As I have never been to Australia before I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect of Brisbane, we had already been to Sydney ( I was impressed) and been to Cairns (neither of us fell in love).
The drive to Brisbane was very different from any of our drives so far. Most of Queensland was a very boring two-way highway with overtaking sections. Surrounded by land, which I assume once was a dense forest but had been burnt by the forest fires, with a couple of trees and a lot of dead Kangas (R.I.P Kangas).
Brisbane was completely different, it was very urban with 3-6 lane highways and one extremely high bridge which feels like a rollercoaster and as if the cars are dropping off the top of it (if you’ve ever driven to Brisbane you’ll know exactly what bridge I’m talking about).
The holiday park we stayed in was really nice (Brisbane Holiday Village). The price we paid included a game of mini-golf and a free coffee from their onsite restaurant. It was probably the cleanest and most pleasant park we’d stayed in. The unpowered sites were quite private, it was the most privacy we’d had in a while as we don’t have any curtains, only tinted windows.
Iain decided that we were going to go to a food market which he’d been to the year before but didn’t really tell me much about it. It took us around an hour and a half on the bus and walking to get there. (Brisbane bus system is also pretty cool, they have their own roads like a train and proper stations).
We went to Brisbane’s Eat street market, which was the most amazing food market I think I have ever been too. On the outside it looked like large pieces of Lego, built up of brightly painted shipping containers, inside it was a lot more open and the containers made up the walls with an open roof. (My first thought was what do they do if it rains? But it’s Australia and it apparently doesn’t rain an awful lot).
The hardest thing about this whole journey was trying to decide what cuisine to have that night. We were surrounded by different countries, amazing smells and music. Iain opted for a marinated lamb (which he thought was Australian) and I had a Turkish mezze plate, we followed this by sharing Japanese gyozas (probably should of had them as a starter). Honestly, you could probably walk around the markets having tasters of everything and never having to pay for a thing. The selection of puddings was pretty amazing as well, but we were already very full, Iain had a Death by chocolate cheesecake and I had s’ mores (boring but we literally couldn’t have had anything else).
The next day we met Iain’s cousin in the morning at another set of markets where it thunder-stormed (is that even a word?) for around an hour. The rain was super heavy and pretty horrible, but it wasn’t overly cold. I think there are markets on everywhere, every weekend in Brisbane.
We had planned our day around watching the quarter-final of the rugby, we did some research and went to the Pig ‘n’ whistle to watch the football (this felt like the closest pub to a Wetherspoons). Obviously, we supported Australia as we are from Scotland and Iain is half Australian. The atmosphere was pretty good in the pub, there was a good mix of Aussies and English. The result was pretty disappointing as we had hoped to watch Australia in the final (the atmosphere would have been amazing).
Places we stayed
Brisbane holiday Village
Things I’ve learnt
My eyes are bigger than my stomach
I cannot match Iain pint for pint
Stone & wood Pacific ale is great
Australian rain showers are much warmer than Scottish
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