Two Days in Brisbane - Two to Go!
Blake and I spent our first two days in Brisbane getting acquainted with the city, in particular the New Farm area we are currently staying in.
We've had breakfast at local staples Cafe 63 and The Little Larder. Both served wonderful breakfasts with some odd variations. New foods, and new terms for familiar foods, left us a bit baffled, but as always we leaned into the adventure to figure out all these new coffee terms like "long black" and "flat white." We will continue with this research and report back with our findings.
Both days we walked A LOT! Day 1 was a walk along the River up to nearby area Tenneriffe where we found an Aldi and got my phone set up with an Aussie SIM card and new phone number! We are testing out the plan through AldiMobile to see how we like it. Blake has a Google-Fi plan, with his American phone number, and now I have my Aussie number, so we have the best of both worlds!
We started day 2 early with a run up to Story Bridge and back, which included some BIG hills and even bigger views!
Our helpful Airbnb host gave us LOTS of suggestions for what to do around Brisbane and the surrounding areas, and we had fun discussing some of the differences in Australia as she is from South Africa and can appreciate our outsider perspective.
Both days we ran around so much and were still off from jet lag, so we had late lunches/early suppers. Day 1 was supper at Bitter Suite, a fun local restaurant and bar that had an amazing broccolini dish and great Australian wine. Day 2 supper was a visit to the incredible Eat Street North Shore. A crazy, over the top, maze-like combination of Minneapolis' Midtown Global Market and the Minnesota State Fair all housed in hap-hazard repurposed shipping containers. Endless creativity must have gone into this unbelievable endeavor!
After two long days of walking, we decided to get acquainted with public transit. At the suggestion of our host, we purchased "Go Cards" which are refillable transit passes and hopped on the CityCat, a catamaran style ferry that criss-crosses up and down the river. This speedy ferry was crewed by a helpful and friendly bunch, and it was fun watching them share a few laughs as boats landed and launched from the stops, and seeing how swiftly and carefully they helped passengers board and disembark from the boats. The views both up river during the day and down river by night were beautiful!
A long planning session in the afternoon of Day 2 gave us our next steps. We stay in Brisbane until Wednesday, Sept 12. We will now head down to Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast to fulfill Blake's dream, and Sonja's nightmare, of taking surfing lessons, staying there until Saturday the 15th. Then we hope to stay in another neighborhood of Brisbane, as yet to be determined.
Plans are also underway for a trip up North to the Great Barrier Reef with potential stops in Cairns, Airlie Beach, and Mackay, at the suggestion of our host.
From there we plan to travel down trough Sydney, Melbourne, and then Adelaide.
In closing, below is what appears to be a piece of loose concrete reattached in the shape of Australia.
We've had breakfast at local staples Cafe 63 and The Little Larder. Both served wonderful breakfasts with some odd variations. New foods, and new terms for familiar foods, left us a bit baffled, but as always we leaned into the adventure to figure out all these new coffee terms like "long black" and "flat white." We will continue with this research and report back with our findings.
Both days we walked A LOT! Day 1 was a walk along the River up to nearby area Tenneriffe where we found an Aldi and got my phone set up with an Aussie SIM card and new phone number! We are testing out the plan through AldiMobile to see how we like it. Blake has a Google-Fi plan, with his American phone number, and now I have my Aussie number, so we have the best of both worlds!
We started day 2 early with a run up to Story Bridge and back, which included some BIG hills and even bigger views!
Our helpful Airbnb host gave us LOTS of suggestions for what to do around Brisbane and the surrounding areas, and we had fun discussing some of the differences in Australia as she is from South Africa and can appreciate our outsider perspective.
Both days we ran around so much and were still off from jet lag, so we had late lunches/early suppers. Day 1 was supper at Bitter Suite, a fun local restaurant and bar that had an amazing broccolini dish and great Australian wine. Day 2 supper was a visit to the incredible Eat Street North Shore. A crazy, over the top, maze-like combination of Minneapolis' Midtown Global Market and the Minnesota State Fair all housed in hap-hazard repurposed shipping containers. Endless creativity must have gone into this unbelievable endeavor!
After two long days of walking, we decided to get acquainted with public transit. At the suggestion of our host, we purchased "Go Cards" which are refillable transit passes and hopped on the CityCat, a catamaran style ferry that criss-crosses up and down the river. This speedy ferry was crewed by a helpful and friendly bunch, and it was fun watching them share a few laughs as boats landed and launched from the stops, and seeing how swiftly and carefully they helped passengers board and disembark from the boats. The views both up river during the day and down river by night were beautiful!
A long planning session in the afternoon of Day 2 gave us our next steps. We stay in Brisbane until Wednesday, Sept 12. We will now head down to Surfer's Paradise on the Gold Coast to fulfill Blake's dream, and Sonja's nightmare, of taking surfing lessons, staying there until Saturday the 15th. Then we hope to stay in another neighborhood of Brisbane, as yet to be determined.
Plans are also underway for a trip up North to the Great Barrier Reef with potential stops in Cairns, Airlie Beach, and Mackay, at the suggestion of our host.
From there we plan to travel down trough Sydney, Melbourne, and then Adelaide.
In closing, below is what appears to be a piece of loose concrete reattached in the shape of Australia.
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