brisbane

this weekend i was in brisbane. my boss sent myself and a colleague there to do a course. we covered to course cost and the hotel, he covered the flight. not a bad deal. until we saw the hotel...

flying across the country for a weekend, as my jet-setting family and friends know, always sounds more glamourous then it is. we flew out of perth at 1pm on friday...wait, make that 2 because the flight was delayed. of course. we arrived in brisbane around 8pm, an hour after the original arrival time. well, turns out that the air train running from the airport to the city stops running at 8pm. so we had no idea how we'd get into town. luckily, we found a shuttle leaving in  30 mins which would stop at any hotel and hostel in the city. unfortunately for us, we were the last stop on a ridiculous tour around the city - he picked up people heading to the airport before dropping us off- and we only arrived at our hotel at 9:45pm. fun.

the adventure continued when we arrived at the hotel. we were given our key and told how to get to our room. it was little more then a hostel (for the "cheap" rooms. if you paid more you could go into the new part of the hotel). upon opening the door to our one bed, one couch/bed room, it smelled like stale cigarette smoke. as my colleague is allergic to it and asthmatic, i decided to make a fuss. so they moved us. to the basement. no, really. the basement. 

we walked downstairs to our room, passing near the parking lot and going down a sketchy hall. this room didn't smell like smoke and had 2 beds, so we stayed with it. then headed out to grab some late dinner as we had 2 big days ahead of us. luckily, i had asked the woman the front desk about how to get to the university of queensland. i figured we could walk, turns out we couldn't (thanks a lot gmaps!). "have to catch a ferry" she told us. 

our first night in the hotel proved exciting. the baby/toddler in the room next to us decided to cry at around 2am, and as we had paper thin walls, we could hear her loud and clear. also, we heard her parents having some "private time" a little earlier then this. at around 3-4am, the guys in the room next to us decided to stagger back drunk and obnoxious. smashing glass outside of our doors and being really really loud. a great way to start a weekend on course...

the ferry ride redeemed things a bit. very nice way to get to campus in my opinion, sitting on a ferry, taking in the fresh air and enjoying a nice view of the city. we got off at the uni then took about 20 mins to find the building we needed to get to (it wasn't on the map!), then settled in for the rest of the day. on the way back, we got off a few stops before our scheduled stop, and walked the rest of the way, taking in both the great weather and the great view.

that night we met up with my cousin rachelle, who just started her MBA at southern cross. she lives an hour south of the city, so it was great that she could come up. we also met up with an old colleague of ours who has recently started her masters in sports physio. so we had a good night. until we got home... to the screaming child next door who had nasty tantrums or vicious dreams keeping her - and us- up all night.

we flew back to perth after our course on sunday. we scored a ride with a nice person from the course who was heading that way anyhow. gotta love it. this flight was on time, getting us in at 11:40pm, perth time. unfortunately, john had checked the wrong flight online and thought i got in at 12:20, so my night was later then expected, but i managed. too bad i had to work at 7 am on monday... *sigh*

i'd like to go back to brisbane again soon. it's a pretty cool city with a nice downtown, good shops (so they looked from outside...) and a relaxed vibe. hopefully it'll be at a nicer hotel...

xo