Day 4 - Brisbane

Before I expound on our brief Brisbane experience, let me just clarify that I did a poor job planning this trip. First of all, Mike and I our probably not the best travel partners - at least in terms of finding things to do together. I'm more of an outdoors, adventurous kind of guy. Mike enjoys walking around different towns, checking out the storefronts and buildings. Secondly, on the type of trip we embarked on, where we didn't spend more than two days in a location, it is important to plan activities in advance, because if you don't, you might not be able to put together an agenda at the last minute. Another mistake of mine. So in many of the places we traveled to we simply ended up walking around, partaking in quaint activities.

Brisbane could have been better. Could have been worse. Upon arriving, we quickly found a bar in which to watch the end of the Tigers' Game 1 win over the A's. I was convinced the series would still be going when I returned to Sydney, but I still wanted to catch as much action as possible. After taking a good half hour to find our hostel, Melvin and I walked down to the Botanical Gardens, hopin' to rent bikes and take them around the city. It was the best we could do with the little time we had. We found a place and enjoyed a scenic, two-hour ride up and down the Yarra River. It was nice. When I'm on a bike, I have fun. Period.

But that was about it for Brisbane. For some reason, I was tired that night. After a nice dinner in a restaurant that was showing SportsCenter - big thumbs up - and a waffle cone sundae,I returned to the hostel and crashed.

There was nothing to the next day. I woke up, ate a continental breakfast, found the same bar across from the bus station, watched sever innings of baseball... and then had to hurry to the bus. On the way to Surfer's Paradie, Bust gave me play-by-play of a nerve-racking bottom-of-the-9th-inning. Bases loaded. Frank "Big Hurt" Thomas at the plate. A's down by 3. Two out. And he popped out. Yes! Tigers up 2-0.