Exploring Brisbane

Once we finally got our showers after our visit to Lone Pine, we decided to head out into the city and explore. The receptionist at our hostel suggested we explore an area called “South Bank”, which was a really nice area built up next to the river.
 Honestly, I wasn’t expecting to be impressed by Brisbane, especially since I’m so excited to visit Sydney, but this night made Brisbane steal a bit of my heart. Walking over one of the bridges gave us a great view of 4 other lit up bridges that transverse the river. As we neared South Bank, we passed a huge Ferris wheel that was lit up purple, and just beyond that was a path with a bunch of shaped metal arms with plants growing up them. The path led to an area with 3 huge outdoor pools, one of which was “Streets Beach”, because they created a sloping pool with sand. All three pools overlooked the lit up city glowing in the night sky. The entire area is packed with restaurants and shops, as well as a market that is open Friday-Sunday. 

After grabbing dinner at a tacos place, we decided to ride the Ferris wheel. It cost $15, but it was easily twice as long of a ride as any other one I had ever been on and if I remember correctly was 60m tall. The view was beautiful and was such a nice way to finish a great first day in Brisbane.

Southbank really became our hang-out spot. A big group of us had dinner around one of the public grills one night before jumping into the Streets Beach pool. Megan and I took one of the free city boats down the river (it was basically a city bus on the water, but was a nice way to spend an hour or two because of the view). We went shopping at the market and bought cute tank tops and boomerangs (which really do work, by the way!). 

Later in the week, we took a trip to the Queensland Museum. Those of us in Biology 3100 had to go so that we could write entries about it in our field journals, but it definitely turned out to be more fun than work. There was a huge kids section about dinosaurs (which, naturally, us college students enjoyed A LOT), a gift shop with really cool toys, exhibits about sea turtles and other animals and structures found around the city, an entire section devoted to taxidermy animals and things like birds nests, and a special exhibit about an Australian designer.

After the museum, we decided that hitting up Max Brenner (a chocolate cafe in South Bank) would be an excellent choice for a snack. I wound up getting ice cream, but everything I saw looked delicious. I really wish I had gone again before leaving Brisbane so that I could have tried something else.