Two weekends ago, I packed my bag and hit the road to Brisbane, which is about an hour and a half from Toowoomba. I’m trying to travel as much as I can with the money I have so short weekend trips are perfect. I don’t have to take time off and it’s a little cheaper.

I wasn’t sure what to expect in Brisbane. One thing about this trip to Australia is it was, hands down, my least researched trip. I’m winging it, guys. I knew I needed out of Boston for a little while, this opportunity came up and so I peaced out. This means that I only have the vaguest idea of what I want to do now that I’m here.

Brisbane is close so I thought I’d give it a go!

Turns out, it’s a city and surprisingly, I miss the city! They have vegan restaurants and culture and things to do and fro-yo! I didn’t realize I was missing that until I was in Brisbane.

So here’s a little of what I did:

First off, stayed in a hostel for the first time ever! The first time I tried the whole hostel thing was with my friend,  Laura, in Rome and things did not go well. At all. I think we stayed in the hostel long enough to get information on the closest internet cafe and then we went and booked ourselves a hotel. This was after a week of couch surfing, though, including a stint in London which involved us sleeping on lined up chairs. I think the floor would have been more comfy. Needless to say, I was quite proud of myself for staying in the hostel!

floor of the elevator in the hostel. Terrifying!

On Saturday, I just sort of meandered around Brisbane. I went to the Davies Park market where I ate a Swizzle, which is a spiraled potato dunked in Tapioca Flour (Gluten Free and apparently full of healthy things like vitamin B stuff) and fried in  rice bran oil (also, apparently more healthy), then drenched in seasonings. I chose the Aussie BBQ seasoning which was smoked paprika, garlic and onion powder and salt and pepper. Basically it was a huge, pretentious french fry…that was amazing. The market was a bit too hippy for me and it was super produce heavy, which I wasn’t really looking for. I stayed for a bit, ate my pretentious french fries, bought a ginormous hat to keep the sun off (seriously, so strong), then headed to the South Bank Parkland.

Old tree at Davies Park

SWIZZLE!

After basking in the sun, I NEEDED to get in doors. I could feel my pale irish skin turning crispy even though I had on sunscreen, a cardigan, pants, and a ginormous hat. So I hit up the Queensland Art Gallery. I walked in and they had a whole exhibit on California, which I thought was ironic. Let me go to an Aussie Gallery to check out stuff on the US. As soon as I walked in, I was ushered to a free comedy performance by Tim Ross and a musician named, Kit. Most of it went over my head as I didn’t get the Aussie references, except for the whole segment he did about Bruce Springsteen. Yes, Springsteen. Even in Australia, I can’t escape him. The segment was concluded with a little cover of Born to Run, which was my cue to get out! At that time, I took in some paintings, which weren’t bad. They had a section on Australian painters, which was pretty cool. The close ups below are some of the more comical elements of paintings that I found.

Tim Ross

Attributed to Lucas Cranach the Elder- The Three Apostles. Seriously, could that apostle be any uglier?!

Cologne School- Virgin and Child with Saints. This is a close up of, most likely, the person who commissioned the painting. Which begs the question, seriously? They couldn’t at least make him a tad more attractive??

Then I wondered around the South Bank Parkland a bit. At this point, I discovered an outdoor cinema sponsored by Ben and Jerry’s (side note: Ben and Jerry’s is apparently not easy to find here!). So I thought that would be fun and bought a ticket for that. The movie that was playing was Blue Jasmine, which was a really depressing Woody Allen film. I was not a fan! But the experience was fun. While there, I almost bought a Ben and Jerry ice cream but it was $12 for a pint! $12!! So I bought a salad and “healthy” sour gummy worms. Come on! This is a food blog. You know I have to include these pics.

flower covered walk way on the South Bank 

outdoor cinema. There were lawn chairs and bean bag chairs, which was pretty cool

obsessed!

Then I headed back to the hostel. Not super exciting but I was pretty beat from being up since 6 and then being in the sun all day.

Turns out, I had a lot more to say then I thought I did so I will continue with Brisbane next Travel Tuesday. Spoiler alert: Koalas are involved!