Back to Brissie

Apologies for the long wait. I stopped writing while at the winery, as I found out Tony, the owner, was reading through my posts and felt uncomfortable keeping it up knowing he was following my every comment. Not that I had anything negative to talk about. I just found it a bit nosy and inappropriate.
So, the second week at the winery was more of the same really. We kept bottling different wines, and that's what we really enjoyed - you get to do the whole process, from rinsing and sterilizing the empty bottles, to filling them, to bottling them, to taking them down to the cellar-door. Trudie and Tony are experimenting with making cocoa port, so we contributed by spending 4 hours peeling cocoa beans. Sounds bad, but was actually pretty enjoyable. Elena and I just sat and chatted and listened to the customers wine tasting outside. We got a couple of good weather days, and sunbathed in the orchard. We made paella one night, and it tasted as good as my Mum's, so we were pretty chuffed. It was quite hard filling out the day with things to do, so sometimes I worked in the afternoon, alternatively I just slept - was probably a good idea, good sleep reserves in preparation for Brisbane and the return of the backpacker lifestyle.
And I tell you, feels good being back in the city. We were amazed at seeing so many people and being back in civilization. Cafes and bars, cars, life. We flew on Saturday from Cairns to Brisbane, a two hour flight to cover the distance we'd initially traveled in several days. It felt weird getting on a plane, almost as if we were returning home. But we're so happy we've had these couple of days to catch up with the city and also to see people we met here and amazingly, bump into people we met on our way up north. On Saturday night we saw Steve and Nick, some Australian guys we met on our last night in Brisbane last time. They're really fun and were really happy to see us again. We went to a house party in the suburbs and chatted to other Aussies and didn't get much sleep. On Sunday we got up early and went to the Brisbane Museum. Its arrangement of displays was a bit mystifying but it was enjoyable overall. The best bit were the genuine specimens of wild-life (dead obviously). We saw box jelly-fish, red back spiders, taipan snakes... the deadliest creatures in Australia. We did our best at reading all the information panels, but it was a little bit too much for our hungover brains, but it's the intention that counts. We then headed for Brisbane's fake beach, which sounds pretty tacky but is surprisingly attractive. The water is pristine, and the juxtaposition of beach, river and skyscrapers makes a nice change from your everyday scene. We sunbathed for most of the day then had some food in McDonalds (don't ask), and relaxed in the hostel. At night we went to Ryan's (one of the Brits we met at Rainbow beach) old Brisbane apartment and gained access to the steam room and jacuzzi, which was such a great day of ending the day, accompanied by some Jaboticaba port from the winery and a stroll by the river.
Ryan is back in Brisban,e after 2 months of backpacking, taking back his old job to start earning again. And it's something that's been floating around my mind for a while, especially since being back in Brisbane. It's a great city.
Today we caught the bus to Lone Pine Sanctuary, a sort of wildlife centre, specializing in koalas and kangaroos. It was nice being able to get so close to the animals, and we loved being able to stroke them - but as always with zoos and stuff like that, I felt bad for the animals. The wombats seemed so sad, and the koalas must be sick of the never-ending camera flashes and constant admiration. We thought it was a bit of a rip off too. And you had to pay an extra $15 to get your photo taken holding a koala, which we didn't do, of course.
So we've just got the rest of today and most of tomorrow to make the most of what's left. We might go to the cinema tonight and walk around another area of the city tomorrow. The flight doesn't take off until 11 pm.
And then it's back home.