Brisbane

When leaving Hervey Bay we said goodbye to Lisa, Paul and Lorraine as they were carrying onto other places, however Toby, Adi, Adam and myself were continuing onto Brisbane where we were going to meet up with the rest of the Gallard/Smith clan. When we arrived the others were there and told us about their beautiful apartment which they were staying in, in the Cleveland area. Adi went off with them whilst Toby, Adam and I went to look for a youth hostel to stay in. We walked to the train information centre and contacted a couple of hostels to see if they had any private rooms with ensuites-no luck. So in the end we went with a hostel which was about 10 minutes from the train station called Chill Backpackers.



The room was lets say cosy. It contained a bunk bed and a single bed and that was about it, not much space for our bags. It was cheap and cheerful and was to be our home for the next couple of days. We went out straight away to explore the area and ended up at southbank. This is the cultural part of Brisbane with museums, theatres and libraries, but it also has some great restaurants, markets and an artificial beach and swimming pool. We visited south bank a few times in the first week with friends for dinner and nights out. During the days most of our time was spent trying to find a place to live and work. Before Sarah and Aaron returned to the UK we spent a day in Brisbane with them, Sarah and I went and had a day of pampering while the boys went and had a tour of the Castlemain XXXX brewery. We had registered on lots of websites for accommodation, and had a phone call from a lady saying she had a shared house for rent in Norman Park – south east Brisbane. In the evening we went to have a look and fell in love with the place straight away, it was big very modern and fully furnished. Two days later we were moving in, we met our house mates for the first time Frank and Marion, a German couple in their 40’s.