5:00am wake up call the train was arriving a few minutes ahead of schedule. Some point late in the night Paul and I found a configuration that worked for us both, Paul curled up and slept on the floor, and I on the seats. Now I started on the floor but could not find a comfortable spot and Paul could not sleep on the seats so we switched and to both our surprise got maybe 2-4 somewhat decent hours of sleep.
Brisbane greeted us with clouds, sprinkles and air so thick it felt like a steam room, but since it was so early we were not sure what the weather would bring. We found an information booth in the station and asked about directions to our hotel, the guy gave Paul a map but said our hotel was not on it but pointed off the map to an invisible area that the hotel was in (how helpful) asking next about transportation to the invisible place he said he did not know and we should ask the guy in the ticket booth. We asked the ticket booth guy and he said he did not know, maybe the bus to the cultural center would get us close, but we could check upstairs with the guys on the bus plat form. Lugging our heavy bags up some stairs to the bus platform we were shocked to see no busses and no people. We sat there for a few and starred at the reader board that said next bus 20min. Ugh…I asked to see the map the guy gave us and after a few minuets not only do I see the street our hotel is on but our hotel is shown and marked on the map right above the invisible area he told us to go to. Now knowing the route we decided to walk. I forgot how tired I was and how heavy my pack was, I tried to keep up with Paul but my legs wanted to go there own pace. The slow walk was pretty, Brisbane has a large river flowing through it with many bridges connecting each side (similar to Portland, but the bridges don't lift for barges, and some are for pedestrians only) We walked over a cool bridge and saw how high and brown the river was, (Tropical cyclone Tamie has been bringing heavy rain to most of Queensland) lots of trees bases were under water and some buildings along the river path had sand bags by the doors in case it got any higher. I kept scanning the river for crocks, we were so close to the rivers edge on the foot path I knew one of those sneaky guys was waiting! The city was dead and very peaceful and we were able to walk the couple of mile to the hotel on all bridges and footpaths, it was a very modern feeling city with lots of pedestrian access lined with cafes, performing art centers, and museums, there was even a city beach/swimming pool along the river walk. It took us about an hour walk to the hotel, and the last 5min it started to down pour on us!
We walked into the hotel around 7am dripping wet, we could not check in till maybe 10am, so we stored our large packs and took the computer to find a coffee shop/bakery to get something to eat. The desk clerk at the hotel told us that it was a national holiday (they are recognized boxing day on Monday since it fell on a Sunday) so we might have some difficulty finding a place. He was right, the area we were in was shut down, most places were closed until the 4th on Jan. and Subway did not open until 9am! Very hungry and tired I could feel a melt down coming on so we popped into a bakery and ordered ham and cheese croissants and shared an apricot danish. We ate the danish while we waited on the croissants it was so good and could not wait for the main course. The bakery did not have seating so we took the croissants across the way to Flamco coffee, our coffees were really good and they guy said we could link on to his internet for free! Things were looking up, until I took a bite of the croissant, something tasted bad, I was not sure if it was the ham or cheese or both so we scrapped the grossness off and enjoyed our plain croissants!
At 10am we went back to the hotel and were relieved to find our room was ready and they upgraded us to a larger room with a small kitchen! Thank goodness I was struggling keeping my eye's open at the coffee shop and could not wait to sleep in my first bed in about 3 months! The rest of the day could not have been more perfect, it consisted of me not leaving the bed all day, just a quick trip to the store for some dinner then back to bed! Outside monsoon rain fell all day which made being incredibly lazy doing nothing but sleeping, eating and watching tv in our hotel room even more perfect.
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