Brisbane take 2

So after a few 'good byes' it was time to leave Byron and head for the big city lights to earn some proper cash (only after I'd managed to bust my ankle good and proper on a sand bank in the sea that morning). My friend Tim dropped me off at my hostel and I was greeted with the warm silence or should I say glares from a massive croud of Korean guys. Turns out the place was run by a really nice chinese lady called Nancy and so it attracts a big Asian community. Our first thoughts were to run away and find somewhere else as a seemingly rather odd Kiwi and French guy were sharing our dorm to boot the bizarre welcome we got to the place. However after a few drinks on our second night (thought it only best to be sociable) we made friends with a crazy Nothern Lass called Kerry or "Kewwwwiiee" as the Koreans like to say. Turns out we made probably some of the best friends ever in this place and most of them being Korean!!
We had a huge BBQ the following week with a variety of English/Aussie and Korean dishes which was amazing....I learnt how to make Korean Pizza!! (nothing like ours!).

Anyone who has checked my pics out on myspace will have seen our new friends from our rather drunken nights out in 'The Valley'.........only a couple had mind but lots of pics.

So down to the serious stuff of work! It took Dan a good few weeks to find work but with nursing it seems pretty easy to sign up with an agency and start right away that is if you have all the paperwork which the UK seem to like to hold onto!! Finally with all the documents in place I started work in a small hospital on the south side of Brisbane. Small but friendly is the best way to describe the place. The only downside was the 45min journey each way I had to endure and so managed to rent a room in a place round the corner from the hospital....that is another story in itself with the crazy land lord who appears at anytime as he is doing maintenance and with all the water restrictions STRICT 4min showers ONLY and no running of the taps unnecessarily and the endless lectures about the cleaning roster being enforced since there were 8 of us in the house blah blah blah blah blah....you get the drift.

On the few days off we had we tried to see as much as we could and get out of the city....mainly being Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary where we got to feed the Kangaroos and hold a Koala (Violet) of which you will see if you check out my pics!!

So after 6 weeks or so enough is enough, the 'cold' weather is too much and we're slowly being driven insane with the whole work and house situation we decide to rent a car for a weekend and head off into the sunset....well not exactly but Noosa is near enough.We finish work on the friday and take a drive to Eumundi. Starving and tired we look for a place to eat and sleep but hold on....we're now officially living in small town world and everything shuts super early or the local take away runs out of pizza dough so they shut up shop for the night! The only place left is a nice looking contemporary place who squeezed us in before closing the kitchen once they realised we were not locals. Dan being of the fussy sorts didn't particularly like anything on the menu but out of desperation opted for lamb whilst I had tofu...now you know the kind of place we are in!! Being slowy sucked in by the lure of the friendly owners we had pudding and got talking....really not a good idea when they start to ask where you are staying for the night!! With no place to go we spoke honestly and out of 'generosity' they booked us a room in a local B&B or should we say 'Country House'. A lovely place with a price tag to boot but to be honest by this point we were past caring and wanted to sleep anywhere other than our tiny Hyundai Getz!!

After probably one of the best nights sleep in ages we had breakfast on the balcony with the birds tweeting in what seemed like a private rainforest in the back garden. Armed with maps and some local knowledge we headed for the Eumundi markets where thousands of people travel to see in this tiny one street town. The sun beating down on us we almost thought it was summer when we left town however the the large black cloud that appeared out of nowhere soon put us right and the mist severely obstructed our veiw over the hills and out to sea as we headed for a lookout high above sea levels to get some pics. Sadly as we drove around to the next destination on the list the rain poured and didn't stop for the next 7 days!!! Feeling more down in the dumps than when we set off on our trip we briefly stopped at the Glasshouse Mountains to watch some kangaroos in the forest before heading back to the city ready for our last week at work.

Inspiration came in the form of a call of nature as we delivered the car to the depot at the airport and headed into the terminal for the bathroom...."why not get a cheap flight somewhere out of Brissie?". And so to Darwin!!!