Searching for Sunshine on Sunshine Coast

The journey from Gold Coast to Brisbane is the final stretch of our road trip. For the first time on this trip, we truly feel what it means to experience four seasons in one day in Australia. On the drive from Gold Coast to Brisbane, it is raining heavily, I can hardly see two meters ahead, and I get lost at least three times on these 27-lane roads - I'm not ungrateful that we finally get rid of the cars. In Brisbane, I am allowed to share an apartment with one other traveler, which has more rooms than my own apartment. I share it with another travel companion, and I even have my own bathroom, which is probably the most luxurious accommodation of my entire trip. In the afternoon, we decide to take a walk through the city. Our travel coordinator gives us a little tour, and we have a photosession at the Brisbane sign. In the evening, we eat at a pub with its own brewery, and I have ginger beer, enjoying a beautiful view over the city’s night lights and the pizza crust of my neighbor (Hello? The crust is the best part). The next day, we wake up to bright sunshine, which is both wonderful and frustrating. The official schedule actually includes a visit to an island, which we unanimously canceled the day before because only rainy weather was predicted. But just as unreliable as the forecast is the weather itself. We have a beautiful day, and the rain only starts in the evening - really a shame, but maybe better this way than the other way around. So we let the day begin slowly and have breakfast at a café at 9 AM. Since the start of the trip, I have wanted to eat Eggs Benedict, but every time we go out for breakfast, I don't have enough hunger (too much pizza crust the night before!).
Afterward, we head towards the ferry, where we can spend two hours traveling up and down the river and see the city with its diverse facades from the water. After a detour to the botanical garden (more of a park, but a beautiful hibiscus garden) and a library (nothing special), I return to the hotel to shower and pack my things for the next day. In fact, this is already the last day our group will be together; the next day I will have to fill the time until the evening when I meet my second group. At half past five, we head to a painting class that we selected as an indoor activity due to the rain. Appropriately named after my table in the teacher’s room, we paint at the Flamingo Studio. Half of the group is hardly enthusiastic about painting a sunflower at first but eventually warms up to it. I have a lot of fun, and somehow it ends up being a nice conclusion to our time together. Afterwards, we unfortunately don't go to the very cool food market in Brisbane, but we do go to a very good Japanese restaurant. By the way, I can now say from my own experience that it's not vegans, vegetarians, intolerances, or allergies that make the group meal selection very(!) complicated, but the truly very limited diet of some individuals...
We learn while painting a sunflower, which is quite funny, even though Andy, Flo, and Sarah can hardly get into it at first. She eventually paints her own picture and even thinks it's quite good. I have fun because I really enjoy painting and somehow this turns into a fun event. Plus, I talk a little with one of the two leaders, and it turns out she is from New Zealand and might be able to connect me with a school. After the restaurant, we are all a bit tired, but - hey - it's the last evening, and I'm very happy to finally be able to dance a bit again. At half past one, I say goodbye to my group with a laughing (a new adventure begins!) and a crying (a beautiful adventure is coming to an end) eye, as the next day we all start at such different times that we won’t see each other again.