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!