In the square at Brisbane near our hotel, with a random church between the skyscrapers.

By the time we got to Brisbane we were pretty spaced out, with the small issue of a 9 hours ahead time difference just to totally finish us off! We landed at 6.30am on Wednesday 27th July after taking off from Leeds/Bradford at 6.45pm on the Monday! Little did we know as the incompetent check-in assistant smiled at us in Leeds that he had only tagged our luggage to Singapore, meaning that we were at the other side of the world with no suitcases. Strangely we were quite calm about the whole thing, as anyone who knows me knows that these things happen quite frequently in my life!! They gave us $200AUD which is about £90 between us to buy some clothes with which was Ok. We were quite excited about the driver with a proper hat and uniform on, holding a 'CYGAN' sign (unbelievably spelt correctly) as we came through arrivals, he then walked us to a limo (sadly not a stretch) and we had our first conversations with an aussie bloke, with us trying to speak 'proper' so that he could tell what we were saying. Of course, he mentioned the cricket.

After flying from Leeds, we then flew on the 10.10pm from London Heathrow on Monday night, into Singapore on the Tuesday afternoon and then flying onto Brisbane a few hours later. Whilst at Singapore airport for 3 hours we managed to fit in a massage and shower at a spa in the airport - THOROUGHLY reccomended!!! And at a very reasonable price.

We were staying at the Carlton Crest hotel in Brisbane for a few days, which I would recommend for anyone who visits us. It's very nice, 5 star, only the best! It is also right in the centre of Brisbane. As we got to the hotel ridiculously early in the morning, then they were never going to have a room ready, so off we plodded into the city in our 3 day old clothes - mmm.

The first place we ate was a true Australian place called 'Subway' - oh yes, almost as bad as McDonalds!! Then came the problem of needing to buy clothes but not actually having a clue what clothes shops are good/cheap/should be avoided. Also, because everyone (as we come to find more and more) is so darn nice all the time, then you can't just wander into a shop and drift out without having a huge converstaion about where we came from, how long we were here for and the fact we were shopping for clothes because our suitcases were still in Singapore ("hey, Sheila, get this, they're from England right, they've been in Australia for a few hours, their luggage is in Singapore so they're shopping for clothes and they're stood here so calm, wow"). We eventually found a kind of Topshop/man equivalant and bought some stuff. We had been told, by one of our friendly shop assistants, to go and walk on South Bank by the river that runs through Brisbane, so off we plodded in the searing heat (yes, this is their winter) in our jeans armed with a bottle of water. Apparantly there is a man-made city beach by the river and people swim and everything. South Bank is beautiful, lined with posh restaurants and a casino at one side, and across the river is a path all the way along passing cafes, rainforest walks, and baeutiful landscaping and then on to the beach... but we didn't make it that far, the heat, the excitement and the jetlag all gave us a big kick and we reluctantly had to turn back and beg the hotel to let us have a room slightly earlier than the rules allow. We decided, being the sun worshippers that we are, to utilise our sleep and the fact it was sunny, by going up to the pool on the roof of the 16-storey hotel and sleeping up there. This was great for a while, sunbathing in the centre of Brisbane! We then went back to the room for a nap, and ended up having a good 4 hours of sleep and waking up feeling totally washed out truly not knowing whether it was 6.00 in the morning or the evening. There was absolutely no way we could go to any of the wonderful city restaurants, instead we staggered to the hotel restaurant, which was very nice - for those of you who will repeat this story on your own travels!
So, that was out first day in Australia, the start of our big adventure!