Brisbane

Today is our third day in Brisbane and was the busiest by far. Our first day was very low key, we pretty much kept to the hostel after flying in. Our second day, we did a little grocery shopping, took a dip in the pool and went for a really nice walk through the city. Brisbane is built around the Brisbane river in the middle of the eastern coast. There are tons of bridges, 4 we can see from our hostel. We walked through downtown, along the river and through their botanical garden. A few trends we're noticing about Australian cities: 1.Beautiful gardens full of plants, trees and birds we have never seen and cant stop staring at.2. Very clean and well kept. 3. Great beaches! Even if there aren't any natural beaches they will make amazing sand covered pools laden with palm trees and fountains (Beaches also contain all the details of trend #1).4. Awesome architecture.5. Very friendly people.6. Extremely expensive coffee, also brewed coffee is practically non-existent.
* Trend disclaimer* We have only been in 3 cities, all major, so our observations are probably extremely biased. Anyway, back to today. We walked for what felt like 20 miles over the 9 hours we where out exploring the city. First we went to St. John Cathedral; The most amazing church Ive ever seen... by far. Its the biggest Gothic cathedral in the southern hemisphere, but don't quote me on that. It is a classic French Gothic style cathedral. It took a 103 years to build and was finished last year. It was made of all stone, has a vaulted ceilings with stone ribs and was enormous. This combined with amazing windows, choir pews that took 60 years to carve, and an art exhibition from the guy who created the speedo suspended in the arches (Don't worry it was rated G). I'm glad i brought a big memory card for my camera.
After this we walked across the river to the mall. It was 3 blocks long with an outdoor courtyard to match. We walked through the farmers market then back across the river to hang out in the sun at their beach. A little more exploring took us to the museum, which was a great one, and free i might add. We only had 30 minutes there till it closed. Then we crossed the river again and watched the sun set from the bridge. Then back to the hostel where we made dinner and showered. At this moment we are , quite fittingly, listening to "i come from a land down under" and getting ready to go share a pitcher. Its 9 pm here and 3 am there, have a good morning!