brisvegas

a few weeks ago, i went to brisbane to visit my friend jaime, and take some much needed holiday time. i've been to brisbane before but only for a long-weekend course allowing little-to-no time to explore. this time, i had plenty.

my first day in the city was a busy one. we woke late, then i went for a nice long run along the river (good bike/running paths). we then went to explore a market in the west end, which is across the river from UQ, my new uni as of march. the market was reasonably interesting, my favourite part being some delicious cinnamon-roll type snack that we found at a random stand. mmmm. that night we met up with the irish-contingent from jaime's uni course and went to see the australia vs. ireland rugby (my second such rugby game in as many weeks). we had amazing seats and good drinks. australia won the game handily, which was both good and bad, given that we were in the irish section.

we took it easy the next day- strolling through dowtown brissy (as it's known here) and exploring the shops. we found more markets (much cooler) in southbank, explored the botanic gardens in the city and had some amazingly good poffertjes by the river. who knew the dutch exported their snacks to brisbane!

on monday we rented a car and drove out to explore the hinterland. the hinterland is essentially not the coast- what most people would call the country or the interior. i have no idea why it's called the hinterland. after a little confusion due to lack of signage (a classically australian thing to do), we managed to get out and find some nice areas; more on that in the next post.

we spent a few days driving around the hinterland before heading back into brisbane. we spent my last day in the city exploring the west end a bit more. the west end is a very hip little suburb on the south side of the river. it's only a stone's throw away from UQ and reminds me a lot of freo, the area where we live now. it's got neat little shops and cafes, and is somewhat hip but in a discrete kind of way.

i left brisbane the next morning, fighting a cold and feeling somewhat sad that i was coming back to perth: brisbane is a cool city and i'm pretty stoked about the idea of living there next year. it's in a good location, has nice shops and restaurants and is significantly cheaper then perth.

but i won't be sad for too long. in a few more months, we'll be taking off from perth, driving across australia to our new home: brisvegas.

visitors welcome
xo