This is Brizzy Baby

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Our bus got into to brizzy at 6:30am. GOD. We stumbled out of the bus trying to figure out where to go (you might say we had our baby eyes on, if ya know what i mean). We made our way to our next hostel a block from the terminal, called Tinbilly. Alyssa and I checked in while Anu tried bargaining with the desk clerk to have him hold on to her luggage. She wasnt staying the night so he said no.

We all went up stairs and found our room. It was an 8 person share with 4 bunk beds and an ensuite bathroom. Anu took a shower and Alyssa and I took a nap. I woke up around 8:45am and tried to nudge Alyssa. She wanted to take a shower before we went out and she kept saying shed get up in a bit. When a bit became too long I told her we would meet with her when she was ready. The whole room sleeping I went out to find Anu.

After talking to the people at the desk we decided to go to the Brisbane Museum of Modern Art. It was closed when we got there so after some walking around we found the Brizzy Library and Anu sat down to eat Cheesecake and a sandwich for brekky at 9am.

Here are some cool art pieces I came upon while we were meandering/trying to lose time till we waited for the Art museum to open at 10am.




She finished her brekky and after some walking around we made it to the M.M.A. They had an exhibit there on Versache (sp?) but neither of us wanted to spend the time waiting in the line to pay for an overly priced ticket, so we went to see the free exhibits. We parted ways in the museum bc she didnt want to see a display of the wining pieces of an art competition. I got a phone call from Alyssa somewhere while I was in the museum bc she wanted to tell me she was going to go on a walking tour of the city at 12. I wanted to join her but I also wanted to see a bit more so I told her to go and I would meet up with her.

Here are some of the art pieces I saw and could sneak a photo of.

L: "this bag will not change the world" -soo true. How many people spend heaps of money on shit that in the end doesnt matter... Like spending thousands of dollars on Gucci purses will actually have a good effect on the world. well not really. ive got my coach purse like everyone else tho. C: a winner of one of the competitions. R: an optical illusion, looks like its round but its just a painting on a wall.







L: different types and colors of paintbrushes.

R: flip-flops with directions on how to put on a condom....????





I got through a bit of the museum and was just about to call Anu to let her know the plans when I ran into her. She wanted to stay and finish the museum, and she didnt like walking tours anyway so I went to go meet up with Alyssa on my own.

Image from when I crossed the bridge over the Brisbane River.

I met up with her near the clock in brizzy central. I missed the intro but I jumped in as soon as I could. First thing I saw with the tour guide was a memorial for South West Pacific Campaign.

1942-1945 This memorial depicts a wounded Australian solder descending the Kokoda Trail assisted by a strong dependable Papua New Guinean leading him to Safety. They arr being passed by a fresh, determined solder resolute in the task ahead. - Japan was going to invade Australia so they decided to meet them before they got to their soil during the Gallipoli event of WWI. Japanese were already on the island of P.N. Guinea when the australians arrive and were meet by a steep wall. It took days for them to get over it and during that time Japs were at an advantage to wound the Aussies. Once Australia finally made it over, it was the fuzzy wuzzy angels who helped them. Named for their fuzzy hair and the divine intervention that they gave, Australian soldiers were helped back to health and taken around the island. Although food parcels, weapons and such were dropped on the Island for the soldiers to use, they were ofter handed into the wrong hands bc the trees were so thick and the planes didnt know where to drop the parcels.

This is the Australian Seal. It has the kangaroo and emu on it because like australia, these animals cannot walk backwards. Australia is constantly moving forewards, just like the animals on the crest.


Stairs to the ANZAC Square war memorial Shrine of Remembrance with Eternal Flame inside. There are 19 stairs in the the front and 18 on the sides for the year 1918, the year of peace.


Here is the good ol' bottle tree, named so because it looks like a bottle. The tree is filled with water which comes out in the form of goo. Sometimes the goo is extremely slippery and ppl fall on their bums when they step on it. Other times the goo is sticky and people get stuck to the goo. Either way, its not the most pleassant and shouldnt be placed where individuals walk. At one point they used the bottle tree as a sort of jail- cutting out a hole, letting the water drain out, and placing people inside (yes sometime more than one).


This is an overlook on top of the ANZAC memorial area.

At this point in the tour I got a text from my sister, asking me, if i was still alive, to call them at home. I proceeded to call them and I talked to them for a couple of minutes while he talked about poison animals and such.

Here is an image of the Brisbane Arcade, this comes with an interesting story....

In 1848, a man rowing up the Brisbane River saw a body. At least, parts of it. It was just the legs and the loins of a man. That was at seven o'clock. It took them another hour to find the upper part of the body which was in long grass. Eventually they found the head, propped up so it would look at whoever found it. And then, horror upon horrors, over the -- the, um, milk and butter and cheese in the well behind the hotel, there were the entrails decorating them.

The body (parts) belonged to a man, Mr Cox who had been boozing in the Bush Inn for a couple of hours. He was known to be rich, but no one knew where his money was. A man named Fyfe was imprisoned for the murder and even to his death bed, he claimed he was innocent. Fyfe was hung for the murder of Cox.

A year after Mr. Cox's death, Patrick Mayne, a slaughtermen, produced exactly the amount of money that had been robbed from the murder victim to buy land for his butcher business on Queen St. Every time he made another 10 shillings, he bought an acre or two of property around town. Eventually, he owned about a thousand acres in the CBD. He was one of the richest men in the colony. He became one of the foundation aldermen of the municipality of Brisbane. But it became pretty evident, in his last years, that all was not well with Patrick. He was vicious, he used to hit people with his stock-whip, and signs of madness were pretty clear.

When he did die in 1865, ah, it had been so evident that he was mentally disturbed that Mary, his wife, decided that it would be better if the children at no time married. Patrick Mayne said, in his confession, that he'd murdered a man for whom the wrong person had been hanged. He had all 6 of his children promise not to have offspring. 2 of his children were mentally ill, 2 others committed suicide. The other 2 didnt get married or have children, the guilt of what their father did laid heavy on their hearts. They were rich children because of their father and decided to give much of their wealth back to the city. They built the Brizzy Arcade, and all of the stores within it do not have to pay for the shop room.


The Queen, enough said. (but why does she need a purse???? surly there is someone who works for her that can carry her lipstick and powder?)


This is "the red light district" reminds me of a song.... Red light district by LUDACRIS!!!!
Anyway.... (going from memory) during the war (idk which one) they found that their soldiers were a bit restless. Why? Because they werent getting the love they needed from a woman. Apparently there was a lack of women in Brizzy so they sent out adverts to Melb and Sydney for prostitutes to come and make a life. The idea was that they would have the men burn off steam with the prostitutes and then come to work, refreshed and ready to focus. Some of them realized that if you contracted an STD you didnt have to be in the war, so then men were purely having sex to get an STD to get out of the war. Genius


This is parliament of Queensland.

Flags on the L are Australian flag and Queensland flag.

Flags on the R are Indigenous and Torres Straight islander flags.






This is the old Prime Ministers house known as the Old Government House, that is until it became haunted.... The famous lemignton was "discovered" here when the PM had guests over and asked the cook to whip up something. With nothing really fantastic in the cupboards she was forced to get creative with some stale cakes and such. She came out with a dessert that pleased every one. When asked what it was called said it was called the Lemington, after the prime minister. Years and years later the secretary was in the house along with two builders who were upstairs fixing something or other. They both came down in a fuss crying and screaming, the one rushed to her and the other rushed outside to throw up. They said that they had both seen a ghost. When prompted what the ghost looked like they described the likes of an old butler. When shown a picture of different people they both pointed to the same butler who couldnt have been alive and haunting the house. She told them this and they both ran on the double out of the house, leaving their tools behind. After a few more "sightings" the house PM moved to a different house, and the old government house was given up.

After seeing this we took a long walk, over a bridge and on the other side of the river. He concluded his tour as it began to rain and we called up Anu to see where she was at. We ran into her and told her that we had been told that they had movies for cheap and since it was raining...
We found the movie theater and there wasnt anything showing until an hour later. Alyssa and I bought our tickets for "girl who plays with fire" but anu didnt bc she had to catch her plane at that time. Till the movie time we went to the Brizzy museum.


This is Muttaburrasaurus langdoni- roamed the australian landscpae about 100 million years ago. the dinosaur is known from three species from norhtern and western Queensland. This dino is known for his big as nose or nasal chamber which they suggest either increase the animals sense of smell or allowing it to vocalize and communicate with other members of its species.

We saw some really well done bugs (always thinking of you john). center are the biggest roaches (yay).









After seeing this we had to run to the movies. We parted ways with Anu, and she parted with my 20$. We had to stop at a muffin shop for Alyssa but we got to the theater on time. the movie cost us 5$!!! seriously!! It was a good movie.

Afterwards we walked back to tinbilly. They were supposed to have a bbq for us and they did, I had two sausages to alyssas 1. we made friends with a guy at our table who was from Oklahoma or something. He was in a wedding in Port Douglas. Funny thing is, we both remember seeing a bride coming out of a church, she had blue shoes on which was funny. Apparently it was one in the same. Alyssa went up to write some post cards but I stayed at the bar to talk with whats his name and enjoy the live music. Alyssa came down like an hour later and we went to get me a slurpee. Alyssa went upstairs again and I chilled at the bar some more. At about 11pm I decided to go to bed. I got to my hostel room and it was like a party. Booze everywhere and people too. So much for going to bed. I had some drinks with them, then showered (last time i took a real shower was on the island on sunday night. today is wednesday... god. After the shower I had a few more drinks, some laughs with the ppl and then everyone seemed to head out. I went to bed around 2 which gave me about 4 hours bf wake up....