Exploring Brisbane

-

Another beautiful day in Brisbane of delicious food, beautiful views, and LOTS of walking! Blake and I continue to get a sense of the neighborhoods around Brisbane, which means a lot of foot work to get the feel of each place. 

We started our day off right with a beautiful breakfast at the restaurant just around the corner from our Airbnb. Blake had this GORGEOUS dutch buttermilk pancake that was the perfect mix of sweet and savory with beautiful fresh fruit and edible flowers! My breakfast was ok, but nothing worth writing home, or in a blog, about. 


We continue to explore the coffee offerings here in Australia. After ordering "black coffee" at our first breakfast and being brought something delicious, and then learning that drip coffee is very uncommon here, we have been on a quest to figure out just what I was brought! So far I have tried a latte (definitely not it, and nothing like an American latte), a long black (a shot of espresso with hot water) and a short black (a shot of espresso). So far all of these efforts have been in vain, but we shall prevail!

After a hearty breakfast, we set out on the CityCat ferry (Blake and I love riding in front with the wind in our hair!) up river (to the south, away from the mouth) to check out Mount Coot-tha. There are botanic gardens and a fantastic view overlooking all of Brisbane around the base of the mountain. pictured are some trees with a VERY interesting root structure, and a picture of Blake and I with the cityscape in the background. 



After a long walk up and down the mountain, followed by a charming cafe lunch in Achenflower, a charming little neighborhood, we headed over to the big XXXX Brewery. We were later told that XXXX is the "cheap" beer and the brewery tends to attract a rowdy crowd. We can attest that the 12 other people in the taproom were seated together, chanting "CHUG CHUG CHUG CHUG" to one unlucky fellow at about 3pm... Blake and I did our best to fit in with the locals but found our whistles plenty wet after one beer. Although we did have some fun trying to get a picture in...


I end today's blog post with this picture of me encountering an Australian Brushturkey in the Japanese Garden at the Mount Coot-tha Botanical Gardens. We seem to be equally wary of each other, but I am happy to report it was an eventless stand-off.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Brisbane Wonderful (A play on words "It's been wonderful)

-
Image
With Brisbane Round Two slowly coming to a close, we reflect on the experiences we've had here. Mainly around food, but also on a few other topics.  Our breakfasts have been lovely. One particularly memorable breakfast, pictured below, was proceeded by exciting events. Blake came to the rescue of a table of young girls besieged by an errant bird that flew into the restaurant, smacked into the window, and flopped around, confused and dazed on the banquet. Blake gently ushered the bird out of an open door, much to the relief of all the patrons. A round of applause was his reward.  The breakfast that followed was one of our last out for awhile. All good things must come to an end, and both Blake and I got a little sick of eating out constantly, so we bought some porridge packets (kind of like oatmeal, really) and other breakfast accoutrements and have been eating at our airbnb in the mornings. The only disadvantage to this is that we are at the mercy of our host's ta...
Read more

Not all that glitters is Gold(en) Coast....a Surfer's Paradise lost

-
Image
As the title suggests, not all trips are wholly successful or enjoyable. All are a mixture, with some a bit more balanced than others. One of the things on Blake's "Absolutely MUST DO" list is Surfing. Having done it once or twice before several years ago, he has been anxious to get at it again. At some indeterminate point, I agreed to take one surfing lesson with him, despite my complete lack of interest in being in, near, or on the ocean due to a general distaste for sea water and sand getting all up in my business. I digress, having done a bit of research, Blake settled on the Gold Coast, and a little nook called "Surfer's Paradise" seemed to be just the place. As we have done with all our other trips, we pulled up Airbnb, found an apartment with a little kitchen, a washer and dryer (laundry!!), a reasonable price, and all near the beach! Our day started well packing up from our LOVELY Brisbane Airbnb in New Farm with the most wonderful host and ama...
Read more

What's in a Name?

-
Image
Blake and I are headed on an incredible journey. We talked about ways we could share this journey with our friends and family, and while we will definitely be active and posting on Facebook and Instagram, we knew that having a blog would give everyone a consistent way to keep up with us. Posts get missed, not everyone checks social media all the time, but this little blog will be here for you to check whether you want daily updates (we'll try!) or just to catch up once in a while. Step 2 for the blog was by far the most challenging: Finding a name! We struggled to come up with something clever or funny that we both agreed on and that described our upcoming adventure. Along the way we decided to bring a little Minnesota along to our hosts and new friends in Australia, bags of miniature Pearson's Nut Rolls and Nut Goodies. In moment of good natured frustration, I suggested "Two Nuts on a Roll" as a play on our Nut Roll plans...unfortunately Blake took a liking to it...
Read more