Joy of Bex

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

Brisbane

We arrived in Brisbane, queensland for a two night stop and surpassed all previous weirdness. We caught a taxi to our hostel (yes, we are rubbish backpackers) and found a purple and blue gothic-come-disney mansion overseen by a slightly unhinged proprietor who told us once we checked in we could never leave. He showed us through a chained gangway up to a turret bedroom with a balcony over the neon 'Hotel Broadway' sign. (Lucy: Nothing like Broadway, nothing like an hotel). Many unhelpful scenarios went through our minds at this point (and possibly yours) but at $10 a night we figured real travelers couldn't be choosy.

I took advantage of Luce and laura's accommodation shock to drag them to the botanical gardens. Some of you who have endured garden centers for me will sympathize, but I genuinely believe they enjoyed it!

Our second day we were taken out by lucys' great-grandmothers' sisters' grandsons' ?wife/ex-wife (no-one knows and it's awkward to ask) and her son. Whether Luce is actually related to them is a mystery. They were very kind all the same. Quite political, they're entirely responsible for any understanding I have of Australia's political climate.(And for that of New Zealand, Indonesia, and the USA too). They terrified me by asking us if sociology in England was as influenced by post-modernistic philosophy as in Australia. Is this a normal question to ask people you've just met? I just blinked a few times hoping my brain would translate, then Laura and I turned to Lucy who can talk herself in or out of any circumstance and she answered extensively.

Lucy is the absolute queen of blag as illustrated by her attempt to get the three of us scruffy-jean-and-flipflop-backpackers in into the penthouse bar of the Shangri La Hotel in Sydney for cocktails over looking the harbour, eventually (and unsurprisingly) they turned us away on the 36th floor for wearing thongs. (Taking the dress code a step too far you may think but 'thong' is Australian for flip-flops).

That was all our time in Brisbane, next stop Noosa.

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