Easter is Brisbane

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  Brisbane, Australia
Sunday, March 23, 2008

Arrived in Brisbane at 06.00am on Good Friday morning. Thought I had booked some accommodation online, but it seems that the booking didnt work, so for the first time I found myself arriving somewhere with no idea where I was staying. Probably not the best day to have a stuff up with a booking, being the bank holiday weekend. It seemed that every place was pretty booked solid. After checking a few online I walked down to one of the main streets, and tried a couple with no luck. Tried the biggest hostel, which was the same company as the one I stayed in at Hervey Bay. An english guy called Dan was fairly helpful and said I could leave my luggage there, and to come back at 12 noon, and he could see what he could do.
This put a bit of a spanner in the works for my day, as was only planning on spending one night in Brisbane, then move down to Byron Bay. Anyway I got some breakfast and hung about, and fortunately he came up trumps with a room for me - Good old Dan!!

It also felt very safe

! Plan B looked like it was going to be sleeping in the Coach station.
I had even looked at moving dowh the coast an hour to Surfers Paradise, or even going to Byron a day early, but every where seemed to be rammed solid!!!
Room was a bit small and up on the 4th floor, and the lift was a bit dodgy, one of those oled ones with a sliding door and a gate. Anyway after giving up on the lift I dragged my luggage upstairs to the 4th floor, just as someone was getting out of the lift - guess it was going to be one of those days!!!  As I said room was a bit small up on the top floor - I think Anne Frank would of felt at home there, but beggars cant be choosers, and it was actually quite cheap!!!
After spending most of the morning trying to sort accommodation, I thought I needed a backup plan, so asked if I could extend my stay by one night if I wanted to. Was told I would need to go to reception at 10.00am the next morning. So it looked like my Easter would be spent wherever I could find a room, rather than anything else.
Also I could not believe how everything had seemed to shut down for the day. Even most of the bars, restaurants and pubs were shut, how can that be right??? Good news was though it was a seriously hot ans sunny day, so decided to do a city walk recommended in my Lonely planet guide for Brisbane

Typical Mix of Old & New in Brisbane

.
This was a good move, as it started within 5 minutes of where I was staying and took in lots of places of interest before heading to the path along the river, through some lovely Parks and gardens along the river, accross on a ferry, back along the other side, over the Elizabeth Bridge, and back into the Central District.
Brisbane is a really nice clean city, with a real contrast of Brand New glass skyscrapers and real old stone buildings. The place is spotlessly clean, and just had a really friendly feel to it. Quite a stark contrast to a lot of the cities in the US, where you had to keep your whits about you at all times. The guide recommended taking swimming gear and a towel, which I thought was strange in the middle of a city. However when I got accross the ferry they have an area next to the river called streets beach. With is a lagoon style swimming pool surrounded in sand. It was very busy, lots of families there. But there were shallow and deep areas cordoned off, so it was ideal for swimming for adults as well.
Continued my walk and was nearly at the end when I actually found a pub that was open, so that was that. Though with the stop for the swim etc, it had taken 3 hours, and I had not hung about. So when the guide said from 2 hours, I think that must of been for Linford Christie or Sally Gunnell.
Ended the day with a bottle of Yellow Tail Shiraz - thank god I had that in the case, and a sandwich  from a convenience store

Was a very clean city

.
Saturday was better, more things open, but still not every shop or bar was open - how they can afford to shut on a prime day like that I dont know - Tesco would have a field day here!!! Luckily was able to keep my room for another night. Has thrown my plan off a bit, and needed to move this segment of my coach journey on one day. Also managed to get a room in Byrron Bay for the Sunday night, but it was pretty pricey. Apparently there is a Jazz Festival there over Easter and the placed is booked out !!! This now means only 1 night in Byron instead of two, but cant be helped.
Went to the Brisbane Museum  ( for the bit of culture ) then had a look round the shopping centre. Managed to get another Lee Child, book as finished the first one I had !
The hostel bar was actually open today, and had $7 jugs of beer from 3pm to 7pm, so that sort of took up the afternoon. The hostel had a great roof top garden too, so sat up there most of the evening talking to a couple of Danish lads. They were happy as they wanted a third person to buy into a large crate of lager ( cheaper that way !! )
So that is my time in Brisbane over, a nice city, but hampered a bit by Easter, as so much was shut. But at least I did not end up sleeping in the Coach Station. Off to Byron Bay in the morning - only 3 hours 45 mins for this part of the journey, will be there by midday...............

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