Back in Brisbacon

I checked into Brisbane City Backpackers in the afternoon, met a couple of my weird roommates, and hopped in for a much-needed shower before catching a train for the suburb of Lawnton - host to the day's b-day BBQ bash.

By some odd sort of happenstance, Kel, Andy, and Amish were on the same train and we all had a quick post-wedding reunion at the bottle shop in Lawnton, in typical fashion. Damo thundered up the road in his newly fixed Mustang to pick us up and take us back to his oldies' digs in, as they like to call it here, woop woop.

Woop woop's nice - with a big yard overlooking the river, standard Aussie-issue BBQ facilities, a pool, and best of all, just about everyone who was at the wedding. Amongst the gum trees and overwhelming sound of nocturnal creatures, we enjoyed barbecue, many beers, and some birthday pavlova - some Aussie merengue covered in fresh fruit. All the while, we were being eaten alive by mozzies and other such bush annoyances, but we were having a good enough time not to really care.

Caught the last train back to town with Andrew and Mel - 45 minutes of riding and stopping and riding and stopping through suburbia. It was like being back at home on Caltrain. Lovely.

I was back at the City Backpackers by around 1:00 where I was welcomed to my room by the sound of three very intensely snoring FOBs. I may have been seriously lacking in sleep for a couple of days, but even my weary head couldn't put up with this symphony of snores. The girl liked to intersperse hers with moans, while the guy in the bunk below me liked to accentuate the overall work with strange smacking noises. Adding to the auditory delight was the rising waft of FOB breath - don't act like you don't know what I mean...

It's safe to say that I'll be checking out of City this morning. I'll probably head over to the Palace where a couple of the other guys are staying, although I'm scared how little sleep I'll get with the Down Under Bar being on the premises over there. Then again, raging nights are far preferable to the utter misery I had to endure over the last 6 hours. Were it not for the free broadband here, I'd already be walking down the street with my pack.

I've got 3 hours to check out - enough time, I hope, to figure out what to do over the next few days before heading to NZ (pronounced Enn-Zed, I guess).