Brisbane

We arrived in Brisbane mid afternoon after a short trip from Noosa. Our hostel was right bang in the middle of the city so we could walk to almost everything Brisbane had to offer. The first few days we managed to meet up with Katie and Nigel, Katie's friends from Uni. They had already been to Thailand, Malaysia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Singapore so it was fascinating to swap stories and experiences we went out for a nice meal on the South Bank on their last night in Oz before they flew over to New Zealand.

Brisbane is a relatively small and compact city, everything of note is located no more than 15 mins walk from the river. The CBD is visually impressive lots of skyscrapers in a small place. Over the river the South Bank is the city's cultural center housing both Queensland and Griffith Universities. We visited the Queensland Museum and the Queensland art gallery on our day of culture. Both were free and really interesting, the former had a great collection of animals of Australia. We came face to face with some of the worlds most deadly creatures. The Modern Art Gallery hosted a huge David Hockney exhibition. This is by far the most 'on the pulse' place we have visited so far. Brisbane is the first place where cultural activities take precedent over natural landscape. There are plenty of hip and trendy shops and lost of outdoor music events and markets. We have been told Brisbane is lame compared to Sydney, so the best is still to come!

On our final day we took a trip to Queensland's Parliament House where state decisions are made. Visiting this place and the Museum was a good way of validating everything we had experienced on the way down from Cairns. We had a private tour of the Parliament building which operates in a similar way to Westminster, with representatives of all the major towns and districts in Queensland. Their equivalent of the House of Lords is no longer in use but the 'Commons' was still surprisingly formal and ceremonial. We took a walk through the City Botanical Gardens onto the Queensland Cricket Ground (The Gabba), south of the river. We didn't manage to get inside but a photo next to the sign was all we could manage. The Gabba is home to Queensland Bulls (Cricket) in the summer and the Brisbane Lions (Aussie Rules) in the winter. After 5 nights in Brisbane we were ready to move on we felt like we had seen everything the city had to offer.