Brisbane

The bus trip to Brisbane was much better than the one to Byron Bay. We got picked up by my dad's friend Sue. We stayed with her, her husband Graham and their cat Eric. They have an absolutely beautiful house and are very wonderful people. It was nice to get some kitty love too.

Sue took us on a brief city tour. She took us up to a lookout point where we got to overlook the whole city. It was very beautiful. She showed us gum trees which are also known as eucalyptus trees. She even found some leaves for us to smell. She then took us along the river and dropped us off at Southbank Parklands where Mike and I spent the day wandering.

We walked to the art museum and spent a few hours in there. It was pretty cool. There was an Asian/pacific art exhibit with a lot of different styles and interesting pieces. The one I really liked was a stage set up with words in a language that was created in 1886 I think, to attempt to make a universal language. The stage was dark and a spot light would move around and light up the words in sync with an operatic lullaby. It would stop at parts and put pictures on the wall of words in various languages and people. It had random objects on the stage as well: an old table, a fan, dolls a bird cage and other things. It almost had a post disaster/apocalypse feel to it. There was also one large scale piece of hundreds of small glass animals, each hand made, that looked like they were migrating. It was amazing. A lot of the art carried the theme of third world development into consumer based, capitalist societies and the loss of ways of life and culture that go along with it. Very powerful.

We planned to go to the museum after but it was about to close so we walked along the Arbour and stopped for some ice cream. They had a kind called hobbit crunch which was really good, mike loved it. We walked based the lagoon and beach. It is the only beach in the middle of the city. It was surreal to see the beach across from skyscrapers. It was quite mind boggling.

We then headed back to Sue's on the train to have a yummy supper of spinach and roasted pumpkin salad, stir fry veggies with Italian pasta,and basil and balsamic tomatoes, which of course was followed by a cup of tea. When we were walking back to her house before supper and the night before, we got to watch groups of bats flying around outside. There were so many of them! I saw more bats in two nights in Brisbane than I have in my whole life. We stayed up late sharing stories and laughing. It was wonderful.