Brisbane
8/30/00
Wednesday 10;27 am
Tilt Train
That’s 10:27 am Standard Time. I gained an hour as soon as I crossed into Queensland. New South Wales changed their clocks early for the Olympics. As Alex (from Manchester) said last night at the Fiddler’s Elbow Irish Pub, heaven & earth will stop for the Games.
These Tilt Trains are a step up from the XPT in NSW. Music, TV monitors, refreshment cart … living large. Oo! Forward facing video of track!
In my 13 hours in Brisbane, I didn’t see any of the parks, the CBD, nightlife — anything but the City Backpackers hostel. But it has been an enjoyable 13 hours. My bus from Murwillumbah rolled in around 9:15 last night.
I made my way down the street, checked into my dorm, and made a B-line for the on-site pub. Grabbed myself a pint of — you guessed it — VB and took my place in the corner. There was a trivia game going on, so I helped the Brits at the table next to me with some answers. They won the game, but I didn’t help much. I knew what NASA stood for, though. Anyhow, I got to speaking with Alex afterwards and for the rest of the evening. We talked about travels (he’s working in Colorado in November), school (he told me I’d go far & wished me well). The
Seinfeld
Olympics (Greece will lose the 2004 Games because they can’t fix a toilet), and the like. Really nice guy. Unfortunately they had a talent contest after the trivia. I say this is unfortunate because I had to get up on the mike. I was completely unprepared. I thought I could steal some Seinfeld, but since I already had consumed 2 and a half pints, I couldn’t think of anything other than the airline peanuts bit. I ended up singing “New York, New York” due to the fact I mentioned Sinatra, and was quickly ushered from the stage. But then some French guy did a stupid joke in broken English about a monkey f@#$ing a lion or something, and I felt a little better. I was an embarrassment to the States, though. However, one guy came up, said he loved Seinfeld and I was a funny bastard, and he bought me a drink. I felt a little better. Cheers!
A bit later I thanked my new mates for a pleasant night and crawled into bed. Oh, did I mention this was another weird hostel? The dorms, the toilets … I don’t know. There was a chick in my room, and I don’t think she was alone when I walked in, either …