All on our own; a stop in Brisbane

After we left the Noosa Bushcamp early the next morning we had this weird realization that we were now on our own. We had finished our last official destination and tour. It was a big change from the rest of our trip because we really always had a place to get to and a certain time frame. We did still have an outline of what we wanted to do next but it wasn’t the same. Our next big thing we wanted to do was go to the Australian Zoo or the Steve Irwin Zoo. Even though the entry fee was pretty steep, it qualifies as a necessary experience in Oz. We decided that we would wait and go to the zoo on Tuesday instead of Monday to make sure we had the full day, so instead we headed to Brisbane for a day. Brisbane was nice, we went to the Lagoon and tried to lay out in the sun but the clouds kept getting in the way and it was cold. I officially observed that the dead giveaway that it is winter in Australia is that the sand is cold. There might still be sun, and it still feels like it could be nice out, but when you lie down, the sand is not nice and warm like it should be.

We walked along the esplanade and looked at all the nice shops, stopped at a sweets store where they sold some American candy and Dr. Pepper! Ahhh I had to buy one. It tasted like heaven... mmmm so good! Such little things that you forget remind you of home. After we gave up on the sunbathing, we went to Max Brenner's Chocolate Cafe. I decided I would rather spend my money there then at the sweets store and I bought Makenna and I the shared fondue for two that comes with milk and dark chocolate, bananas, strawberries, marshmallows and banana bread. So delicious. It kinda put us in a chocolate coma but it was so good! The place was packed, we waited in a line nearly out the door and then once we ordered waited another half hour at least to get it but it was so worth it.

While we sat there enjoying ourselves we decided that the best course of action was to find a cheap hostel to stay in for the night since campervan parks are a bit hard to find in cities. We ended up picking Brisbane City Backpackers which ended up being a super cool hostel after we figured out how to park and get into it. The check in staff was awesome and the girl upgraded us simply because we were only staying one night into a twin room where it was just the two of us! When you live in hostels, there is literally nothing more luxury then getting to have your own room with your friend. The hostel also had gated in parking for our sweet van, a bar and outside/rooftop deck, and just overall a super cool place with nice people. We were going to go out and walk around town at night, maybe grab a drink (with all that money we have) but basically we got too comfortable and we didn't go. Makenna was asleep by 9 and I followed not too long after.