Australia - on my own

Ok, time for a bit more on our Australia trip.
While Dave met with various people and presented at the conference and attended the conference I wandered around the city. It was great fun.
The first day I went out I walked across the bridge to the Queensland library and museum. It was a fun trip and I learned a lot about Australia. I learned about explorers, historians, mining of Opals, the wool industry cowboys, WW2 and Australia, interesting early vehicles made in Australia, the first boat to go around the world with only one man. I learned about the unique Queenslander house too. Up on stilts to prevent water damage and to let air circulate to keep it cool in the heat of summer. In fact, I did then notice that most of the houses were indeed up on stilts with garage and storage space under, closed off with lattice or nothing at all. Needless to say, not many houses like our large ones here. Nope. Not many at all. Not much on Aboriginal culture for which I was disappointed. I also wanted to know more about the colonization of Australia.  I did learn all about the Unofficial national anthem of Australia. Waltzing Matilda. What is that? Well, waltzing is taking a long walkabout, you know and a Matilda is a wanderer who carries his bed roll and a pack. Like a hobo here, also called a swagman in Australia. If  you are interested in this you can check out these sites for more interesting info than I have space and time here. Really interesting. link 1, link 2, link 3. Walking home I found the greatest farm market day! WOW it was terrific. I got lunch there and felt so happy. It reminded me of the markets here but gave me the good feelings of the markets in Bolivia where we used to live. It was a good outing.

The eggs were HUGE! We also noted that whenever we ate eggs the yolks were Orange, not yellow. I asked the seller about this. She said older chickens lay larger eggs. They grow their own wheat and feed their chickens that. What makes them orange? Don't know. What kind of chickens? Just your standard chicken.

Fire bike

The next day I did this, I took the city bus to a town called  New Farm and looked at an Antique mall there. I found some fun stuff and it was fun to compare American antiques to Australian ones. Then I took the bus over to Paddington to look at an antique mall. I found some fun treasures there too. A previous day I had been to the Queensland museum and I had seen a teddy bear called Tambo Teddy and wanted to see if I could buy one. I had been asking around and no one seemed to know what I was talking about. I thought maybe in a town called Paddington there would be a bear fanatic who would know. There was! I was directed to the Teddy Bear shop, a wonderful charming shop full of exquisite teddys of all kinds. I walked about 25 min. from the Antique mall to the Bear shop. No Tambo Teddy. But, it was the first person who DID know what I was talking about. Tambo Teddy is made by hand by a group of sheep rancher wives in the town of Tambo. You have to go to Tambo to buy one. Their shop is only open at select times. They have a web site. You should go look at these adorable woolen teddys. I really did not want to leave without him but alas time was short, the trip long and expensive and they were not open anyway. Too bad. Tambo teddy has to stay in Australia. Is he not the cutest little thing, all decked out for a trip to the outback. I think he is ready to be a little Waltzin' Matilda. That was my adventure for the day and it was a fun one.

That evening we went to eat on the Queen Street mall and The Salvation Army band was playing Christmas songs outside. It was great. Palm trees, balmy weather and not a snow flake or crisp air wave in sight and Christmas was loud and clear and the band drawing applauding crowds. The evenings down on the mall are hoppin'! There are usually lots of singles and lots of teens. Not quite like our big city crowds. I felt totally safe all the time. These kids we saw that night were standing in a group HELPING a couple of young adults who were disabled and could not seem to locate who they were or where they should be. They were on the cell getting help. Not making fun of or teasing,  not leaving them there to just be...... they were getting help. This was the feeling I got all over the place. The good of the community, not the good of me. Needless to say I was impressed with the spike haired, chain wearing low, tight pants wearing kids who did what I would not have expected. I guess it goes without saying, but I will say it anyway. The inside is what counts. Don't judge a book by it's cover, etc....
Here are some photos of the Market day, museum, and a very cool swimming pool.  (Snapfish).

maps of my outings.

The other time I went out like this I walked all over. (lower map blue arrows) The bus was on Saturday schedule and not many were running. So, I walked down to the Botanic Gardens. They were so pretty. Then I walked across the bridge and found the most beautiful walking tunnel of flowers and a long park along the river. There was another market there, called a lifestyle market. Jewelry, crafts, clothing, etc. There were also shops all along the way. There was a maternity store called Egg. Cute. They had the cutest stuffed animals made by Momma's and Poppa's. I also discovered the most amazing swimming pool I have ever seen. It is a man made lagoon of sorts with three or four sections all connected for different age groups. There is actually a beach and there are water features everywhere. What was most amazing is that this pool outdoes every pool at Disney world and it is their PUBLIC pool and it is FREE. How very cool is that.
Then I took the city ferry down the river to the far side of the city. I got out there and walked up to Ann St. and toured a magnificent church and took photos of several others. I then met Dave back at the hotel and we walked down to the mall and over the bridge to the Southbank again so he could see the pool and market and we ate dinner over there and enjoyed the view of the city. There were a bunch of Christmas parties for groups of all kinds. Families, kids, work, school (like Prom at the end of the school year). This is the end of the term and in Feb. they go back for the next grade. We walked back to the mall for some last minute shopping and then back to the hotel for our last night in the terrible horrible no good very bad bed, that really was good enough but not at all soft. Side note here: It is interesting to note that everywhere it was Christmas holiday and Merry Christmas and not once did I see or hear Happy Holidays or summer break. The schools were all on Christmas Holiday, and everyone everywhere said Merry Christmas to us. Just thought that was interesting.

There was also a big Cricket match that last weekend. It lasted four days. It was a big deal and lots of places were shut down for it. There were people wearing their team colors and in fact I saw a group of three  wearing bright yellow suits in yellow.
The judges wear a interesting outfit too. The long black robe that ours wear is the same. Under that they wear a black vest with tails and white blouse with the ruffles at the neck. They wear a grey powdered wig of the colonial sort. Even the female judges wore this same outfit with their skirt. I was a bit taken a back when I was crossing the street the opposite direction as a large number of them were headed the other way. Wigs in hand or on their heads, robes and tails flapping. Quite the sight.

 City hall

 Bike rental station

 hall of flowers in South bank

 Memorial to Anzac soldiers of WW2

 Pie Face, the most yummy bakery. We ate breakfast here a few times.

 sculptures from the world fair in the 80's

 typical Queenslander house

 city from the cultural center near South Bank. Our hotel was in the city buildings there just across the river from where I took this photo near the Queensland library and museum.

 river ferry

 these are of the very cool pool.

 city and walking bridge and ferry

 Brisbane

A few other obervations that I made:
while crocs and Uggs are very popular here in the states, I saw stores for these Australian shoes but saw very few people wearing them. I did get some comments on the interesting nature and potential comfort of my Keens, but they had never heard of them. The general style is far more formal. They call it "smart casual" and that is what most wear in the day. Night is another story, but still not so casual as here. Maybe like the East Coast.

On the topic of fashion, the kids of ALL schools wear a school uniform. It makes our school uniform look like guidelines. The girls wear a skirt and a blouse or a jumper. They all wear the same thing on the same day. The boys have shorts and a button down shirt. They have ties and hats. This is for kids of all ages. There are sport clothing too for gym and after school activities. This is sport shorts and a jersey looking like a sport jersey all fitting the kid not baggy and not tight. Each school has it's own color scheme and that is what the uniform was. The kids regularly ride the bus and train system to and from school. There are no school buses.

The Queen Street mall was close to us and we went down there most evenings. We found that while on the outside it looked like a large scale 16th Street mall like in Denver, there was much more to it than that. A building that said Arcade on the outside actually indicated a huge shopping center inside that historic building. They kept the outsides in tact and ripped out the insides creating huge modern shopping malls. One, the Myer Center, was, I kid you not, 5 or more levels of shopping. Ok, maybe big cities have this sort of thing, but not in Colorado.  (oh and there was a business group called Colorado and a clothing store called Colorado). I was fascinated by the shopping area being so large and such a surprise when you went in these big old buildings,  but too busy seeing other things to really go explore that.
They have Target and K mart, McDonalds and Starbucks and Subway. They have Woolworths, a grocery store. There are no stores that are mega marts. You have to go to the grocery for food, to the drug store for meds and shampoo, etc. and you have to go to the clothing store for clothing, etc..... In fact one grocery that I did go to had no meat and no bread. Next to it there was a meat market, a bakery and a drug store. Pretty interesting. So, while you could go to the same center for it all they were all separate stores.

Here are some photos of the River that flows through Brisbane, this link sends you to the Snapfish file.
Here are some photos of the city Brisbane (Snapfish).