When I landed in Brisbane it was monsooning. Gina was incredible and left in the middle of work to get me from the airport.
“Oh my god!!!! You’re in Australia!!!” She screamed at me as I hopped in the car. After only knowing each other for three weeks in Africa, I knew Gina and I would meet again somewhere around the world. And sure enough, 8 months later, here I am in Brisbane with her!
We couldn’t even see out the windshield as we drove down the roads. The rain was bucketing down similar to my entire five days in Cairns.
“When did it start getting stormy here?” I asked
“Today” said Gina.
Obviously. I’ve been bringing the rain with me all around Australia it seems.
Unfortunately, my initial meet up with Gina was short lived. She had to go back to work, so instead of hanging around an empty house, she dropped me off at the train station where I attempted to find my way to the Oxley suburb to meet up with my friend Jess.
Two trains and a half hour later I found the station. I was lucky too. Some of the stations were closed due to flash flood warnings and the train bypassed them on the way through. Thankfully, Oxley wasn’t one of those.
A few minutes after I arrived at the station I saw Jess come over the hill towards me. Actually, I hardly recognized her. No rain jacket, no shoes, hair matted to her face from the rain… Jess was a sight for sore eyes.
“Oh my god!! Where is your coat?!” I asked
“Don’t have one!” She gave me a big wet hug. Jess and I used to work together back in Vancouver. She was on a working visa there, but after reapplying twice for a second visa, she was finally denied and sent back to Brisbane. That was only a few short months ago. Saying goodbye to her then was hard, but I already figured I’d make it to Australia in the New Year, so I’d make sure to spend some time with her.
We picked up some wine and food at the nearby woolworths. Jess made puddles all over the supermarket so we tried to move along quickly.
When we arrived back at her place we were drenched. Well, we figured, no better time to go for a swim!
So Jess and I, and her roommates Dave and Pepper hopped in the pool for a swim and a game of volleyball with their puppy Biscuit. Biscuit of course was the winner in the end.
That evening we spent catching up over good wine and good food. A classic Hilary and Jess evening. And in the morning, the rains had significantly slowed to a light shower.
That day we went to explore the city. I actually think Brisbane is a very pretty city. A mix of European style architecture with a tropical twist. The city center is not that large, and so we wandered up and down the streets, grabbing sushi to go for lunch and heading down to the botanical gardens where Jess pointed out all the weird bird species and I snuck up on a big bearded dragon.
From there we followed the Brisbane River back along the city’s edge until Jess had to go to work. I continued on, walking all across town to West End to meet Gina after work.
Although we had glorious plans to head out on the town that night, the two of us were much more easily convinced to order fish and chips and watch Jake Gyllenhal movies well into the night instead. A winning decision if I do say so myself, as the next couple of days were going to be big ones!