The second leg of our Australian trip was to Queensland's capital, Brisbane. After two day trips outside of the city, we were left with two full days exploring Brisbane.When we began researching Brisbane, we kept coming up short handed. Many travel books and blogs seemed to cover Melbourne or even Cairns more than Brisbane. Regardless of the lack of coverage, we were all set on visiting the Koala sanctuary just outside of Brisbane so we kept digging until we had enough to fill a 4 day itinerary. We decided two day trips and two days actually in Brisbane would be enough. And to be honest, Brisbane was a really great city! We weren't sure what to expect since most people said to skip it, but we were pleasantly surprised at how beautiful, fun and lively Brisbane turned out to be. We flew from Sydney, nonstop into Brisbane and landed about 2 hours later. It was early afternoon so we decided to drop our bags, hit up a farmers' market for some food and then explore a couple of the parks nearby. We walked to Memorial Park and then over the pedestrian bridge to South Bank's walking path. The juice I got at the market was fresh and hit the spot! Plus it was topped with extra fruit, in case I got hungry on the walk! The straw held it all together! So good! The beautiful purple blooms hanging along the metal structure is the Arbor Walk. It's close to a mile long and stretches all the way up to the touristy area of South Bank, including the South Bank beach, the Wheel of Brisbane and loads of restaurants and shopping. By the time we had reached the Wheel, we were hungry so we went back across the river and into the Valley to grab dinner at Fat Dumpling. Guys, I cannot express my love for this place enough! We all ordered way too much but it was incredible! The soup dumplings were filled and wrapped to perfection! We finished with some Jasmine tea before heading to Alfred & Constance for a nightcap! The next day, our group spent about 6 hours at the Koala Sanctuary but after we had freshened up, we took an Über to the outskirts of Brisbane for the Eat Street Markets. If you haven't caught on to our theme yet, our travel pals love to eat! And we love them for it! Eat Street was filled with anything, seriously, anything you could want. Asian? Of course. Seafood? Yes. Italian? Yes. Crappy American food? Most definitely, yes! And, the American tent was sponsored by non other than Budweiser. You're welcome, Australia! We indulged in Japanese karaage, Chinese noodles, fresh prawns, Italian cannoli, chocolate covered strawberries, cold-pressed juice, and finished the night with mini cupcake shooters. And that was just Chase and myself (minus the shooters)! If you happen to get to Brisbane, make sure you're there on a night the Eat Street Markets are open. When we were there, it was opened on Friday and Saturday but things may have changed. Totally worth checking out! On our last full day in Brisbane, our group split up. The foursome headed to the Gold Coastline to spend the day at the beach and chowing down at afternoon tea while Chase and I went into the Valley and started our city brew tour. Chase did some research and found out that Brisbane has a pretty vibrant micro brewery scene. We didn't care for any of the pre-packaged tours so Chase mapped out a few hot spots and a good route for us to end over at South Bank for dinner. The day was filled with bar snacks, flights of locally brewed ales, and lots of walking and wandering. Brisbane actually has an amazing FREE ferry system. One of the breweries was a ways out so we took the ferry to get back over to the metro area. This was our view! If you look closely, you can see the Jacaranda trees popping their beautiful lavender blooms! After some day drinking, we spent a few hours laying at the South Bank Beach enjoying the crowds. Once the sun set, we hopped on the Wheel of Brisbane and then finished with dinner at the Charming Squire, which is a block down but still boasts great views of the wheel. Until Next Time,
C + D
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