What happened in Brisbane

Thursday December 10th 2015
It has been a while again, so again let me begin at the beginning!
Last Monday I took a plane from Cairns to Brisbane. Of course I was up early again, so I had plenty of time to get dressed and have breakfast before I left.
I had some time to kill before my transfer was here to take me to the airport, so I took some pictures of the hostel I had stayed with. The transfer was late and at the next hostel we had to wait for some people, but we made it to the airport in time. It wasn’t that far away. When the driver asked us if there was anyone going on an International flight, he didn’t get an answer…until we were passed that terminal…she was Dutch of all people! So he brought us to Domestic first.
I was standing in line at Jetstar, but it turned out to be the wrong one. I had already checked in, so all I had to do was drop off my suitcase, so I could stand in the shorter line, which was a lot better! Dropping off my suitcase and going through security went very smoothly, so I was waiting in at the gate before I knew it!
I bought a birthday card for a friend and a little booklet with puzzles. I had thought about doing that when I was still at home, but I didn’t do it. Then when I opened it and wanted to start with the first puzzle, I realized I had to find the answers in English for the Swedish puzzles…duh!!! I mean it’s the same as what I do at home, but in Dutch it’s a little easier! Good thing there are several different puzzles in there and the answers are at the back of the book, so I will be fine! It was just weird to find out like that! Haha
There was life music at the airport, unusual place to do this in. There was a guitarist and a lady singing, they were actually pretty good, but I don’t think that many people paid attention.
I’m not sure if we left Cairns on time, but it didn’t matter.
The airline was called Jetstar, which is like the Easyjet company, cheap flights, but if you have a suitcase with you, you pay extra to have it checked in. If you want something to eat or drink during the flight, you pay for that as well. I had brought something to eat, so I didn’t need anything, but as I had booked the check-in for my suitcase, I also got a $5,- voucher. Which I could use to get some tea and a muffin!! So that was a pretty good deal. I’m glad the flight attendant reminded me of this, otherwise I would have forgotten all about it.
I had an aisle seat and there was a couple sitting beside me. The lady was scary!! She had a lot of crème on her face, she kept her hat and sunglasses on and she was wearing a scarf. During the flight she tried the seat in all kinds of positions and I don’t think she found the right one. Plus she kept going forwards and backwards….really strange! I tried not to pay too much attention, but I was glad I could get off of the plane!
Besides that the landing wasn’t a smooth one, so I needed some fresh air asap anyway!
I got my suitcase and bought a ticket for the Airtrain to get the Brisbane city. The train had just left, so I had a half hour before the next one came along. The ride into the city took about half an hour as well, it wasn’t too bad.
The station was called Roma street and the hostel was located at Upper Roma street…yes, you guessed it right, which meant I had to go up a hill!! Great, I was dragging my suitcase in this heat, up a hill!!!
But I made it and my room was ready also! It took some time to find it though! The directions the lady gave me weren’t all that clear, so I asked someone and it turned out I had to take the elevator to the first floor. Something she neglected to tell me!
This time I have a twin room for myself, but bathroom is separate. You can’t win them all I guess!
I changed clothes and asked for directions to get to the nearest supermarket. Which also were not clear! He told me to just walk down to the traffic lights and then it was right there…but it wasn’t, the supermarket was right across from us, but there was a busy road in between…
Anyway, I found it and bought some breakfast for the coming days. Turned out there was a short cut…there always is! I went back via another road and there was a set of stairs, going straight up to the front door of the hostel….now why couldn’t he tell me that in the first place?!
When I got back I tried to find out how to get to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, where I wanted to go the next day. The guy at the desk had already given me the timetable for various busses I could take to get there. But in my travel guide I had read about a boat you could take. According to the guy at the desk it was $50,-, but the website said it was $72,- which included the boat ride there and back to the city, plus the entrance fee to the sanctuary. So it wasn’t all that bad!
Now they also had a one way ticket for the boat, so I decided to take the boat there and take the bus back at the end of the day. I had seen a poster at the YHA that you could get a ticket for the sanctuary with a membership discount, but according to another guy at the desk, that was only for elderly people and students…even though it said yha membership…O well.
There was a restaurant called Hog’s Breath across from the hostel, I went there to eat a hamburger and it was really good!
At the hostel there are signs that ask you to please keep in mind that there are other people there and to keep the noise to a minimum. But at the lobby they are playing music, which you can hear on every floor….and it is not something that is easy on the ear or anything….no, it is F&&$&*($#^% annoying, a lot of screaming!! It is also not that they are playing this music to promote a cd or anything…so first thing I did was ask what time they stopped playing this, they said it stopped at 9:30pm and for once they gave me the right answer!! That evening I turned out my lights at 9:00pm and yes, 9:30pm there was silence!
So on Tuesday I went to the Lone Pina Koala Sanctuary! The boat was due to leave at 10:00am, the docking place was a 20 minute walk from the hostel, but since I didn’t really know where it was I left earlier.
The walk wasn’t all that bad, I found the boat pretty quick, but how to actually get to the docking place turned out to be a bit tricky!
I could see the boat, but couldn’t see where to go down from where I was and get on. But I managed and I was on time too! It was pretty busy, but there was a seat left on the deck. Which turned out to be the wrong seat, because as soon as we started to move, I was sitting in the sun…which was very hot!
Fortunately the Brisbane river is winding, so I was back in the shade before I knew it! The boat ride took about an hour and 15 minutes, it was really nice! The website said that the captain would tell us all about Brisbane, but it was only a tape playing, the captain didn’t say anything really. There had been a flood in 2011, which they said was the worst ever. But they kept comparing it to the one in 1974, of course this one would be worst, because in 38 years there have been build a lot more houses and businesses…
Well, I think they did pretty good in rebuilding things, because I couldn’t see anything that would make me think there had been a flood. There were actually a lot of nice houses along the river.
So around 11:15 am we were at the sanctuary, where we had to walk up some steps to get to the entrance. As I was walking up I saw what I found out was a Waterdragon sitting on a stone. Everyone had walked past it, until I stopped to take a picture!
At the entrance I got a map, thinking it would help me find the restrooms quicker…NOT. The map didn’t come close to the real thing and the signs they had were pointing me in the wrong direction! I had to ask a couple of times and eventually someone brought me almost to the door!!
Anyway, by that time it was almost noon, so I decided to get something to eat, to get out of the heat of the day. I had ordered a large chips, not knowing how large that would be…turned out to be at least 3 times the size of a small portion!! I think I only ate 1/3 of it!!haha
I had also bought some kangaroo food! There was a petting zoo sort of, where they had kangaroos, wallabies and emus. I don’t like those, so I walked away from them as fast I could. Of course it was still very hot, so most of the animals were taking a nap. They had an enclosure for them with a sign on it that we shouldn’t disturb them, because they were dreaming!! Haha
Most of the animals allowed people to sit with them and pet them. It was pretty busy, lot of Asians, if I were one of those kangaroos I would stay in that enclosure!
I tried not to be where the crowd was, so I walked around and found a wallaby by him or herself and he or she did want to have a bite to eat. So I fed him or her some of the food I had with my left hand, so I could take pictures of it with my right hand. It was really a lot of fun, the wallaby took very gentle bites and when it was done, I left it in peace and tried to find another animal with an appetite. Since it was also too hot for me I decided to come back later, so I went to see the koala’s.
When they started this sanctuary in 1927 they had 2 koala’s, now they have at least 130 of them! They have the moms with the babies and the retired koala’s separately. But they’re not caged in so to speak, there’s a low wall and they are sitting on what to them must seem to be a tree and they’re eating their eucalyptus leaves. Since these leaves take a long time to digest, they sleep for 20 hours a day. The other 4 hours are spend eating, walking from tree to tree or running away in case of danger.
They also had lots of birds, which you heard more then you could see, they had dingo’s, a Tasmanian devil (which was asleep, but I found him!) and wombats. No idea what to compare them too, but they were bigger than I thought and they were soo cute sleeping on their backs!
They also had a platypus, two actually. They were really small, I thought they were a lot bigger from what I had seen on tv. But maybe they grow bigger in the wild where they have more space to live. They were cute though! And quick, it was really hard to take a picture!!
There was a koala presentation and the keeper presented Gandolf to us, to come and meet him, take a picture and pet him if we liked. He was really nice, not as soft as I thought though, you think they’re soft, because they look so cute.
Now there was also a possibility to “cuddle” a koala, which basically means you can hold it for 2 seconds, while someone is taking your picture! Haha
As soon as we were at the sanctuary, everyone ran up to this spot, so the line was very long. Now that most people were gone, the line was gone too. So I decided I wanted to have my picture taken as well, I know it is one of those major tourist traps, but it was just too good to pass up on!
So I was placed on a certain spot, had to hold out my hands in front of me, palms up ( like it was a tree for the koala to sit on) and then the keeper gave me Tinkerbelle to hold. She was really cute! Not as soft as my Belle, a little heavier also and she really held on tight! It took a while to get all of her claws out of my t-shirt at the end! Haha But it was really nice to meet her and I’m glad I did it!
The picture wasn’t ready right away, so I decided to try my luck at the petting zoo again. This time I found a kangaroo with an appetite! And also a lot of pigeons, irritating birds!! Again I fed the kangaroo with my left hand and took pictures with my right hand. It wasn’t the most beautiful kangaroo in the area, he/she had a bold spot on it’s back and what looked like a bite out of one of it’s ears. But he was hungry so it was okay. He/she was also very careful, but then took it’s time in chewing on it, good lord!! But I was sitting hunched down, so he/she could reach it, which I can’t keep up for a very long time, because it hurts my feet!!
But eventually the food was gone and he/she looked happy! So was I, because I wanted to catch my bus back to the city! I went to get my picture, bought some postcards and got on the bus.
I didn’t feel like going all the way to the end of the line, so I got off as close as I could get to the hostel. I couldn’t see if there was a direct route to the hostel, so I went across a bridge…which ended up not taking me as near to another bridge as I had thought. I was tired, it was hot and I had had it!!
I passed a library that had a café, so I decided to sit down and have something to eat before going any further. I had a piece of a quiche with vegetables I couldn’t define and some pumpkin/green bean salad, which was actually pretty good. After half an hour or more I walked back to the hostel and went to bed pretty early!!!
Not that that got me anywhere…in the middle of the night I got really sick! I had to run to the bathroom a couple of times, I think you will have an idea, I will spare you the details, but it wasn’t a lot of fun! Can’t say if it was the heat or the quiche, usually when the food is bothering you, once you get rid of it, the nausea is gone too, but not in this case.
Anyway, I had signed up for a free city walk for Wednesday, but I had to cancel that, because I still wasn’t feeling well. That day I spend in bed mostly, all I had to eat was a banana, some yoghurt and half a sandwich. That at least stayed where it was supposed to be, so that was good.
So today I thought I was doing better. I had some breakfast and after that I went and did some laundry. Which really didn’t take that long, but afterwards I went straight to bed, I was so tired. In the afternoon I went to the pharmacy, which is near the supermarket, because I was still light headed, feeling nauseas and I just wanted to sleep all day. The lady gave me something for dehydration and I did feel better after taking some of that. Which is a good thing, because I’m going to travel again tomorrow.
I have to pack my suitcase tonight, because tomorrow I will be off on a new adventure!!

Love
Linda