Brisbane

Sue dropped us off monday morning and we took the train into town. We stayed at the hostel her daughter, Ally, use to work at. After settling into the room we went and started to get ourselves established in Australia. This involved stopping off at the bank and applying for a bank account. We also got Spencer a new phone so we now have a contact number and a way to contact people when we are on the road. We retired pretty early that night after getting some pizza and wedges for dinner. Who knew what a good combo sour cream and hot chilli sauce makes.
After a decent sleep, considering there were 10 people in our dorm, we ate our free breakfast and went off to explore the city. This involved going to the south bank and walking along the river. We found the lagoon, which is a man made beach where you can just hangout. We spent the afternoon there reading, listening to music and relaxing.

On the way back we hit the bank up once more, trying to take out as much cash as possible inorder to pay off our car. This involved calls to both our banks and Spencer trying to up his cash with-drawl limit. For dinner we once again hit up the bar downstairs as it was half price pizzas. We also met Damien, Ally's boyfriend who gave us a free jug of beer, which worked out well for me as Spencer doesn't drink. A little later to bed this time I think that I am finally getting use to the Australian time zone (though this could be because there were no early bird wake ups).

Our last day full day in Brisbane involved once more ATM visits and walking through the botanical gardens after stopping at a local market.  We then headed over the river and walked up the south bank. Eventually we arrived at museum which had bird, reptile and mammal specimens stuffed for identification and a few skeletons of dinosaurs that were found in Australia. After an early afternoon we once more headed to the lagoon and chilled at the lagoon, soaking up the rays and enjoying the water.
When we returned to the hostel we had a bunch of new roommates, and as a group we all headed out to dinner, once more to the bar downstairs. This led to a fun night, we met two different Richards, once from England and another from Papua New Guinea. After nearly winning trivia we closed down the bar with a group of 4 Irish people. Instead of going to bed as we should have we then headed to another bar that is open all night. After too many drinks, walking a kilometre in the wrong direction we finally got back to the hostel, luckily sneaking in without waking too many people.

Last day we pack up our stuff and met up with Pat and Sue. With enough cash to pay for the truck we went and picked it up, Pat driving till we got on the highway outside of the city. Pulling over on the side it was now my turn to drive on the wrong side of the road, and manual which I had only practiced twice in Canada (thanks Mallory). Successfully made it with out stalling to the grocery and liquor store but on the way to Pat and Sues forgot to down shift up a hill. This involved restarting on a hill leading to us pulling up to the house with the smell of the clutch lingering.