Brisbane and My Lack of Worldiness

I confess, I knew nothing about Brisbane when we arrived to visit our good friends for a week of our holiday (note how Australian I've become? They don't use the term vacation. That is just so utterly American.). Best I could figure from the Bible, I mean the Lonely Planet Guide, was that the city was on a river and very close to the Gold Coast, the land of endless beaches, beautiful bodies and surfing.

As a side note, of all the places I've travelled, I've determined that Australia is the land of beautiful people. They dress well, maintaining an air of casual elegence, or rather elegently casual, with broad smiles, rumpled oxfords with flip flops, healthy bodies and shining faces. I think the country's motto is "no worries, mate," which was even featured on the airport boomerang, which means it must be true. Like 'pura vida' in Costa Rica, it seems to embody the very philosophy of the country. We did our best to follow that motto, and it really does open up the world up to all good things.

Anyhow, back to Brisbane. As we were staying with friends, I did no research on Brisbane, relying on their knowledge to direct our experience. We spent the first day touring the city.

How could I not know about Brisbane? It's set on a winding river, with excellent weather and near the ocean. It's overshadowed by Sydney, but has to be on a list of 100 Best Cities Around the World to Live. Neighborhoods are filled with beautiful Victorian homes - called Queenslanders, or sleek modern tracts and all abound up and down the river with bustling restaurants and bars.

Queenslander home

We took the ferry into downtown much like you can do in San Francisco, but without bundling up in polar fleece first. We walked through town passed high end shops and crossed scenic bridges. The entire shoreline was developed with a bike path alongside. We finished at the "False Beach" as my kids called it. Streets Beach is a manmade beach and pool along the river, complete with sandy bottom and life guard stations. The kids loved it. The fake beach is surrounded by street performers, ice cream shops and souvenir shops within walking distance.

The "False Beach". Notice Swampy, the lifeguard on duty.

As I sat on the beach in this well established town, I was stunned to hear that in 2011, there had been devastating floods in Brisbane of epic porportions. The entire fake beach was under water, as was the restaurant where we had lunch and much of the area we walked through. I'm not sure what surprised me the most, the floods, how quickly the city rebuilt the shoreline, as it was only three years later and no where were there signs of rebuilding, or the fact that I had no idea. It was their version of Hurricane Katrina and I don't know if it even hit page three in the news in the US. I was embarrassed by my lack of worldiness. Odds are, I didn't hear about the floods as they were probably overshadowed at the time in the US by American Idol contestant winners. As I do on every trip, I swear that I'm going to subscribe to the Economist and listen to the BBC when I'm back home.

I'm excited to see what else this city holds.

Pictures of Nearby Stradbrooke Island "straddie" as it's know in Australian terms

 

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Signs of Australia

Australians are a straightforward bunch. I was informed this by our friends when we arrived in Brisbane and asked about various names of places and things. This applies to locations. If the area is filled with tin can fishing boats, aha, Tin Can Bay it will thus force be named. Here are just a few of the signs that we captured. We were a bit punch drunk on the drive from Hervey Bay to Brisbane. We had just left Lady Elliott Island and still had salt water in our hair and on our skin on the three hour drive to Brisbane. We also went through every song that my phone had captured in our playlist.

How Do We Caffeinate?

Short Black, Long Black, Flat White. Though they could be insults, instead these are our coffee options. Rob turned and looked at me with a wild eye, desperate for caffeine - 'how do I order a cup of coffee? I can't find one anywhere on the menu and this is the third coffee shop we've been to.' Even our friends in Brisbane had no idea how to order a cup of coffee, as Sam is partial to skinny lattes. Heck, if the lattes will make me skinny, I'm on board.

We never did find out and Rob resorted to instant folgers coffee at the house. Yes, the same brand that he makes fun of my parents for drinking. Ah, the ironies.

 

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Brisbane

After Lady Elliott Island, we made our way down to Brisbane to stay with friends. We've been here almost a week. It's been so much fun I haven't found time to blog. It feels like our first week here was all about Australia for the enthusiastic tourist and our second week has been all about living in Australia.

We've learned so much. When we arrived, our friends looked at us aghast and exclaimed, "your accent is so strong!"

Us? We have an accent??

To put this in perspective, these friends are the Bodimeades. It's a family we met in Point Loma at baseball little league fields. They were Australian but had lived in the US for several years. Eighteen months ago, they moved back to Brisbane, Australia. We were seeing them for the first time in eighteen months. Never mind that I could barely understand what else they said to me when we all excitedly embraced and caught up- it never occurred to me that we had the accent. How funny and narcissistic. From that moment on, we practiced adopting the Australian accent. That involved not only swallowing all "r" sounds, but adopting certain words and dropping others.

Quick and Dirty Guide

"How are you going?" Rather than "how are you doing?"

It's rubbish and you put it in the bin, not trash.

Paul is properly pronounced Paw, as in the famous Australian singer Paul Kelly (I had never heard of him but he was compared to being our Bruce Springsteen)

Bacon should be thick cut and cooked on the Barbie (not BBQ)

When in doubt, shorten all words to give them a cute 'ie' sound at the end, even if they are despicable, like Mosquitos. They become the endearing term, 'mozzies'. As in, these f-ing mozzies won't leave me alone.

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Backtrack to canyoning

Before we left for our dear Lady Elliot, we went canyoning in the blue mountains. Canyoning is something that I didn't quite understand but thought it sounded fun. We arrive in Katoomba at 8am sharp to get fitted in 5 mm thick wetsuits, helmets and large backpacks that double as flotation devices. Our guide has rock climbing gear on in addition to his pack and we pile into a beat up truck for the 90 mi. drive into the wilderness. Once we arrived in the literal middle of nowhere - the last logging truck was 15 min earlier on the dirt road, we load up and bushwalk a mile to the canyon.

The canyon itself is still unclear as we slog our way through a narrow river path, stepping in the 50 degree water. There is something so liberating about walking through the stream and not trying to avoid it to stay dry. We come to our first rock slide. It's fun and we stay relatively dry. It's the next slide into deep water where we get dunked and feel just how cold this water is. It's exhilarating. We continue through the canyon, walking, climbing, sliding and jumping through narrow crevasses into deep inky pools. It's so much fun, so long as you don't think about it too much. Looking up, the canyons are narrow and tower above us in earth tones and gentle curves.

The canyons are truly beautiful, when I remember to look up. As we emerge from the first big canyon back into the forest, it feels like we have time traveled back to a more pristine time when nature was in her full glory. Big rock formations and giant ferns are everywhere. We stop for lunch and the kids are freezing, even in thick wetsuits. We push on but turn back before the end of the second canyon as it's clear the kids are no longer having fun as Mia almost breaks into tears as she looks at the inky black water that she is suppose to jump into again.

Rob and I simultaneously feel like terrible parents and are selfishly giddy from the natural playground. As soon as we emerge back into the sun and forest, we strip out of the wetsuits and into dry clothes and the kids are happy again, already describing the experience as the "fifty foot drops" and "ice bergs in the water.'

Mission accomplished. Videos to come soon.

 

 

 

 

 

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Turtles at Lady Elliott

The marine life was amazing. Here's a quick video of one of many turtle sightings

 

Lady Elliott - Turtle from Jennifer Pennell on Vimeo.

 

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Sacrifice for Siblings

This is a complete side note to the trip. Kai and Mia don't enjoy sharing a room and they absolutely refuse to sleep in the same bed when we are traveling. Luckily, they are willing to find alternative solutions. Kai, in fact, is willing to go to great lengths to establish his own space.

This was his bed choice in one of our hotel rooms. He put the couch cushions on the ground and made himself a den.

 

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