Oz in a nutshell - 1-5-12

Australians in a nutshell.

Second times a charm. On our first full day in Brisbane we made the river tour ferry with plenty of time to spare, even after sleeping in later than we had the whole of the trip. Well rested and ready to get after it, we were all in good spirits and excited to see more of the city.

Tasty fishsticks and rockin tunes.  Oh, and tour boat commentary

Awesome place to show off.

The ferry we took was commentated by a cheesy Australian pirate like individual - probably resembling the likes of the Gorton's Fish man or Kenny Roger; take your pick - but nonetheless it was fairly informative. The cruise starts on the western side of Brisbane, heads east along the river - and subsequently the city - and then back again. Again I was immediately struck by the active outdoor  accomodating nature in the layout of the city while passing under walking bridges, alongside kayakers and between the city on our left contrasted by a natural rock climbing cliff along our right. I could get used to this place.

All along the way our hoarse captain pirate guy pointed out various points of interest including unique modern buildings, various popular hotels, and most notably, whilst in the process of writing my thesis on adaptive reuse, many historical registered sights that the city has chosen to preserve in their original form. One such building - a once power plant, now art center - even chose to maintain the original graffiti acquired in an interim of tennancy sometime in the building's lifetime. The juxtaposition of old and new creates a similar feel to that of Sydney and a unique tie amongst generations a time apart. Also gives my thesis some much needed meat, so to speak.

Rifinery turned apartment complex.

On our redundant journey back to port, the skipper told us a story about a bull shark completely breaching the water and haphazardly landing on one of the many active public ferries. After slipping from the bow all the way along the boat to the stern, he dropped rather harmlessly off into the water, and a survey of damage done revealed nothing. Physical damage, no, but I don't imagine the people on that ferry will avoid frequenting the river anytime soon. This place is crazy. Funny thing is, I was talking to a lady right before hearing this story who was brushing off the prevalence and respective threat of these awesome creatures.  The beaches have nets she says.  The sharks stay off shore, she says.  They are more scared of us then we are of them, she says.  I've seen shark week lady.  I'm starting to think the people here are crazy as well.  A genuine breed apart.

We headed into the business district to get a feel for the true downtown area, and to our audible delight stumbled upon an Australian Avett Brothers like band performing on the street, check out the video. These guys were awesome, and after disposing of our spare change and acquiring a new album, we were off to grab a bite before taking the afternoon off at the XXXX Brewery.

Power house turned art gallery...or something.

Unfortunately the XXXX brewery, one of the top 10 things to do in Sydney, according to our fearless leader, is closed for renovation until February. Not to fear, we found a brew pub 2 blocks down from our accommodation that will do just fine as a surrogate. Had an awesome dinner as a group, shared a few jugs of Indian Black Ale, or something like that, and tried to play some billiards which turned into a battle to keep the cue ball on the table. Hit the waiter once, but he will survive. Oh, and we put a few bets down on the cricket match tonight. Brisbane vs. Hobart: winless vs. lossless. I've always been one to cheer for the underdog; 10 AUD on Brisbane. Getting about time to get to the match and attempt to learn to enjoy one of the most droll and confusing sports I've ever attempted to understand. Beer in hand, of course, Anoop reminded us. Time to learn a song or cheer or whatever it is these cricket goers do.

Not many pictures of this day, but lots of memories.

Cheers