Bris­bane was our first large city since Syd­ney and we arrived by Grey­hound under pour­ing rain. Bad weather is less frus­trat­ing in the city than at the beach, we thought, and at least in Bris­bane we could shel­ter in one of the numer­ous malls if we needed to.

We checked in in one of the large cen­tral back­pack­ers hos­tels, a few min­utes’ walk from the pedes­trian streets. The hos­tel was in one of these old Vic­to­rian build­ings, with bal­conies and elab­o­rated balustrades with a touch of moder­nity (the busy bar down­stairs and drunk 18-years-old).

A lot of trav­el­ers seem to dis­like Bris­bane but I found the city inter­est­ing. It cer­tainly changed a lot since the last time we were there, in 2003. The sky­line now looks like Shanghai’s, with tons of sky­scrap­ers and locals obvi­ously enjoy spend­ing money—there was a line-up at Tiffany and Louis Vuit­ton when we walked by!

As soon as the weather got a lit­tle bit bet­ter, we took a side trip to Surfer Par­adise, the clos­est beach on the Gold Coast. While it may have been a surfer’s par­adise thirty years ago, the town is now like an Aus­tralian Can­cun, com­plete with sky­scrap­ers cast­ing shad­ows on the busy stretch of sand and casi­nos everywhere.

While it’s not the best beach we’ve seen and the place is quite tacky, it’s a fun daytrip.

Alright, last arti­cle of the year I guess… where will we be for New Year Eve? Not sure yet. It’s actu­ally quite com­pli­cated because pop­u­lar spots are booked weeks ahead. But hey, wher­ever we are, it can’t be bad!

I wish you all a happy new year, bonne année, and thank you for your support!

Kan­ga­roo (wait­ing to cross?)

Meter Maids in Surfers Paradise

Brisbane’s Free­way

By The River

Surfers Par­adise Blvd	Kan­ga­roo Signs For Souvenir
Surfers Par­adise	Surfers Par­adise
Surfers Par­adise	Surfers Par­adise

Another Shout, Mate?

Wait­ing for the Woman To Fin­ish Shopping?

Late Night in Brisbane

Bris­bane by Night

Windy Surfers Paradise

Related arti­cles:

1. 10 Stuff We Learned in Australia
2. Air­lie Beach
3. The Grand Pacific Drive (III)
4. The Whit­sun­days
5. Tham Morakot, the Emer­ald Cave