Botanical Gardens

Today I popped to the Brisbane Botanical Garden, it's definitely more of a park than actual botanical gardens but it was pretty, and it was a lovely place to spend some time in the middle of the day - the shady trees were a welcome respite from the midday sun!

I loved these beautiful flowers

I saw so many lizards today! I still can't quite get used to them being everywhere- I lost count at around 5

little photo of me and one of the lovely water fountains 

These birds are so much more common than pigeons here - aren't the cute!

There's also nearly always the odd crazy turkey running around any green space int he city!

A banyan tree (I love these trees and their aerial roots)

another lizard!

After walking throughout the gardens I headed to their southern point and then followed them up the river where there were some pretty boats moored with the skyscrapers as their backdrop

after following the river I ended up back in the city centre - so lots of old buildings to admire

The sky turned the prettiest colour as I was walking home, sadly I've yet to catch a proper sunset - I think Singapore spoilt me as they had amazing sunsets every night!

Brisbane City

Today I ventured into the main heart of Brisbane. I took the more scenic route – it’s possible to simply turn right outside the hostel and then just follow the road straight into the city but I think crossing the bridge into southbank is much prettier and takes about the same time.

My lovely view as I cross the bridge!

I love how they have these emergency stops every so often - there's water so you can have a drink or fill up your bottle, there's normally a little fact about Brisbane, and there's a button you can press if you're having an emergency (I think this is to do with the amount of runners and the heat)

On one of the bridges 

It didn’t take very long to hunt down Queenstreet – the main shopping road. Dotted along Queenstreet and George Street are not only lots of individual shops but there’s quite a few little malls and arcades too – a big bonus when it’s blistering outside and the malls have air conditioning!

I spent most of the day strolling around the shops – I love how there’s tons I don’t recognize! Once my purse was a little lighter, I crossed another bridge over to southbank.

The view from one of Brisbane's many bridges

me and the Brisbane Skyline from Southbank

I really do love how there’s such a relaxed and green space so close to the city centre, and it was here I spent the remainder of the day, enjoying the view of the skyline and generally relishing the lovely weather!!

Once again the clouds made themselves known as sunset – the sky was still very pretty though

Southbank

I was pretty tired today – I’ve avoided any serious jet lag so far, but I didn’t actually climb into bed until close to 4am so I wasn't too thrilled at getting woken up at 9am by a girl leaving.

Since I couldn’t be bothered doing too much I opted to explore the hostel and the surrounding area a little bit. The hostel has a pool, which I didn’t know about, it’s pretty small but the deck has amazing views over the river! The kitchen also leads out onto the deck so it’s a lovely little area.

the view from the hostel

After pottering about I thought I’d try to find Roma Park as the map I have seemed to show it being right opposite the hostel… It wasn’t right opposite the hostel, infact I’ve still no clue were Roma Park is. I ended up crossing the bridge and walking for half an hour along the river until I reached Southbank Park.

This was my view as I crossed the bridge- such a beautiful day

The view of the city centre from the other side of the bridge

I didn’t realize how close Southbank actually was but it’s a great green space and because I went on a Saturday (I can’t pretend this is down to my planning, I actually had no idea what day it was) there was an arts and crafts little market. Strolling around the stalls in the gorgeous heat was the perfect way to spend my first day in Brisbane.

Some really pretty buildings line the square where the market was being held

One of the craft stalls 

I picked up some melon and strawberry organic soap and then picked up a snowcone and read some of book in a shaded corner of the park. It was a lovely lazy day enjoying the park and the views of the city over the river.

This guy came over as soon as I sat down with my snow cone

So far I’ve seen 3 lizards, and 3 rather odd looking birds, although of course, there's always a few pigeons around and about!

There's also a few 'lagoon's at Southbank. They're saltwater pools with imported golden sand, I'm assuming they were so busy because it's a saturday. Anyway it's pretty cool that there's somewhere to swim and sunbathe in the middle of the city!

The park was really lovely, and there are a plethora of different cafes and restraurants surrounding it which is nice - I can already see this being the sort of place I pop by most days! There was an ice cream shop which caught my attention as not only was there a pretty big queue (normally a good sign) but there was smoke escaping out the door every so often! Anyway I thought the idea of nitrogenie was pretty cool and couldn't resist picking up one!

some of the 'smoke' starting as she made my ice cream

The finished product (I picked the honeycomb bomb alaska so I got meringue on top too)

After wandering around the park a little more with my ice cream i headed back up the river

I absolutely love this idea! they had tea, salad, and citrus plants which you could take trimmings of or the leaves/fruit. I just thought this was such a nice idea - and it's actually being used as I saw a few people picking off some tea leaves and putting them in little bags to take home!

I also saw this! It's a community bike repair station!

The Brisbane wheel

The clouds came in for the sunset sadly, but I still think this is a pretty lovely shot :)

I haven't made any real plans for Brisbane, I'm planning to just relax and wander around the city!