Now off to Cairns...

Whew! Been pretty busy (for me) the last week, I'm not used to being a tourist! Dani's whipped me into shape though and I managed to fill up my memory card in a week. No stupid little tourist thing is too crappy for me to take a picture of! haha.

Well, we've made it up to Brisbane after 5 days of driving. We've been taking it at a pretty slow pace, and managed to see most of the stuff between Sydney and here I think. Seemed to me it was pretty similar to south of Sydney... not too much tourist buildup (before Byron Bay at least!) and a lot of countryside. I really liked it anyways.

Anyways, to start at the beginning of the week... the bus ride up from Melbourne to Sydney was horrible. Too reminiscent of the long plane ride over... uncomfortable seats and some girl sitting beside you annoying you :) Just kidding Dani. haha. I'm pretty sure it was the other way around... I must've mentioned that "We're definitely getting a car in Sydney" at least a few times on the way up.

Sydney was exactly how I remembered it, but we ended up only staying two nights so I found it easier to bear this time. heh. Saw all the tourist spots again, this time as a real tourist... ended up being a pretty good day around town. Probably because I knew we were leaving the next day no matter what. :) Renting the car was pretty funny... we showed up at 1:00 to pick up the car, and ended up waiting for almost two hours until we got the car. The rental guy was one of the more incompetent people I've dealt with here in Australia... but it was probably a good thing. Our first car we were going to get ended up getting a little crunched by a guy pulling in to return his campervan... that's gotta suck. So instead of the Toyota, we got a Nissan. :)





The next couple days we just took it easy driving up the coast, taking the tourist routes and staying in caravan parks. The third day we stayed in Port Macquarie, where I met up with Ann, the German girl I hung out in Perth and Broome with, and rented the campervan with going up the west coast. Sure was great to meet up with someone I know over here! Ann's over here doing the opposite of me and Dani; she started out in Cairns and is down in Sydney now. I told her I'm going to head down to Sydney for New Years and sleep on her floor in her flat, and I think she believed me. Heh.



The last couple days we finished up the drive to Brisbane, stopped in another caravan park just south of Byron Bay, and drove to a hostel here in town. Byron Bay was cool, there was a good market there and a very nice beach... and we also drove through Surfers Paradise. That place was pretty... garish? Don't know if that's the right word or not, but it was filled with hotels and skyscrapers, seemed very out of place compared to the rest of the coast. Not the kind of place I'd like to stay anyways. This spot was more like it for me... this was a minute's drive from the caravan park we stayed in south of Byron Bay.



Brisbane is pretty nice, for a city. I like Perth better for sure, but this place seems alright. Too hot for my liking, but I'm sure I have it easier than Dani... I was used to hotter than this when I was on the boat, and she just left Canada two weeks ago. heh.

Today I met up with Akbar, another buddy of mine from McMaster, and also a mechanical engineer. Heh, this trip up the coast has been one big reunion for me :) He's been over here in Brisbane since August. We hung out in the city center for a while today, did some shopping, checked out the botanical gardens and the river, then went to an internet cafe and played Battlefield 2. Heh, some things never change.



Tomorrow me and Dani leave to head up to Cairns... and we're planning to stop off at a zoo and a brewery first thing. An excellent start :)

-Brad