Brisbane

Day 15
I woke up and facetimed with my Dad and then my sister before heading into Brisbane to explore the city. My hostel was a 20 minute walk into downtown, with it being very hot out, I stopped in a museum to cool off in the AC and then went over to the river to see the Brisbane sign. I jumped onto the ferry and went all the way up the river to see the city from the water, which was really nice. I grabbed lunch and walked around a little then headed to Kangaroo Point to go see the point overview. It started pouring out so I got back on the ferry to grab dinner closer to my hostel. I went to a Mexican place in the city and got a quesadilla, which had a thin layer of cheese and thin layer of chicken, it was disappointing and overpriced. I walked back to my hostel and met a girl in my dorm, Beth (she is originally from South Africa and is going to school in Adelaide) who I started chatting with. We decided to go up to the rooftop bar of the hostel to grab a beer and see the view of the city (which was incredible from our hostel and part of the reason I wanted to stay there). After a very long couple of days, I headed to bed early to try and catch up on some sleep.

Day 16
Obviously you can’t go to Australia and not hold a koala and feed kangaroos, so today Beth and I headed to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary (a 20 minute Uber drive from our hostel) to spend some time with the Australian animals. I am always aware when going to animal places that I am supporting local companies that treat the animals correctly and don’t just use them to make a buck. At Lone Pine they rotate the koalas and don’t allow them to be held more than 25 minutes a week. The staff times each encounter the koala has, and if one is being fussy or doesn’t want to be held, they switch them out (this happened with the first one I tried holding). You have to put your palms out, one on top of the other, and then they place the koala onto your hands. They are actually pretty heavy and they only let you hold it for maybe a minute. We got there as soon as the place opened so we didn’t have to wait in a long line. We then headed over to grab some kangaroo food and spent some time feeding them. They had wallabies and kangaroos both were surprisingly friendly, they would just come up to you and start eating out of your hand, one even licked my hand. I was expecting them to be a little more dismissive and mean, it was a really cool experience and I could have spent all day there but it was too hot. We grabbed an Uber back to the hostel so we could do a load of laundry and eat some pizza. Beth had some things to do in the early afternoon so I took some time to start writing this blog and watching some TV. Brisbane has a public pool and man made beach right near the river in downtown so two of the girls in my room (they were on a gap year between high school and college from the Netherlands), Beth and I all went there to hang out and enjoy the late afternoon sun. Of course right when we laid down it started pouring (Australia is kind of like FL where it will downpour for 20-40 minutes and then the blue skies will come back out like it never happened). We went to a nearby bar to wait out the rain and grab a couple of drinks. I had the idea to go pick up some snacks and a couple of bottles of wine and head to kangaroo point for a picnic. We walked up the steep steps and unfortunately it had already gotten dark when we got up there. We couldn’t find the park that we were looking for but we found a spot on the cliff that was thick to lay out our towels. The view of the city all lit up with the river was just breathtaking and we spent some time up there chatting, eating and drinking.

Day 17
After checking out of the hostel, Beth and I went into the city for brekkie and then went back to the pool/ beach spot for a take two on our tanning sesh before hopping on my 3pm flight to The Whitsundays. It was hot and humid as usual so we were only out there for about an hour before heading back to the hostel for me to collect my bags and take a shuttle to the airport. Australian airlines are very strict when it comes to baggage weight, most airlines allow a 23kg check in bag and 7kg or 11kg carry on. I left home with a backpacking backpack and a medium size suitcase (both 30 pounds), I had compression bags for my stuff and had to bring a suitcase for colder weather in Japan. So obviously, I ended up bringing things I originally wouldn’t have since I had another bag. I didn’t have weight restrictions on my flight to Australia so I didn’t even consider that this would be an issue down the line. Well, I got to the airport and was about to board the plane when they had everyone line up to weigh their carry on bag (I have never had a carry on bag weighed before). They made me put my purse on the scale as well even though it said you were allowed a personal item also. Instead of 7kg mine was 11kg and they made me pay $65 AUS since I was over. Seriously the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of before. Once I landed, I collected my bags and took a shuttle to Airlie Beach. I checked into my hostel, ate dinner and packed my bags for my Whitesunday sailing tour which was starting the next day (we weren’t allowed to bring bags with zippers on them because bed bugs can hide in them). I spent some more time blogging and then went to sleep.Read more