My trip highlights

Tuesday:

I arrived in Brisbane on at about lunch time. Jay was able to meet me at the airport gate since the security measures are more relaxed in Australia. My right ear never popped on the descent into Brisbane and was in a whole lot of pain. We rode the transit train back to Brisbane and walked four blocks to the hotel. Our hotel was located pretty close to downtown Brisbane. The weather was beautiful! Sunny and warm. Brisbane is a really nice city with lots of development happening. We ate lunch at a restaurant that is right on the boardwalk for the river. I discovered two things about eating in Australia pretty quickly. 1) Drinks like water and soda are served in 8 oz servings and refills are not free 2) they stack their food, meaning that if you order a steak and chips (fries), the steak comes out on top of the fries. These two things held true for every place that we ate for our entire trip.

After lunch we walked the boardwalk along the river down to the Botanical Gardens. This place was huge and beautiful. It was very lush and free to the public. There were many paths and trails as well as the boardwalk and the mangrove walk.

We headed back to the hotel after walking through the downtown of Brisbane. We watched a little tv and then fell asleep long before even dinner time!

Wednesday:

Since we fell asleep so early the night before, we were wide awake at about 4:30 in the morning. We sat around watching tv until about 6:30 so that we could go to breakfast. I had eggs, bacon, sausage and beans. Aussies are very big fans of serving roasted tomatoes with their eggs as well as beans cooked in a spiced tomato paste. I didn't really like the eggs. I ordered them scrambled and they were very runny. I also did not like the sausage as it contains some lamb. I don't like lamb at all. The taste is just too strong.

We then took a river city cruise that took us up river for about an hour and dropped us at a historic house that is a museum. We toured the museum and then found a great lunch. We then re-boarded the boat and went back down river. After the cruise, we rode the Wheel of Brisbane, a 60 meter tall ferris wheel on the South Bank of Brisbane.

I learned a few more things on Wednesday. Since it is a sub-tropic area, all the restaurants do a whole lot of outdoor eating. Stores even have storefronts that open completely to take in the wonderful weather. There isn't a mosquito problem in Brisbane. There are mosquitoes in Australia, just not in Brisbane. The Brisbane River is a salt water river. It does not have crocodiles as it is too cold, but it does have a bull shark problem. A few people a year (usually tourists) get attacked by sharks.

Since the river can't be used for swimming, the city of Brisbane made a man-made beach and swimming area next to the river. In an area called South Bank, there is a boardwalk, then a nice green area, and the a huge swimming pool with a beach attached to it. The pool is made to look like a natural water feature, but is a concrete pool. One side gets gradually shallower until it hits the sand. It's just like the beach, but with chlorine!

The weather was still beautiful. The temp had been well over 80 so I bought two pairs of shorts at the Myer department store since I hadn't packed any. I changed into shorts and we did a bit more walking and then went back to the hotel. We ended up sleeping early again.

Thursday:

We woke up and discovered that despite Brisbane suffering from the worst drought in 100 years, it was pouring and was very windy. My ear still hurt very badly despite having taken some pain meds and and some decongestant. We found a medical clinic that was close by and made an appointment. We arrive 10 minutes early to our appointment. We ended up having to wait 80 minutes! I was not pleased at all. My medical insurance is no good in Australia since they have a socialized medical system. My appointment costed me $108 and the medicine was an additional $97. The doctor said that I had fluid in my inner ear (yup!) along with pressure trama to my eardrum. I also had signs of an infection starting.

The weather really put a damper on our plans so we just hung at the hotel all day. We actually made it to dinner that night since we went with Dave. Dave is a native Australian, though not from Brisbane. He is working on the same project that Jay is. He has spent a lot of time in Brisbane. He travels a whole lot with his work. He has also lived in Maryland for a few years (2002-2006). He took us to a great Mongolian BBQ place. It was really tasty!

Friday:

More rain. It stopped after breakfast and we booked a boat cruise to go in the opposite direction than our previous cruise. This cruise was also longer. As soon as we got started on the cruise, it started pouring rain. We left the top deck of the boat and couldn't see much from the bottom deck through the rain on the windows. The cruise took us to Lone Pine Koala Sanctury. The rain stopped about 5 minutes from the park The park holds about 130 koalas as well as kangaroos and other australia wildlife (a few snakes, birds, and wambats). I got to cuddle a koala (for an additional fee) and we both got to pet kangaroos. It was just starting to sprinkle when we reboarded the boat 2 hours later. Thankfully the rain only lasted a few minutes and was just a light sprinkle. We enjoyed our cruise back to the city. We ate very late lunch walked around a bit. We headed back to the hotel and ended up asleep before dinner again. I woke up from my nap around 8 and saw that it was raining. I decided that I wasn't very hungry and went back to sleep.

Saturday:

Rain before and during breakfast. We actually had two breakfasts this morning. We walked all the way downtown to where we had eaten lunch the day before. The breakfast took forever to get to the table and by the time it arrived, my scrambled eggs were cold. I couldn't eat them. Jay complained and the manager compted my meal and Jay's. He offered to remake, but I said no. Jay finished eating and we walked 3 blocks and sat down at a different place so that I could get something to eat. Service was extremely slow, but the food was good.

After breakfast, the rain stopped and Dave picked us up at the hotel and drove us to the Gold Coast. The Gold Coast is very famous for its surfing. The ocean was very rough and swimming wasn't allowed anywhere, but that didn't stop the surfers. I learned a lot more about Australians and heard how most Australians view the U.S. Dave arrived in States about 6 months after 9-11. He said that it was great that everyone was so patriotic, but he felt very unwelcome and very much an outsider. Dave said that the attitude did gradually change, but at first, it was very uncomfortable for him and his family to be here. Dave (and his family) love squirrels! They have no squirrels in Australia and thought they were awesome. Dave also liked the fact we paint yellow lines in the center of our road. Aussies drive like Brits with the steering wheel on the right side of the car and drive on the left side of the road. Dave said it was very easy to figure out where to be on our road, just had to have the yellow line on the left of the car.

We ate ice cream in Surfers Paradise (from a Baskin Robbins!). We drove a whole lot up and down the Gold Coast. Dave explained that the state of Queensland is very much in love with America and likes American things. Out of all the Aussie states, Queensland has the most American restaurants, McDonalds, Sizzler, KFC, Starbucks and Hungry Jacks (Burger King). Most places also played American music (rock from the late 80's mostly). TV is also almost all American sitcoms. News programs and sports are the only Australian shows we saw. Some beaches are also named for US beaches like Miami and Palm Beach. Jay and I ate our first meat pie. Food pies are a huge deal in Australia. Any bakery serves them and that are filled with just about anything you can imagine. They have whole restraurants that serve nothing but these little pies. I had a steak and potato pie and Jay had steak and kidney. Jay didn't really like his. He said it was just the whole concept, but I think it was the kidney :) Mine was good. We later stopped for coffee at a McDonalds. Aussie are very serious about their coffees. I had tried a few here and there, but found them all to be too strong and bitter-even with sugar and milk. Dave suggested going to McDonalds because they served a milder coffee. The McDonalds in Australia all have a McCafe attached to them. The McCafe serves higher end coffees and pastries. I had a vanilla latte and finally was able to make it through a cup of coffee. Serving sizes are much smaller in Australia for pretty much all drinks. A large there is the same size as a medium here. It started raining again after dark and we ate dinner in a seafood pub outside of Brisbane. We then headed back to the hotel. I was really running out of clothes, but the coin op laundry was already closed.

Sunday:
First order of business after breakfast was laundry. The coin op was about 6 blocks away so we loaded our clothes into a suitcase and got ready to leave. I was out of clean underwear and short sleeve shirts and of course it was warm and sunny in the morning. As we were leaving the hotel, I asked Jay if we should get change at the hotel desk. Jay said no, that there would be a change machine. I suggested we just get it now, but he said no. I had to AU money so I couldn't get change. We walked 6 blocks dragging a suitcase. The laundry didn't have a change machine and Jay only had a $50 anyway. No place was open because it was only 7:30. We ended up having to walk all the way back to the hotel where I got change at the desk, then walked 6 blocks back to the laundry. We did laundry and I had brought a book. I had asked Jay before we left if he wanted a book, but he said no. He then was bummed that I didn't bring a deck of cards. Jeez.
After we finished laundry, the sky started clouding over and looking like rain. We went to the train station trying to go to the Australia Zoo. We found out that in order to go we had to catch the 8 am train. Of course it was about 11:30. We went for a walk, looking for lunch. We didn't want to eat at the same places we had been eating at, so we walked a different direction on the river walk. Well, it was a bad choice. There was just nothing there. We walked forward and reached a residential area. From there we grabbed a water taxi back towards the city. We decided to go to the South Bank area since it has a lot of restaurants. Jay and I both just wanted a burger or something simple. All we could find was fancier places or ethnic food. We wandered around in the rain for a while and finally found a place called Beastie Burgers. They had really good burgers and we had our first Australia milkshakes. I had an Expresso Shake. It was tasty, but not really like an American shake. They were very thin, much more like frothy milk. We then walked back to the hotel and just called it a day. We were tired and wet and just done.
Monday:
We got up early and grabbed breakfast at McDonald's at the train station. The McDonald's in Australia don't have bisquits. They have breakfast rolls instead. Strange. Our train arrived about 10 minutes late and then was about 15 minutes waiting in a tunnel because there was a "slight" derailment on a different train on the track north of where we were. That made it only 1 track available instead of two. Jay and I both decided that I am just bad luck. If I hadn't decided to go to the Zoo that day, then there would have been no delays. The Australia Zoo was a lot of fun. The weather held for most of the day for us to get through the Zoo. It was probably the nicest Zoo we had ever seen. There were so many crocodiles there. All of them had a story behind them and how they were trouble crocs before Steve Irwin caught them. There was also a really nice memorial set up to honor Steve. We watched a wild animal show that was really cool. They brought in several birds that flew right over our heads. They also fed a really big croc named Shaka. He was a 15 ft fella who got used to being fed by fisherman that he tried to climb into a tourist boat. It was really amazing to see him be fed. The Australia Zoo has three Asian elephants. The Zoo is very interactive and allows people to get up close to the animals (the safe animals). At the Elephant inclosure, vistors get about 6 ft from the elephants. It was amazing to see them that close and watch how the keepers interact with them. In the tiger enclosure, there were three keepers just lounging around about 4 feet from the tigers. They were braver than I would be with 6 tigers. After a long train ride back, Jay and I went back to the hotel so that he could try to call and get my flight fixed. I had called many many times to no avail. He finally got it all squared away so we headed out for dinner. We had a nice dinner and then I packed.
Tuesday:
Jay and I took the train to the airport. We had a hard time getting me checked in because the employee was trying to be helpful. Finally got all booked in and just in time to board the plane for Sydney. 31 hours after I left the hotel in Brisbane, I finally arrived in Baltimore. I lucked out and my bag was one of the first off the plane and I caught the shuttle bus almost right away. I drove Jay's car home and was happy to be here. I had a great trip despite some bumps.