Brisbane, Queensland

I spent the first part of my Australia trip last November 2013 in Brisbane, Queensland, where I visited with a good friend of mine that I met online many years back. No trip to Australia would be complete without finally meeting her!

And so I had my first glimpses of Australian city life. It was summertime and it felt like summertime in Brisbane. It is the third most populous city in Australia and the city hugs the Brisbane river, for which it is named. We took the CityCat a few times. I didn’t realize the “Cat” stood for “catamaran”. I had been wondering why it was called a cat, when it looked nothing like a cat to me. The Brisbane river is wide and vast and fantastic. There are sharks in it. We didn’t see any.

The City Hall was newly renovated. They had an exhibit on the history of the river.

Also on display then, was Stephen Hart’s Fellow Humans exhibit, where he takes 3D models of real people and creates a miniature version of them. Tools, process, and anecdotes line the walls of the room. I always love interesting sculpture work.

We also did a lot of walking outside. At some point we got a little lost, but thankfully my friend has a map-view brain as opposed to my street-view one.

Here, have some steak from Cove Bar and Dining. Cove steak, chips, and salad — 250g John Dee rib fillet, kipfler potatoes, shallot sour cream, bacon powder (that tasted nothing like bacon), and mustard cress salad.

We also went to Shingle Inn at the Brisbane City Hall, which was done up so nice and lovely. I had Confit Duck Maryland circa 1950’s — duck with watercress and orange salad, served with a seeded mustard vinaigrette. Delicious, falling-off-the-bone duck, tangy salad. Perfect. And a banoffee pie, which was to die for.

It’s so good it deserves an in-progress shot. I mean, look at that inside. Heavenly.

Goodbye, Brisbane. Maybe someday I’ll be back :)