My last few weeks in Brisbane were pretty busy what with one thing or another. I was working in the hostel most of the time, housekeeping for the first two weeks then doing laundry for the last week. In theory I was supposed to work six days a week but I fudged my days off a bit so I could get paid for working three whole weeks, so I only actually got one day off the whole time I was there. Housekeeping is rather more full on in Brisbane than in Byron Bay. For one thing, City Backpackers is considerably bigger than the Arts Factory and for another, it's not nearly as influenced by hippies. Still, now I have my mp3 player back, time goes pretty fast when you're listening to music. Laundry is fine as long as it's sunny. On the days when it rains, you go to the laundary down the road and hog the tumbledryers all afternoon.
I tried to make the most of being in a city with some kind of alternative scene. I went out to a couple of rock nights and, of course, we all dressed up for glam night. I think I may have to accept that no matter how much back-combing and hairspray is used, my hair is never going to look convincingly Eighties. Oh well. I had a great time anyway.
I also tried to get out and about a bit around work at the hostel. I headed out to Toowoomba again one evening. I also went bushwalking around Mt Glorious ("Home of the Powerful Owl", which sounds quite exciting) one afternoon. We went for a bit of an amble through the rainforest and clambered down a waterfall; it was really great. The absolute most Australian adventure I had, though, was on the very last day. Helen (one of the Brisbane metallers that I've met through Jemma) took me out to see her dad's hobby farm. It's waaay out in the sticks outside Allora. You have to go through someone else's property to get to his land and there are (obviously) no roads, so he had to pick us up in the 4x4. We did lots of Australian things like eat damper (basically cakey bread), ride trail bikes (I only fell off the once), walk around the bushland, eat blackberries (okay, I'm not convinced that's an Australian thing, but it was fun anyway), and go out shooting. It was all great fun.
But that was my last day in Australia for a while. I went straight from the farm to the airport for the next part of my obambulation...
