Brisbane

While most folks spent last Wednesday doing the ANZAC Day/Gallipoli rembrance thing, I jetted off to sunny Brisbane to get a bit of rest and rendezvous with Die Frau, who's been sequestered up there for a few weeks for work. We used the ANZAC holiday to check out the up-and-coming James Street in Fortitude Valley (not the most promising name I've heard for a neighborhood), cruise down the river on the Citycat, grab a refreshing beverage in the Botanic Gardens, and stroll through Southbank which was packed with Queenslanders enjoying the holiday.

Thursday and Friday I was left to entertain myself - most of that time was spent in coffee shops doing work, but certianly strolled around the city a fair amount. I checked out the impressive Roma Street Parklands and its collection of subtropical vegetation (as well as its collection of vagrants who were being sent packing by surly gardeners as I arrived), picked up a new digital camera to replace the bit of rubbish Kodak doomed us to suffer through for the past two years, and glanced briefly at St. John's Cathedral which is still under construction (allegedly the last gothic cathedral to be built in the world. It's pretty young to be comparable to the great gothic cathedrals of Europe, but they've been building it for over a century, so it has some history. In the evenings, we had our choice of emerging hip eateries, and took in a showing of Das Leben der Anderen (which was awesome) at the James Street cinema.

Saturday, we broke out of Brisbane and headed to the ever beautiful Gold Coast - Australia's greatest example of untouched wilderness. Oh, wait. I've got that wrong. How about Australia's greatest imitation of Orlando, Las Vegas, and Atlantic City all rolled into one (which I previously visited back in June of 2005). No shortage of people, high rises, and it's one of the few places we've found in Australia where one can go shopping at night, because the Gold Coast is the city (or rather, sprawling metroplex) that never sleeps. Well, OK, it sleeps, but not until about 10 pm. We booked a hotel with the friendly tourist information office, ending up with a cozy room on the 17th flood of one of the many towers in Surfer's Paradise. We cruised around the strip in the afternoon, walked on the beach (which really is impressive, despite the buffoonery of the neighboring community), and dined at a little cafe called Marmalade. Sunday brought beautiful Gold Coast weather so we ate breakfast at the Northcliffe Surf Life Saving Club and then joined all the European backpackers on the beach before cutting out early to return to Brisbane via the Harbour Point outlet mall.