Brisbane, Sunshine Coast

We arrived in Brisbane in the afternoon and walked to our hostel Brisbane City Backpackers. When we got to our room there was a guy from Carlisle there! I didn't actually believe him at first but when he told me where he lived I was convinced: what's more is the fact his mate – also from Carlisle was coming the next day. The whole time I've been away I've not met nor expected to meet anyone from Carlisle so I was quite surprised.

After dropping our bags we took a walk into the city centre, it felt so strange being in a city after spending so long by the beach. At first looks, Brisbane wasn't the most attractive city, but we didn't explore very far. That evening we went to the Christmas Parade and Pantomime in town. They actually had a camel, donkey and some sheep walking through the centre of town! Pierre, Inge and I were all amused by the fact that part of the parade was a group of people in beach wear – it still seems absurd to me that its so hot around Christmas! The Pantomime was hillarious. Neither of the two people I was with had ever seen one before, or even heard of them so I was determined for them to stay and watch! I don't think they had any idea what to expect and I think they were a little in shock at how awful it was, but sure the kids loved it...

On Saturday it was scorching, we took a walk to South Bank which is actually a really nice part of the city. On the way we passed a group of students having a “Zombie Day” which was pretty surreal, it felt like we'd walked onto the set of 28 Days Later. We passed The Brisbane Wheel – essentially the same as the London Eye - and then a Nepalese Temple. The Temple was actually really cool, lots of intricate detail carved in the wooden exterior. South Bank is by the river – the opposite side to our hostel – and also where the artificial beach is. Tonnes of people were on the “beach” and in the pool. It is the Australian summer/Christmas holidays at the minute so it was pretty packed with families and young kids. We decided to go a little further and found a nice grassy bank where we stayed for a while reading and enjoying the sun. In the afternoon we walked to Chinatown – it wasn't too interesting in comparison to the other ones I have now visited so we didn't stay long before walking back to the hostel.

That night we had a few drinks with the guys from our dorm and some others we'd met in the hostel bar before heading to “Down Under” a bar further in town. Whilst there we ran into Tia and Eoghan who we had met on the Clipper and who we were going to be spending Christmas with in Byron Bay. It was really cool to see them again and made us really excited for Christmas again! The next couple of days we just chilled out, the temperatures were just so hot that doing stuff in the city was not the most appealing! Brisbane City Backpackers has a pool on the roof which makes it easy to stay at the hostel through the day.

I left Brissy on Tues and headed to Byron Bay without Inge for the first time in almost a month! She was staying a few extra nights in Brisbane and meeting me in Byron on the 23^rd , it was kind of odd to be on my own again but also quite good to remind me what it feels like going to new places totally alone.