A Sojourn in Brisbane and Goldcoast - Part 1
Have I mentioned that I love travelling?
I love breathing in a different air, seeing different people and scenes before me, marvelling at the beautiful architecture, especially those of the quaint European or Gothic variety. These leave me in awe and someday I shall land my feet in Quebec again for a good long break.
But I digress.
Last month I took a trip to Australia with a friend. As neither us dared to drive, we were thankful that her sister and her brother-in-law super kindly drove us around during the weekends and when they could!
Brisbane is well-connected by trains and buses but that being said, public transport costs are EXORBITANT in Australia! We only took a couple of bus rides but each one averaged about AUD$7 per trip. The distance wasn't that long either, maybe a 30-40 minute ride? I could have travelled from one end of Singapore to the other back and fro for much less. So, in Australia, drive if you can. They drive on the right too so I guess it isn't too bad if you're an experienced driver.
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Twin layout configuration
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We stayed in Hotel Urban Brisbane and if you will take no other advice from me, take this: Stay here if you can! It's not super near the Queen Street shopping area, about a 10-15 minute walk away, but the service is great and the beds so comfortable it was difficult to get up in the morning! It's styled like a boutique hotel, so it's not huge but it serves its purpose.
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| Signs at the Lobby which get rotated every couple of days |
The furniture in the lobby is Baroque style and they have the latest fashion magazines which you can peruse and I think take away with you if you wish. A more detailed review can be found on my TripAdviser Page. Anyhow, it was Winter when we were in Australia and with it getting dark very quickly, and shops closing by early evening, we spent quite a lot of time in the hotel and we were so glad to be staying in Hotel Urban!
As a disclaimer, I have to now confess that we did not have any concrete itinerary. Both of us were really busy in the weeks leading up to our vacation, so while we did have certain places in mind, there wasn't really a plan as to where we should be going on which day; we left such planning to the night before or to my friend's sister haha.
Chancing upon a Scottish Pride parade/fair at the Queen Street square
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| Pancakes at the Pancake Manor! It's housed in a Medieval building which looks like a castle and serves up some of the most awesome pancakes in town. |
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| Interior of a pretty little emporium in Queen Street. I saw Korean National swimmer Park Tae Hwan somewhere outside this building! Apparently he was in Brisbane training for some meet. Pretty exciting but unfortunately my companions had no idea who he was, which sorta killed it for me. |
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| Casino! Good for toilet break. |
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| View of the South Bank. |
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| Apparently some of the best fish & chips in town! |
Summing up the night
As we stayed near the city centre, we roamed around the Queen Street shopping area a lot. More than I care to admit. Myer was having their stock taking sale or something like that and I'm only slightly embarrassed to admit that over the next few days, we ventured into Myer quite a few times. We were more interested in skincare and many of the skincare brands, especially the Australian and New Zealand brands, had prices cut by 20-30% or more. I've realised that Antipodean brands are usually big on using natural or botanical ingredients in their make-up which I think is an upcoming trend, so I did pick up a couple of items, though I really was trying hard not to! I'm currently using almost the whole skincare line from my dermatologist and I'm a bit apprehensive to using any other products on my skin but I. could. not. resist. Story of my life. Some people buy koala magnets, I buy skincare. Yay.
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| Another story for another time |
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