Brizzy

Seeing as it's only an hour away and only costs $5 to get to, Gracie, Cierra and I decided to take a little day trip to Brisbane. I never expected that I would completely fall in love with it. You see, I've never considered myself a city person...but I've realized that's because my only reference of a city I've ever known growing up is New York, which really isn't like most cities. I'm not a fan of New York because it's dirty, smelly, loud, and the people aren't so nice. When we first got to Australia, we were in Sydney, which I definitely liked much better than New York but Sydney was very business-ey and uptight (compared to Surfer's Paradise, where almost no one wears shoes and I've never cared less about what I look like in public). Brisbane was the perfect mixture of a clean, friendly city and could satisfy my nature-loving needs. 

Pink bunny symbolizing the music festival

Walking along the bike path at the gardens

When we first arrived, we were on a desperate search for coffee. We found some in a crepe shop in the suburb just outside the city (Gracie had never heard of a crepe which I found horrifying and saddening). We found a spot to sit and enjoy our coffee with the view of the river right in front of us and the city just across the river. We were having a nice chat and I casually revealed that I used to eat wood as a child. In fact, my parents had to throw away my bed because there were so many bite marks. On our way to the bridge to cross over the river to get to the city, we passed some kind of wooden sculpture and Gracie asked if I wanted to eat it to which I replied, "I could definitely go for some mahogany for lunch!"

Little lizard friend!

Anyway, our first stop in the city was the botanical gardens which were GORGEOUS. I don't think I can express how happy I am when I am in a park like this. I began to mentally plan my wedding in this exact spot. There were all sorts of flowers and trees--some very interesting trees in fact called "African Sausage Trees", which really do look like they have wooden sausages growing from them. There are also some lilly ponds, where we kept seeing these giant lizard things! The best part is they basically didn't move at all so it wasn't scary--in fact they let us basically shove cameras in their face and they didn't move a muscle. However, when there was sudden movement, they would stand up on their hind legs and run which was hilarious.

Waterfall in the gardens

We then decided to take a peek in an art gallery just across the street from the gardens. One exhibit featured an artist who took broken or damaged figurines and put them back together, with a few extra touches. One I remember in particular was a couple delicate girl figurines with the corsets and big dresses and hats that the artist then painted camouflage and glued some plastic guns and knives in their hands--very funny and ironic! We then went into another exhibit that I believe was supposed to be a commentary on society's relationship with food. You walk in and on a big video screen is a super close-up of a strawberry, with gloved hands using tweezers to carefully pick off each individual seed on the strawberry. Then, there is another video of a watermelon being cut open, and gloved hands using tweezers to pick around until they pull out a tumor (a passionfruit). It was so closeup that you forget you are looking at a watermelon and not actual brain surgery. It was crazy!

African sausage trees

After that somewhat off-putting experience, we made our way to the music festival. There was an aboriginal performance that was really cool to see, as well as a choral performance and some acoustics. When it got dark, the lazer show began. I had never seen anything like this before! Across the water the buildings had lazer lights on them that went along to the beat of the music playing. There was also a structure that water came down from, creating a screen where lights were projected onto it in all sorts of patterns and colors. 

I definitely can't wait to visit Brisbane again. This weekend I am going with the IFSA-Butler group to our adventure weekend in Binna Burra! 

Cheers!

Lazer light show