Brisbane

The days are LONG.  It is so weird how long these first two days have gone.  And I have a year here?  Awesome and unbelievable.  Went on a run yesterday morning down

to the South Bank and checked out the river, the cityscape, and the shops and boardwalk.  Did some meditation by the public pool lake thingy by the lifeguards.  The

water was crisp and cold and was very refreshing to splash on my hot and sweaty head from the run.  On the way home I stumbled upon a Peach and Tranquility Festival in

the a park.  Roamed the vendors and almost walked in front of the small stage where the MC was opening up the event.  Headphones and exercise in a new city can really

transcend your mind as I almost walked right between a speaker and an audience and didn't have any clue.

That night was the most fun yet.  The girls in 217 showed up late afternoon and it didn't take long for Paul and I to get jugs (beer) and go up to their room to harass

them (nicely).  This group in this room is so funny; 1 English guy named Toby, an English girl named Fiona, a German girl named Imke (whom I call

Aetna because she calls me Brian Brown; her friend she knew during her host family time of 10 months in Ohio), and 3 other German girls (Sandra, Lara, and Webe).  They all are part of the same

gap year program and have never met but you were think by the way the automatically interact that they have been friends for years.  Imke and I hit it off extremely

well.  I don't think a minute goes by when we are conversing that we are not laughing.  Same sarcastic and matter of fact humor, we just rock the conversation nicely

together with many quips and anecdotes.  Probably the funniest one was at happy hour over Strongbow last night where she was talking about a volcano and her English

vocab book hit like a light bulb and she remembered the word LAVA.  Lol it was the funniest thing I have ever seen; an ESL cute German girl with her English grammar

and vocab education coming on like a lamp in her head.  Imke is an outstanding young woman; smart, educated, funny, kind, and care-free.

We had an OUTSTANDING time

over the course of 4 nights.  I hope to see her again somewhere on this globe.  I have a feeling I will.

Coffee here is way different than in the states.  In a cafe right now and ordered a "short black" coffee for $2.70 and got probably two ounces of frothy black tar

looking liquid.  VERY STRONG the coffee is down here.  No refills either or waitresses running around filling people's mugs like you would see at a Denny's in the

States.  Oh yeah, and the coffee is served in a bar glass that we would usually drink a gin and tonic out of.  Tasty though but I think next time I will try the tea.

Alcohol is VERY different.  First of all, happy hour is truly an hour.  1 hour.  At my hostel it ran from 5pm to 6pm and they let me tell you that due to it only being

an hour, people plan their day around it.  The other reason for planning their day around it is because alcohol is fairly expensive in Queensland.  The first pint of

beer I ordered was $8 (at my hostel).  A jug (2.5 large pints basically), which would be a pitcher in the States, is $14.  Happy hour prices go from $14 to $11 for a

jug.  The cool thing though at my hostel was that everyday of the week they had specials.  For example, one night was $4 Strongbow bottles, another night was $5

dollar Jaeger Bombs from 9pm to 10pm.  The thing I have initially noticed about Australia is that because everyone loves to drink and have a good time, the

culture/government has implemented certain rules and restrictions so that every citizen doesn't black out and become poor.  The tour guide at the XXXX Brewery told me

that there was a bar that did drink tickets and it went out of business very fast because no one would go there unless they did the deal they initially offered (twas

like 5 drinks for $20 dollars or something stupid like that).

The Fourex (XXXX) brewery was okay.  Some videos at the start followed by a cheesy rotating seat watching wax statues talk about the start of XXXX.  XXXX competes

largely with VB (Victoria Bitter) which is made in Victoria.  Fourex is the very proud Queensland beer (the XXXX Gold and XXXX Bitter are their flagship).  The 2nd

half of the tour was simply watching a bottle factory at work but was very cool to see thousands of kegs stacked up as the forklift drivers moved them this way and

that.  The labelers were very cool too.  At the end we all received 4 sample schooners for the ticket price of $22 which was a good deal.

That day we (Toby, Imke, Fiona, and Lara) all went into the city and saw the Queensland Museum.  Free entry to all the Australian museums is great and I feel has

something to do with it being a Commonwealth Country.  Favorite part of the museum was the Burke and Wills exhibit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burke_and_Wills_expedition.  It told the story of the explorers that headed north up the gut of Queensland to explore and map out the

middle of the state.  They did perish but were renowned as national heroes similar to Lewis and Clark.

I have forgotten how international travel can be so delightfully funny, entertaining, and involving a ton of care free laughter.  For one, sitting around on picnic



lick of words from the British.  The Australian confuses everyone with his accent and slang.  The Germans speak in and out of German so you don't know what or who they

are talking about, especially when they start laughing hysterically and you want to laugh with them but have no idea what is funny.  It reminds me of Indiana Jones and

the Last Crusade towards the end when the German says "the Americana, the captain de fieba!" (brother you will appreciate this).  Everyone understands me due to the

American accent being so clean and crisp grammar and vocab-wise.

On the final night, the girls, Paul, and I all jumped into the cold outdoor swimming pool (had been raining the last 2 days) as a tradition for people who stay at BBH.

 Everyone was in their underwear and no one thought twice about it.  After that we all (3 girls and 2 guys) showered in the girls outside bathroom (clothed you

perverts).  Tons of laughter and pictures and funny faces and poses and for a moment no one even remembered that we were a combined tens of thousands miles away from

our homes around this very small earth.  Funny how 5 strangers from 4 different countries can come together in 96 hours of knowing each other and have so much fun; not

judging, not blaming, not worrying about how they seem or appear to others...simply trying to nullify the loneliness that can come with traveling in far off lands solo

with no shoulders to rest their head on.  It was a great time and it was only my 5th night in this country they call Australia and this very interesting state they

call Queensland...very excited to get to Cairns.