I am always surprised when I come to write in this journal that it's been so long since the last update. More proof, if any were needed, that time really does fly when you're having fun. I've been in Brisbane for nearly two weeks now. I was somewhat surprised that the bus went via Miami until I remembered about the Australia's magpie tendencies with place names. Since being in the city, I've also seen signs to Ipswich and buses going to Stafford. You would've thought they'd stick to calling things after rather more glamorous locations.
Perhaps partly because I've spent the past several weeks on the coast, the city seems hot. No cooling sea breezes, just the pavement reflecting the heat right back at you. I also think it's partly because there's been a bit of heatwave recently, temperatures averaging 34C instead of the seasonal average of 26C apparently. The upside of this is that the last few days have brought some really spectaular storms. The hostel I'm staying at - City Backpackers on Upper Roma Street - is on a hill commanding a pretty good view. I've been spending a fair bit of time on the balcony, watching the lightning dance around the city.
As well as a good balcony, the hostel boasts a swimming pool and an 'Irish bar', which like all Aussie Irish bars has an Irish sounding name and serves Guinness but otherwise is indistinguishable from any other pub. My first two days were particularly noteworthy as I didn't meet one other person who's first language was English. The majority, including all five of my (then) room mates, were German. While they all spoke English perfectly well, it was most entertaining trying to dredge some useful phrases from fogotten corners of my brain. Somehow telling them that I'm twelve years old and have a dog, or asking them to direct me to the post office didn't seem entirely relevent.
Brisbane itself is interesting to explore and has, in my opinion, a more pleasant atmosphere than Sydney. It's pretty easy to find your way about and I've gone everywhere on foot so far. There's a number of parklands and botanical gardens and so forth, all teeming with crazy wildlife; I particularly like the Mangrove Walk. There's the Observatory - the oldest building in the city, orginally a windmill built by convicts. Apparently the grinding mechanism was also manually operated by convicts as a particularly gruelling form of punishment, earning it the nickname of teh Tower of Torture, so 'windmill' seems a bit of a misnomer. And of course, like all good cities, there's a plethora of crazy statues. I particularly like the kangaroos (see gallery).
However, due to the heat I've mostly been spending a lot of time visiting places that are free and boast air-conditioning. I've been to the regular art gallery (and learnt about the Angry Penguins) and to the modern art gallery (and discovered Fluxus). I've been to the museum where they helpfully have on display all the words to Waltzing Matilda, as well as a myriad of other interesting things. It even has a 'dinosaur garden' outside, but unfortunately this means that the T Rex seems to be a bit covered in pigeons and bird poo. This makes it less scary than it might be otherwise. I've been to the city hall to see the marble staircases, impressive ceilings, exhibition on woven baskets, and the view from the clock tower. Unfortunately the lighthouse exhibition was closed on the day I went to the Maritime Museum, but it was still a really interesting afternoon. In the dry dock they currently have HMAS Diamantina, a WWII anti-sub frigate, with all the rooms restored to how they would've been. There's a brilliantly worded health and safety poster to read before you board, but then you absolutely have the run of the ship. As it was an overcast weekday when I went, I had the place to myself. I went on the bridge, turned the handles to move the big gun at the front, gleefully ran up and down ladders, and wandered around the engine room. It was a lot of fun.
But best of all, Brisbane contains 'Aussie' Jemma (who really needs a new prefix out here), who came to Notts Uni a year or two back. She's very kindly been showing me the better pubs, feeding me chips n cheese and hopefully we'll make it to a local gig on Saturday. I guess this is the first place where I've really been hanging out with 'locals' a lot, but I'm currently most amused by the 'Queensland hey'.
Oh yes, the chips n cheese. There's something of a gap in the availiable takeaways in Australia, in that they're rather lacking in such UK delicacies as melted cheese on chips and crispy duck. However, for some reason they can make kebabs, not only edible but actually quite nice. This truely is a topsy-turvy country.
