Day 1 16/07/2009

So Carol and I have been here for a whole 5 hours! Brisbane is beautiful.

The flight over here was amazing! I got lucky and had an emergency exit row (which means lots of room for my feet). The flight was only 13 hours. It seemed to go by very quickly. I sat next to two really nice guys from Brisbane. Michael and Adrian. Adrian gave me his left over calling card which was very sweet. So I got to make a phone call home to my mom. :) I also exchanged info with the guys so now I have two contacts from Brissy.

Carol and I managed to get past Customs. There was a sweet beagle who thought I had food in bag. Luckily there was none. :)

We got picked up and taken to our hostel. We are staying at the Yellow Submarine. We saw some sort of wild turkey there. Haha. So far it has been great!

We got our money exchanged. The money here is so pretty. The $50's are mustard yellow, the $20's are red, $10's are green and blue (my favorite), and the $5's are a pinkish purple. I kind of feel like I am in Hogwarts. (Super nerdy, I know) The money and coins here are so different! There are no pennies!

The people here are all different. There are hippies, the posh looking ones, travelers. All of that fun stuff. It has been a busy first day. It doesn't even feel real yet. Carol and I sat down at The Coffee Stop (or Spot.. something like that. I think it's like our Starbucks. I saw two on one block) and it doesn't really feel like we are truely in Australia.

It's winter here. At first Carol and I thought we were super tough... but those wind chills get cold! So we have decided we are going up North first. It's warmer there. Other than that we are just sight seeing and walking around until we pass out on our face!

We are looking into getting our picture taking with a koala. It just seems like today is not the day for it. We look like we have been on a plane for 13 hours! Haha. We must look horrible cause a salon lady offered to cut our hair. Haha.

The city itself is quite pretty. There is a mix of old buildings and new ones. I love it. There are beautiful old churches and high skyscrapers.

With all the accents I hear now I feel like I am already getting use to them. It's tough for me not to go around trying to copy the way the Australians speak.

Oh! And the cars are all backwards. The drivers seat is where the passenger sits. It's like bizarro world. It was strange to climb in on the left and not have a wheel in front of me. I don't plan on ever driving here. I would always want to drive on the opposite side of the road!

Until Tomorrow!