Monday, October 13, 2003

 
Brisbane Day #1 - Sunday

We arrived at 10:30 AM at Brisbane international after a 4 hour flight from Nadi. Flight was good, no problems at all, food was soso breakfast, seats where crap in the middle, it felt a bit hot, but nothing that could dampen our mood.

After Duty Free, Immigrations and Customs, we hopped on the "Airtrain" which takes you for 7.50AUD p.p. in 20 minutes to Central Station, which is very close to our hotel. Check-in worked fine too, even though we showed up 2 hours before check-in time. The Rothbury is a complex of small 1 - 2 bedroom apartments and our's is very nice and comfy. We settled in and then went to find the main shopping district, the Queen Street Mall: a stretch of street-turned-pedestrain-area with a bazillion of shops and department stores. For food we found a sushi fast-food place and then we did some initial supermarket shopping. We both noticed the super-friendly atmosphere and attitude of the people. While Sydney may remind one more of a mix of NYC and LA, Brisbane is more like Miami. Nice warm climate, lots of outdoor eating places and friendly people. Sure we were in awe with the huge book stores and shopping opportunities in general. We later spent quite some time at a Dymock's bookstore and ended up buying reading material worth 90 AUD (among that, 2 cookbooks for me :)

We left for a fairly early dinner (then again, most restaurants close around 9:30 PM, so you better go early) to the riverside, eagle street, where we picked 'the fish restaurant' for dinner. Very nice place, great seafood. Oysters for me and salt and pepper squid for Ritsu as starters, We both then enjoyed the local critter specialty, the Moreton Bay Bug. A crustacean that flavorwise is somewhere between lobster and crab and fairly easy to eat. I had them BBQ style and Ritsu had just one half over garlic creamed Linguini (which unfortunately could have been a bit warmer). Food, Service and the bottle of 2002 Yalumba Chardonnay were very nice.


Above: Highrises, neighborhood Japanese place next to Apple Centre, Map, Ritsu enjoying the huge variety of books, us checking out Moreton Bay Bugs.
posted by Peter 4:02 AM