Steve and Jane, who I worked for in Sydney and Russia, came up the night before I left Noosa, and it was good to see them again - this time without the warm weather gear and vodka, but with their randy dog. Steve took me to the bus stop, following the Greyhound for some of the way. I met Rachel on the bus, who I last saw in Cape Tribulation, and we caught up on what we'd both done since (similar stuff, since the backpacking route is a fairly well-trodden one) and hoiked our heavy packs from the transit centre to the hostel in Brisbane (which was next to both a strip club and a church - best not to get them mixed up I would imagine).

Brisbane is a terrific city: built on a river, with pedestrian malls, quiet streets and parks. The South Bank is a newly developed area with a bougainvillea arbour and lots of market stalls and entertainment. We tried some chocolate bananas, which we reckon could really catch on, and checked out the Botanical Gardens.

In the evening, we got tickets to an AFL game (match?) between the Brisbane Lions and the Melbourne Demons at a stadium named "The Gabba." I quite fancied going to the rugby union international between Australia and France as everyone was all dressed in Wallabies shirts and hyped up for it, but it turned out it was $90 a ticket, so that pretty much decided it. It took us a while to figure out which bus to get to the grounds and we ended up trailing a couple in their seventies who were all decked out in Brisbane Lions gear. The man was a bit like Yoda and answered all our stupid questions with equanimity. The match (game? I'll cover my bases here) was great, although it didn't make much sense to me. People seemed to be cheering at different times and we couldn't work out why until we realised fans from the opposing team were mixed in with the home crowd. There were lots of water boys running on to the pitch all the time, except that one 'boy' seemed to have a hard time keeping up as he was a good twenty years older than the others and had a substantial girth. They would hang around on the field while the game continued around them, and there were coaches in day-glo outfits bumbling around as well. It seemed like there were more hangers-on than players sometimes. Our favourite player was called Jason Akamennis, and had Beckham-style bright yellow shoes and bleached blonde hair. We kept necking the beers (and made our very own mini beer snake) and got quite rowdy in our cheering, but still none the wiser as to the rules. At the end of the game, we sang along to the Brisbane Lions song (which appeared to be to the tune of the Marseillaise) and then stormed the pitch with the rest of them.

The next day, I watched a parade in honour of Reserve Armed Forces Day, then did my museum thang - going to the Museum of Brisbane, the Museum of Queensland and the brilliant Queensland Art Gallery - then on a river cruise. We had a great dinner in Brunswick Street and then went back to the pubs on Caxton Road.