Brisbane...

Last Friday we finally made it to the capital of Queensland, Brisbane (AKA Brissie, or BrisVegas). We stayed a long weekend there with Kate and Brett, my friends from back in Shrewsbury. Thankyou so much guys for your kindness and generosity in putting us up for a few days!

Friday night we went out for a Mexican with Kate and Brett, meeting up with loads of other ex-Shrewsbury crew: Sharon, Keith, Anj and Justin. Cue loads of beers, wine and reminiscing about the Shrewsbury days and tales of travelling!! It was really great to see them all, and kind of bizarre with it being here on the other side of the world.

After a bit of a lie in in Sat, we popped into Brissie city centre for a spot of sight-seeing:

Highlights of Brissie city centre include the Southbank, with loads of market stalls selling all those crafty things that Clare adores, as well as an inland beach, which seems really popular!

On Sunday, me and Brett hit Daisy Hill, a local mountain biking hotspot for a couple of hours of biking. Brett even lent me his very nice bike for a couple of hours, which I managed not to break thankfully! It was really great to do a bit of biking again, especially on a 'proper' bike in such a great location. Thanks again Brett, here's a pic of him tackling one of the local jumps:

Sunday afternoon we headed up to Mt Coot-tha, the oddly-named local mountain, with a great view over the city. There we met Phill, AKA Blue, who we originally met in Denver (remember him, long-term blog fans?) It was great to catch up, and he kindly offered to take us out for a bit of a road trip the next day while Kate and Brett were working. Cool.

So on Monday morning we headed out to the Ettamogah Pub, a bizarrely-shaped cartoon pub for a drink, and the giant pineapple, a 15m-high plastic pineapple with a museum inside. They love their big things in Oz! Phill, thanks again for a great day out and hopefully see you again when you visit the UK!

After a great barbie (with some impressive flame-grilled calamari!) round at Anj and Justins 'luxury' pad on Monday night, we headed out on Tuesday to Byron Bay. More from there!

-Si