Sightseeing Brisbane 27/09/2012

The hostel I’m staying at here in Brisbane has free washing machines and dryers, which is luxurious for backpacking standards. Which is why I spent the better part of Thursday morning doing my laundry, for the first time on this entire trip. Just before noon I left for the first part of my sightseeing trip of Brisbane. I took photos of Anzac and PO Square, before I went window shopping at Queen Street Mall. It’s huge and there are all sorts of shops, from thrift stores to upscale designer shops like Chanel. It’s also very busy, but definitely worth the time. Once I had fought my way through the masses of people there, I walked down George Street to look at and photograph the Treasury and Parliament House. Both buildings are huge and very beautiful. In front of the treasury is a statue of Queen Victoria. This is one of the things I notice the most in Australia: from all their statues of Queen Victoria, you could think she was the only British monarch in history. For some reason, Australians do not care for any other royals. Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, and now Brisbane. You cannot escape that woman. She reminds me of the Queen in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, by the way.

The Botanic Gardens are right next to Parliament House, so I thought why not kill some time there. Unfortunately, most of the garden was fenced off; probably for the festival, but I’m not sure. So I only got to see bits and pieces, but it was beautiful all the same. Today, the sun was shining and until later that afternoon, it was very humid. Too humid for me personally, but I’ll be able to deal with that for a week. I would not want to live here, though. Because if it’s like this in spring, I can’t even begin to imagine how tropical it’s going to be in the summer. I found some “new” pretty flowers that I took close-ups of, and then I saw my first gigantic lizard-thing; they’re either skinks or dragons but I don’t know which. It was huge. And just hanging out on its tree trunk. Of course I took photos of that, too, careful not to get too close because I was afraid it was going to jump at me or something. It didn’t. I saw even more of that kind when I walked along the ponds; apparently they can swim. After I had made it all the way to the River, I went back across the city. My next stop was City Hall with its high clock tower. I didn’t climb it today because it was too hot and I didn’t want to sweat even more. But I think I’ll probably do it in the next couple of days; I’ve got a whole week here, after all. A little further on lays Wickham Park, which is quite a steep climb. The view isn’t as great as from the Observatory in Sydney, but it’s a nice park and after the climb, it’s nice to catch your breath in the shade of the treas. On my way back to the hostel, I bought some more apples, which are expensive here in Australia but they’re my main food so I’ll grudgingly spend the money. I also bought some high concentrate juice because the chloride levels of Australian tab water are so high that it tastes like taking a gulp of swimming pool water and I was dehydrated almost every day because I just couldn’t make myself drink it. But dehydrating is not a good idea in this climate, so the concentrate is my solution. You only need two tablespoons of that stuff for 400ml of water, which means it’ll last at least a week and it comes in all sorts of flavors. I picked Apple-Kiwi, but I also want to try raspberry and lime. They also had Cola flavor, but I don’t think that’s for me.

At the hostel, I picked up my laptop and walked all the way down to the State Library. I love Australian State Libraries. They all have free, quick wifi and the opening hours are alright. Most importantly, they are open on Sundays as well. I booked some of my return tickets as well as a hostel for two more days of Melbourne on my way back. I have decided to give the city another chance, hoping for better weather this time.