Brisbane

The size of Brisbane was equivalent to New Brunswick, NJ.  We stayed in the Valley which is the happening area.  Got breakfast at an ultra crunchy (hipster) cafe, called the Flamingo.  Walls were painted hot pink.   Spent most of the day shopping and checking out the stores.  There were heaps of design shops that Joanne wanted to buy everything for our old apartment in Bayonne.  The rest of the day was spent eating/drinking and somehow ending up listening to a heavy metal band perform, which were awful! 

Last day in Brisbane and our trip was spent checking out Black and Spiro (Sule’s favourite design store/blog), eating delicious hot cakes and eggs at Au Cirque cafe, walking through South End, then through the city down Queen Victoria.  To take shelter from the rain we went to St. John’s Cathedral.  Loved the fact the seat cushions were all unique and seemed to have been sewn by the church ladies.

B/c the town is so small we had accomplished all we wanted to by 1pm and had 5 hrs before our flight.  So we decided to eat lunch at The Vietnamese in the Valley, drank 2 bottles of wine and got dessert from Jocelyn’s Provisions (dubbed the Magnolia of Brisbane).  Third strike of bad luck.  Phone call from our airline that our flight had been cancelled and the best they could do was get us on a flight in 2 days.  Too bad we both had work and that all other flights to Sydney were booked.  So again being stubborn we rented a car and drove the 10 hours (starting at 6pm) from Brisbane to Sydney.  Fourth strike of bad luck.  On the way to pick up the rental car, a magpie was sitting on the side of the road and attacked Dan right in his eye.  To the point that it knocked out his contact and popped a blood vessel, he now looks like the Terminator.  Luckily his vision is fine.   All in all quite the adventurous trip but we made it back to our place safely (minus the fact it was 4am and we had to be up at 7am for work) and have fantastic pictures to show for it.