Living like a local: A long weekend in Brisbane

Well this is it! Our last few days in Australia before heading off on the next adventure.

While we were at Uluru, we met some absolutely wonderful people who invited us to stay with them when we made it back around to Brisbane. Just over a month later we took them up on the offer and spent the last few days hanging out in Morayfield.

Cruising around the City in Classic Cars

We got a text from our friends asking if we fancied heading down a night early to join them at a classic car meet. It was something totally different for us so we jumped at the chance to experience something new.

Paul has a beautiful ’55 Chevy Bel Air in pristine condition. Blakey and I climbed in the back and we all headed off to meet up with about 50 other cars before cruising en masse through Brisbane to the final meeting point.

Paul’s lovely Chevy Bel Air

We were a bit worried about getting fingerprints all over the shiny chrome, but managed not to disgrace ourselves.

It’s really fun driving around in a car that stands out so much – the reaction from other people is great. Kids especially seem to love seeing the old cars. I guess it’s something completely out of the ordinary, it just puts a smile on everyone’s face.

Bite Market

The next day we went for a drive out to the Glasshouse Mountains and tested out Paul’s new 4×4 on the dirt roads. We finished off the day by taking a ride out to Bite Market – a street food market in brightly coloured shipping containers on the outskirts of the city.

Bite Market, Brisbane

There we met up with Paul and Jacqui’s group of friends and spent an evening eating far too much food, drinking plenty of wine and laughing a lot. The Aussies were amazed that us Pommies were still in our summer clothes while they were huddled up in beanie hats and jackets. I swear it was around 20 C outside, but I guess that’s pretty chilly for Australia.

Deep fried twirly potato – it might be simple, but it’s the best thing at the market!

There were plenty of different foods on offer, from Brazilian BBQ to Bao buns, a weird Japanese pizza stand and an amazing funnel cake stand with hot doughnut batter and ice cream. Lots of sea food dishes too and plenty of curries. The only thing lacking was a good drink selection really – there was wine and beer, but that’s about it on the booze front. Disappointing.

Escape Room

After a sleepy start to the day on Sunday, we made our way into Brisbane and checked out one of Brisbane’s escape rooms. We’ve done three or four in Australia, as well as two in New Zealand and plenty in the UK. For some reason, we haven’t really enjoyed the escape rooms in Australia… maybe we’ve just been unlucky and picked bad rooms, or maybe we’ve just done too many now and the buzz has worn off.

Theme Parks

We decided to try out some other local attractions in the Brisbane area – the theme parks. We went to Movie World on one day and Wet ‘n’ Wild the next.

Despite a rocky start at Movie World, we ended up having a fun day. We really shouldn’t have started with the Arkham Asylum ride, it made us both feel really sick. I don’t think the sausage McMuffins helped either though to be honest…

Check out Superman pushing the little carts along! Movie World, Brisbane

The best ride was definitely the superman rollercoaster – the little ride carts had a giant superman stuck to the back of them, so it looks like he’s pushing you round the track. It’s the fastest rollercoaster in the southern hemisphere, and you get to over 4Gs, so it’s a good one. Not too many upside down bits either so no danger of losing the McMuffin on this one.

Jacqui and Paul thought it was hilarious that we planned on going to Wet ‘n’ Wild the next day… it was about 16 C outside on probably the coldest day of the year so far, so they thought we were crazy to voluntarily wander round in our swimwear. We assured them that us Pommies are made of strong stuff and we’d be fiiine.

Turns out we were on to a winner as there was pretty much no one else stupid enough to be in a water park in winter so we didn’t have to queue for anything, and managed to go on our favourite rides plenty of times. Although we did leave mid afternoon because it was bloody freezing.

Staying with Friends

After a few nights with Paul & Jacqui, we headed a bit further up the coast to stay with another couple we met at Uluru – Christine and Bob. We’re spending our last days in Aus at theirs before flying out tomorrow.

While we’ve been in Australia, we’ve spent weeks staying with people who, before our trip, were complete strangers. Being welcomed into the home of people we’ve only just met isn’t something we’ve ever experienced before. And it’s not just a bed for the night either – people have given up their time to show us around, cook wonderful meals and spend time with us.

I can’t get over the welcoming nature of Australians – they are just the best kind of people. That’s definitely one of the things we’re going to miss the most when we leave tomorrow.