Brisbane Downtown Hostel

I didn't expect to write in here this soon, but so much has happened in the last 24 hours that I thought I should write it down. I got into Brisbane at about 10:30 AM yesterday morning and got dropped off at the Palace Central Backpacker's Hostel downtown. Other people on my bus were staying outside the city or in homestay situations, but I was glad I picked the downtown hostel. There was a lot going on, they were fully booked with about 200 people staying there. They were from all over the world (Wales, Canada, India, Germany, lots of Asian countries...) and everyone was very friendly and outgoing. I was in a room with 8 people total, many of them traveling alone throughout the country. I made friends with this girl Sinead from Ireland and she was real fun to hang out with. I walked around the downtown area, and it is a really neat place. There is a lot of shopping there, along with food places, a museum, some churches, and parks. A river runs through the city, and there are City Cat ferries that bus people around. There are a lot of 7-11's, just about on every street corner. They sell a lot of weird and interesting stuff, such as this product called 'cock up on the mountain', which was some frozen food item that I did not feel the need to try. They also have a big selection of candy I had never seen, all these different brands. I bought an Aero bar, which was pretty good. Everything is crazy expensive though, I had bought a juice box sized milk for breakfast and it was $5. Kinda insane, and everything else is similarly priced. It makes sense though, because their minimum wage here is about $15. I think I'm going to look into getting a job...

Anyways, I wanted to write about the hostel. It was a crazy place. I took a nap in the afternoon because I couldn't even stay awake, but I woke up and went to the 'Down Under Bar' with Sinead. It was right downstairs, and definitely wants all the backpackers to go drink there. They had different themes every night, and even started yelling at people in the hostel over the intercom to get out of their rooms and come down. It was pretty funny. Sinead and I were just hanging out and having some drinks, and we met a bunch of other people that were really cool. Some guys from Melbourne told us we should come visit them, and I also talked with a group of Canadians that said we should go to Byron Bay. We were all dancing most of the night and it was a lot of fun. The place kindof reminded me of frat parties at SC, but more ridiculous. The guys were crazy, if you didn't want to dance with one of them, you pretty much had to literally beat them away or yell at them. At one point, I went to the bathroom, and when I came out of the stall, I saw this girl's face through the bottom of the door across from me. She was all passed out on the floor and I tried to get her up, but she was pretty out of it. I told the bartenders and they got her up eventually and took her outside. It took a good 15 minutes though, she was quite messed up. We hung out there awhile longer, and then decided to go back to the room at about 3 AM. We got in just as this one Asian girl in our room started throwing up all over her bed. We got her some new sheets and a pillowcase, but she wouldnt let us change them. It was nasty. We finally got the pillow away from her and changed the case, which was good, but I still would really not want to be her in the morning. I slept allright, but woke up at about 7 AM and couldnt get back to sleep, so I just got up and decided to go jog around before I had to check out. While I was brushing my teeth, this guy was wandering through the halls totally naked with sharpie marks drawn all over himself. He said good morning, like it was a completely normal everyday thing that he was out for his nude morning stroll through the hallways. I got back from running, and he was wearing the hostel polo shirt uniform, apparently he works at the front desk... haha. So in conclusion, these people party pretty hard. Everyone is really nice though, and very helpful with answering questions about directions or anything else. The city has a chill vibe that I really like (maybe not so mellow in the bars/clubs), and I think it will be a very awesome next 5 months here.




These are pictures of the Brisbane Museum, a church downtown, and Sinead and I after changing gross pillowcases. Good stuff.