Brisbane City Adventures Day 2

On our second day in Brisbane we had a lot planned, so we checked out of the hostel at 9:30 am. First, we had to find a parking spot, and because the person at the Information Centre told us that we can park for free in a residential area, we drove to the parallel street of our hostel where there is a residential area. Unfortunately, it was only a 2P, which means a 2-hour parking zone, and this was the case for the entire residential area and all the streets we drove through. And we didn't want to walk 5km into the city either! So we drove to a parking garage where we could park all day for $16. We had to put our gas bottles on the roof of the car to fit in, but that was no problem, and at least we had a secure spot.

From the parking garage, we walked to the botanic gardens where we wanted to join a guided tour at 11:00 am. Since we had some time beforehand, we quickly visited the Old Government House which is free to visit. The governors of Queensland used to live there, and there are rooms for official events. Today, you can look at the beautifully decorated living and working rooms, read interesting information, and visit an art exhibition on the upper floor. They had really cool cow pictures there!

We were on time for the tour, and there were only 7 people including the guide, so it was quite pleasant. The guide, an older woman, first told us a lot about the history of the gardens and how often it had been flooded. Since it is bordered by a river on 3 sides, it has been flooded several times over the years, and that's why there aren't really any old plants there today. In fact, as we noticed, there wasn't anything really exciting to see. We already knew many of the plants, and there were only a few areas of the garden that were particularly beautiful. Therefore, the guide couldn't tell us much new information, and the botanical tour only took half an hour of the one-hour tour. Overall, the tour was nice, but not really worth it. There is apparently another botanical garden outside of Brisbane that is supposed to have older plants and be much bigger. That one is probably better for a visit. But it was cool that we saw some water dragons. They live there in a pond, and when we approached them and they ran away, we saw that the animals can walk on two legs. It was so funny!

After the botanic gardens, we went back to Eagle Street Pier because we wanted to have lunch at Friday's, a burger restaurant. Elena, a colleague of ours, gave us a voucher for a burger lunch because she and Ylva couldn't use it when they were in Brisbane. This way, the voucher wouldn't expire, and we would have a delicious lunch. The burgers there were really good, and each of us also got 2 beers. It was totally worth it!

After the satisfying meal, we walked through the city and crossed the river to reach the Modern Art Gallery in the Southbank cultural district. It has free admission, and we spent the afternoon there. We really liked almost everything that was exhibited there, and we spent a good 2 hours there. At some point, it started raining, which didn't surprise us because on our way to the gallery, we saw some thick clouds in the sky. However, we were surprised by the intensity of the rain. It was a proper thunderstorm with lots of lightning, loud thunder, and heavy rain. From the large glass front of the gallery, we had a beautiful view of the river, and we sat on a bench and watched the rain fascinated. The rain and clouds were so dense that we could hardly see the second row of houses on the opposite side of the river! The rain stopped around 4:45 pm, which was good because the gallery closes at 5:00 pm, and we didn't want to walk back to our car in the rain. While we were waiting, we also researched for accommodation for the night, and just before we wanted to book the same hostel again because it was the cheapest (even though we didn't want to go there anymore because it wasn't great), someone replied to us whom we had contacted about an Airbnb room. Airbnb is an online platform where people rent private rooms, and especially in cities, it can be an affordable accommodation option. The room worked out for us, and we had a great accommodation for only $49. It was even cheaper than the hostel!

From the parking garage, we quickly went shopping and then drove directly to our room. Bill welcomed us, we were able to park our car in the visitor parking space in the underground garage, and then we went upstairs. On the 8th floor of a building right on the Brisbane River (only separated by the highway) was the shared flat where we were going to spend the night. Bill and 4 others lived in a 3-room apartment, and we could sleep in Bill's room because he was soon moving out and spent the night at a friend's. In the actual living room of the apartment right next to the open kitchen, there were two of these makeshift hospital bed rooms with a floor-to-ceiling frame and white sheets as walls. Two roommates slept there, and one person in each of the other rooms. This way, they can afford the apartment with five people. But I wouldn't want to live in such an open replacement room when the kitchen is right next to it and people constantly walk by you to the balcony! You have no privacy at all, except for a visual barrier...

In contrast, our room was really cool. From the window, we had a great view of the nighttime skyline and the river, and we had a nice bed. Unfortunately, the bathroom was quite small and definitely showed signs of being used by 5 people. But we didn't have to endure it for long. For dinner, we put some meat pies in the oven and enjoyed them on the balcony with a fantastic view of the skyline. It was a complete contrast to our usual stays at campsites in natural surroundings, but we had a pleasant, urban feeling. Unfortunately, the road directly below the building was very loud, and having a normal conversation was quite exhausting, so we went to our room soon. Our bed was comfortable, and we were quite tired from the day, so we fell asleep soon.