked with at Kial and a Northern Hairy Nosed Wombat. It also had displays on Aboriginal Australia and working animals.

On the way home we walked past the Law Courts and decided that as we had a few hours to kill before our bus the next morning we could see if they had a public gallery. So the next morning was spent at court! The guard gave us a list of all the cases that were on that day and we chose court 29 that was a case about armed robbery of a day and night pharmacy. The set up was basically the same as a UK court and the case was really interesting. This guy was 'addicted' to prescription drugs so he apparently needed them so badly that he robbed the pharmacy, when he was committing the robbery he apoligised to the pharmacist. We then heard a bit of a sob story from the Defence before being told that he has a criminal history spanning over 20 years in 4 different states!!!! He has also been in and out of prison but it was his first armed robbery offence so the judge needed to take that into account Oh and they also needed to take into account over 10 other offences! We loved watching this case as we got a summary from both sides as the defendant was awaiting sentencing. Unfortunatly we had to go so we never found out how long he got but it was suggested anywhere between 3 - 5 years.

We then went back to the hostel to get our bus to Surfers Paradise!