*** FUCKING HUGE POST WARNING***
Well I'm back from Brisbane, what a week/end it's been. I'll start by following up on my last post...
I woke up late and didn't go to the gym, instead I went straight out and walked over to the Queensland Museum. The walk took maybe 20 minutes including a stop at a shop to get a drink and some tic-tacs. I wandered around in the museum for about two hours, it's a pretty awesome museum despite its small size. The focus of the museum was on local and regional history which was really good for me, I got to learn about all kind of Queensland stuff from the sugar cane industry to opal mining to whale slaughtering. After wandering around there for a while I headed out for the excruciatingly long walk to the Queensland Art Gallery. Actually it's right next door so there was no excruciatingly long walk. I had a good look around there and found some really impressive pieces, the current feature in on Aboriginal artists and there were various mediums on display in the main entry hall and the big foyer area downstairs. I also found a whole area of really amazing portrait pieces, and some work by a guy I'd never heard of (and have forgotten teh name of now!). I loved it. So anyway after all of that I walked around the city for about four or five hours, wandered all through the South Bank area where I stumbled on a guy humping away at his missus (no I didn't take pics), checked out the Botanic Gardens where I saw a wedding and the Chinese Women's Soccer Team practising, and heaps of people laying under trees and shit. Anyway I got back to the hotel and was fucking exhausted, so I jumped in the bath for about half an hour before making plans for the night. It turned out that my mate who just moved there had been at Surfers Paradise all day because of the weather and wasn't going to make it into the city. So anyway being stuck on your own in a hotel away from home is fucken dull, so I decided to go see a movie. I walked down to the Dendy Brisbane and bought my ticket to see 21 Grams, then went and had my first meal for the day, Gnocchi alla Pollo with a Cascade Lager from a dodgy italian joint/bar in the middle of the big mall. The movie was really good, Naomi Watts did well playing a variety of roles, Sean Penn was great, but Benicio Del Toro didn't do anything for me. Oh yeh and don't go and see the movie when you're in a bad mood, particularly when you're feeling a little lonely. I probably should have chosen House of Sand and Fog, or maybe even something stupid like Stuck on You. After the movie I checked out a couple of bars on the way back to the hotel, didn't go into any of them though because they were all full of either 18-21 year olds getting wasted, or backpackers... geting wasted. I didn't find any nice relaxed bars within the CBD area, at least along the route I was taking. I ended up back at my hotel I think aroun 1:00am and went to bed.
So. Sunday. Today. This morning. I had to check out of the hotel by 11:00am though my flight wasn't until 5:40pm, so I left my stuff at the concierge desk around 9:30am and headed into the city for another walk around. I had a crepe for breakfast from some place in the Myer Centre and bumped into a guy that I used to work with back here in Sydney, which was kinda weird but very cool. After checking the place out a bit I decided to go for a walk over to Chinatown & Fortitude Valley. Not having a map and not knowing where they were I was in a bit of a spot, so I asked someone for directions, they were a tourist. I saw a map on a tourist info post thing but it was all stylised and made with fucked shapes so it didn't actually tell you how to get anywhere, it just gave yuo a general idea of the direction (go Brisbane!). So anyway I walked in the direction they were in for about half an hour, stopping every now and then to look at shops and stuff, and decided to turn back when it became apparent that I had gone in the wrong direction. I doubled back, taking a slightly different course which brought me across a small outdoor market with lots of cool local products and a bit of imported Turkish & African art/fabrics/etc. I check that out for a little while then realised that it was lunch time, so I headed back down to the CBD where I had some sushi and a lychee tea. After lunch I checked out a couple of the smaller malls in the CBD along with the Dymocks store. I wandered aimlessly for a bit while I chatted on the phone to a mate before deciding to give Chinatown & The Valley another shot, so I got directions (from my mate on teh phone) and got to Chinatown in ten or fifteen minutes. It turns out that the direction I was going previously was right, I just need to walk over the crest of a hill :P I got to Chinatown & Fortitude Valley expecting a bustling market and lots of boutique shops and stuff to check out, but the place was practically deserted thanks to the heat. I looked at some of the trinkets on sale for about half an hour while I took a work phone call and then headed back into the city. I still had two hours to waste, so I walked back down to the Myer centre and looked at a couple more shops, then crossed the road to take a peek at Borders. Fuck that was a nice shop. Really. Fuck. I wandered in there for about half an hour then headed back into the Myer Centre and got myself a haircut. Haircut took about 45 minutes (mostly waiting for teh girl to finish someone else) and immediately afterwards I headed back to the hotel, arriving at about 4:00pm. After walking in the sun all day I was sweaty and tired, so I asked to be given access to a stayover so that I could have a shower. They found an empty room so I showered and cleaned myself up before heading to the airport. Sat around the airport with a couple of coffees and a juice before getting on the plane and heading for home.
Summary of Brisbane... I liked it. The people, fashion and nightlife all reminded me a lot of Darwin only on a larger scale. I wouldn't go there again unless I had someone with me, and I think I'll make that a rule-of-thumb for all further travels. Considering it was a business trip I think I got a lot done on the personal front, though most of what I did can be done here and didn't make it a uniqely Brisbane experience.
So now I'm here, I've washed my clothes and they're drying on the rack in the lounge room. I'm fucking exhausted, I'm fucking hungry, and I'm fucking bored. I'm not looking forward to work tomorrow, I have reports to type up and shoot off to various people, and a week worth of shit to clean up. Being out of the office for more than a day -actually make that more than an hour- seems to make things fall apart, particularly when some of the people you're dealing with can't think for themselves or refuses to follow the business rules you've set in place.
Ok, I'm fucking thirsty too now, so I'm going to brush my teeth, down a few glasses of water and go to bed. I'm feeling really hungry but that's probably from dehydration so it should subside by the time I'm in bed.
Oh yeh, I've got some pics of the trip (and some of myself). I'll get around to posting them eventually... when I can be fucked really.
Well I'm back from Brisbane, what a week/end it's been. I'll start by following up on my last post...
I woke up late and didn't go to the gym, instead I went straight out and walked over to the Queensland Museum. The walk took maybe 20 minutes including a stop at a shop to get a drink and some tic-tacs. I wandered around in the museum for about two hours, it's a pretty awesome museum despite its small size. The focus of the museum was on local and regional history which was really good for me, I got to learn about all kind of Queensland stuff from the sugar cane industry to opal mining to whale slaughtering. After wandering around there for a while I headed out for the excruciatingly long walk to the Queensland Art Gallery. Actually it's right next door so there was no excruciatingly long walk. I had a good look around there and found some really impressive pieces, the current feature in on Aboriginal artists and there were various mediums on display in the main entry hall and the big foyer area downstairs. I also found a whole area of really amazing portrait pieces, and some work by a guy I'd never heard of (and have forgotten teh name of now!). I loved it. So anyway after all of that I walked around the city for about four or five hours, wandered all through the South Bank area where I stumbled on a guy humping away at his missus (no I didn't take pics), checked out the Botanic Gardens where I saw a wedding and the Chinese Women's Soccer Team practising, and heaps of people laying under trees and shit. Anyway I got back to the hotel and was fucking exhausted, so I jumped in the bath for about half an hour before making plans for the night. It turned out that my mate who just moved there had been at Surfers Paradise all day because of the weather and wasn't going to make it into the city. So anyway being stuck on your own in a hotel away from home is fucken dull, so I decided to go see a movie. I walked down to the Dendy Brisbane and bought my ticket to see 21 Grams, then went and had my first meal for the day, Gnocchi alla Pollo with a Cascade Lager from a dodgy italian joint/bar in the middle of the big mall. The movie was really good, Naomi Watts did well playing a variety of roles, Sean Penn was great, but Benicio Del Toro didn't do anything for me. Oh yeh and don't go and see the movie when you're in a bad mood, particularly when you're feeling a little lonely. I probably should have chosen House of Sand and Fog, or maybe even something stupid like Stuck on You. After the movie I checked out a couple of bars on the way back to the hotel, didn't go into any of them though because they were all full of either 18-21 year olds getting wasted, or backpackers... geting wasted. I didn't find any nice relaxed bars within the CBD area, at least along the route I was taking. I ended up back at my hotel I think aroun 1:00am and went to bed.
So. Sunday. Today. This morning. I had to check out of the hotel by 11:00am though my flight wasn't until 5:40pm, so I left my stuff at the concierge desk around 9:30am and headed into the city for another walk around. I had a crepe for breakfast from some place in the Myer Centre and bumped into a guy that I used to work with back here in Sydney, which was kinda weird but very cool. After checking the place out a bit I decided to go for a walk over to Chinatown & Fortitude Valley. Not having a map and not knowing where they were I was in a bit of a spot, so I asked someone for directions, they were a tourist. I saw a map on a tourist info post thing but it was all stylised and made with fucked shapes so it didn't actually tell you how to get anywhere, it just gave yuo a general idea of the direction (go Brisbane!). So anyway I walked in the direction they were in for about half an hour, stopping every now and then to look at shops and stuff, and decided to turn back when it became apparent that I had gone in the wrong direction. I doubled back, taking a slightly different course which brought me across a small outdoor market with lots of cool local products and a bit of imported Turkish & African art/fabrics/etc. I check that out for a little while then realised that it was lunch time, so I headed back down to the CBD where I had some sushi and a lychee tea. After lunch I checked out a couple of the smaller malls in the CBD along with the Dymocks store. I wandered aimlessly for a bit while I chatted on the phone to a mate before deciding to give Chinatown & The Valley another shot, so I got directions (from my mate on teh phone) and got to Chinatown in ten or fifteen minutes. It turns out that the direction I was going previously was right, I just need to walk over the crest of a hill :P I got to Chinatown & Fortitude Valley expecting a bustling market and lots of boutique shops and stuff to check out, but the place was practically deserted thanks to the heat. I looked at some of the trinkets on sale for about half an hour while I took a work phone call and then headed back into the city. I still had two hours to waste, so I walked back down to the Myer centre and looked at a couple more shops, then crossed the road to take a peek at Borders. Fuck that was a nice shop. Really. Fuck. I wandered in there for about half an hour then headed back into the Myer Centre and got myself a haircut. Haircut took about 45 minutes (mostly waiting for teh girl to finish someone else) and immediately afterwards I headed back to the hotel, arriving at about 4:00pm. After walking in the sun all day I was sweaty and tired, so I asked to be given access to a stayover so that I could have a shower. They found an empty room so I showered and cleaned myself up before heading to the airport. Sat around the airport with a couple of coffees and a juice before getting on the plane and heading for home.
Summary of Brisbane... I liked it. The people, fashion and nightlife all reminded me a lot of Darwin only on a larger scale. I wouldn't go there again unless I had someone with me, and I think I'll make that a rule-of-thumb for all further travels. Considering it was a business trip I think I got a lot done on the personal front, though most of what I did can be done here and didn't make it a uniqely Brisbane experience.
So now I'm here, I've washed my clothes and they're drying on the rack in the lounge room. I'm fucking exhausted, I'm fucking hungry, and I'm fucking bored. I'm not looking forward to work tomorrow, I have reports to type up and shoot off to various people, and a week worth of shit to clean up. Being out of the office for more than a day -actually make that more than an hour- seems to make things fall apart, particularly when some of the people you're dealing with can't think for themselves or refuses to follow the business rules you've set in place.
Ok, I'm fucking thirsty too now, so I'm going to brush my teeth, down a few glasses of water and go to bed. I'm feeling really hungry but that's probably from dehydration so it should subside by the time I'm in bed.
Oh yeh, I've got some pics of the trip (and some of myself). I'll get around to posting them eventually... when I can be fucked really.
posted by Sorge @ 2:15:00 am
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