As you might gather from the fact that I'm lumping three full days into one post, things have been pretty relaxed for the last few days. After a long series of early days (in transit and to go diving), taking a couple of rest days was just what we needed. We had to get up pretty early on day 8 (leaving Cairns) for a 750a airport shuttle. After getting into Brisbane just past 1230, we caught the train into the city and made the 10 minute hike up to the Brisbane City Backpackers hostel.
Finding vacancies in Brisbane was nearly impossible when I searched the night before, something I found very surprising for a large city. At check-in, all was explained; apparently there's a major geological conference in town. Quite a few people in the hostel are here for the conference, which isn't something you normally see.
After checking in, we went out for lunch. The destination was the Queen St pedestrian mall, which would turn out to be our main destination the entire trip. Burgers sounded good; Grill'd is an Australian fancy-burger chain somewhat reminiscent of the Counter, but with more premade varieties and less customization. After lunch we walked through the Brisbane Botanic Garden, which was maybe a fifth the size of the one in Sydney, but was still a very nice park. Since I was still sick and somewhat exhausted, I opted to sit around in the sunshine in the park and read a book, and turned Omar and EJ free.
We met back up for dinner, also just off the Queen St mall, at a grilled chicken place, and then mutually decided to call it a night. I wasn't the only one out of it, because we all slept more or less forever.
Day 9 was mostly spent in the hostel. Omar and EJ left at some point to get lunch (where else, Queen St); I stayed inside working out our plans for New Zealand. Many hours later, after battling with slow Internet connections (seemingly everyone else in the hostel was also inside, and on YouTube) and site downtime (Orbitz: middle of the night in the US is Australian prime time, do some server localization!), we had a plan and bookings made. Because I had a craving for some roti canai, We went back out to Queen St to the Little Singapore restaurant for some grub.
I've been writing this post early in the morning (well, 730) on day 10, watching USA basketball show down against Australia in the quarterfinals. Probably the only US game I'll get to see, since Olympic coverage here is limited to one channel, and only events with Australians in them. Oh well. At least our NBA all-stars turned it on in the fourth quarter.
A side note on equipment, since there's not a whole lot in this post. This trip, I've experimented with not bringing a proper PC along. Instead, I've brought an iPad, with a camera connection kit to transfer photos from SD to the iPad. (protip: get the $8 knockoff on amazon, it works fine; no need to drop $30+ on the official Apple product). These posts have been written and uploaded using BlogPress, a $5 app. It's not perfect, but does most of what I need it to.
Overall, it's worked out pretty well. There have been a few times when I've missed the greater power of a computer: a hotel room with only a wired Ethernet jack, when I've wanted to save a page as PDF rather than as a screenshot, various networking trickery (ahem). The battery life is phenomenal, which is a huge plus.
We're about to head back to BNE to catch a Virgin Australia flight to Sydney, where we will have to claim our bags, change terminals, clear exit customs, and re-check-in for our Air New Zealand flight to Auckland. Hooray.
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