Brisbane so far has been extraordinary. It had been dreary and raining up until i got here and yesterday and today have been beautiful. The air temperature here is very nice but the sun is super intense. i've already got a bit of a sunburn. after the last post i took a walk down the river side for probably like a mile or two then went and checked in at what is probably the best hostel in the city. I say the best because its down a suburban street and the neighbors don't want a huge party hostel so it attracts more chilled out people. plus from the front porch there is an awesome view of the suburbs on the hill/mountains just outside of town. If you want to go and hang out at the pub its only two blocks away but it is really nice to have cool people to hang out with who wont also steal your stuff. 

 All the houses around town have all their doors and windows just wide open. There aren't really any bugs which is weird considering how tropical the weather and the plants seem. There are flowers and fruiting trees everywhere populated by really weird birds and by tons and tons of little lizards. Lucy would be right at home here. This city (and perhaps more of australia) seems to have struck a good balance between nature and civilization. All the buildings and even many of the houses in surrounding suburbs have very modern designs and yet all of the yards and parks seem to be exploding with life. Huge tropical flowers and all kinds of birds everywhere. There is so much more diversity to the life even in just the downtown area than the sparrows crows and squirrels that you find at home. 

If anyone needed proof that this really is just a pale blue dot, i have it for you. Last night i hung out with my next door neighbor from home. She has been traveling around australia for the past few months and was just passing through Brisbane for the night on her way to Sydney. It was nice to catch up for a bit even if it was brief. 

Everyone here is friendly and personable, i think the warm open tropical atmosphere really gets to you after a while. Besides my neighbor, i haven't met any americans, most people at this hostel (if they arent from elsewhere in australia) seem to be either New Zealanders or British. There are also a lot of Germans and a few Irish guys. Today i learned that there was a huge National Forest and botanical park a few kilometers from town and i was able to talk a german friend of mine into walking there with me. The original plan was to walk there and see the botanical gardens and then hike up to the top of Mount Coot-Tha which is connected to it but by the time we got done with the huge and beautiful gardens we were so hot and tired that we just took the bus back. 

This spider was attacking from the sky.

I am starting a list of interesting/cool/generally noteworthy things that i find here. I promise that i will add more than just weird types of animals and plants. Although that is a large part of it. anyway in no particular order

Cool things in Australia:

1. Half submerged trees (i think they grew that way)

2. Walking on the left side of the sidewalk (because they drive on the left i guess they walk on the left as well)

3.Birds that sound like monkeys (i havent seen the birds yet but i've heard them and i don't think that there are any monkies here.)

4. Not only do a lot of the houses leave there doors and windows open but i've seen several stores that only seem to have three walls or are at least very open to the outside.

5. the crosswalk button at traffic lights makes a really satisfying click sound when you push it. 

6. they still have pay phones here

7. there do seem to be cicadas here but there must be a rule that says "only one cicada per tree and only one cicada can make noise at a time." because i haven't heard more than one at a time.

8. Mint sauce? (i saw rows of this at the grocery store and a british guy here said it's a british thing. still im kind of iffy. he said it goes good on beef)

9. im not sure if this is a general australian thing but the swimming pool at this hostel has salt water in it.

10. kiwis are really good here. the ones i got from the grocery store yesterday were so green they were almost blue. M-O-O-N that spells delicious.