The Brisbane River is truly gorgeous, and they really take advantage of that in their New Year's celebration. The picture above is the Story Bridge, and as soon as somebody comes out to visit us, we hear you can climb some stairs up to the top of one of the two towers and view the sunrise. We'd love to try it. Yesterday we saw a group of people who were lucky enough to be up there at the top right when the fireworks started.
The city puts on two rounds of fireworks on New Year's Eve. One at 8:30, and one at midnight. They anchor two boats framing the Wheel of Brisbane, just next to the Victoria Bridge, and shoot the fireworks there in the middle of the river. For the 8:30 fireworks, we were unsure where they would start, so we started out by the Story Bridge and walked along the edge of the Brisbane Botanic Gardens until we found them. Wow, I've never been along that trail at night, and it was gorgeous. I found the LDS temple, lit up right on top of the Kangaroo Cliffs on the other side of the river between the Story and Victoria Bridges.
Even though I don't go there, it really made me feel close to home. They're just now completing this project of lighting up the Kangaroo Cliffs at night, and they're this really beautiful purple color. We ended up finding the 8:30 fireworks just in the nick of time. There's a footbridge that crosses the river to the east of where they were going off, so we stopped and viewed them from the middle of the river.
Later on for the midnight fireworks, we secured a great spot right in front of the Wheel of Brisbane, so close that I couldn't get both boats in one picture.
The Brisbane Performing Arts Center and Art Museums are those blue-ish buildings in the background. I'm really starting to love this city. I find it so charming to experience the world the way others do. The world is pretty exciting. Tiny differences, like a New Year's celebration over a river, can be so moving, even though life itself is really the same.
Well, we're so close to having a regular life again. We've been on vacation now for 1 1/2 months, living in hotels, not having anything but the bags we drag along with us and the same 6 rotating outfits, and having so much fun. Real life is about to set in though. We either now have all the essentials, or we'll have them soon ... bank accounts, bank cards, driver's license, health insurance, an apartment. We purchased a new washer and fridge yesterday - the only appliances missing from our apartment, and they'll be delivered Tuesday when we pick up the keys to our new place.
A really huge thing is that we'll likely be purchasing a new car at the end of this week! Yay!!!!
It's a 2005 Holden Astra Hatchback. Remember all my house-hunting woes? Well, this was the exact opposite experience. We looked online for days and made a list of about 15 cars we liked. We made a bunch of appointments for test drives, and cancelled them all after visiting our #1 choice on the list, which we also visited first. It's really beautiful in person, and the guy selling it appeared honest and forthcoming. He even gave us a ride home afterwards so that we wouldn't have to take the public transport. There are a few things that need to be fixed, like an oil leak, a timing belt and a seat belt, so he's going to get those fixed Thursday-ish, and we're going to buy it immediately after. I can't believe it was that easy. And, we're under our budget. It is a manual, however, so that'll take some getting used to. We test drove it, and it was actually a lot easier than I imagined to switch the gears with my left hand. The photo here is from Google, so I'll post some photos once we have the real deal.
All that remains now is the phones. Oh yes, the phones. Man, those things must be made of solid platinum, because getting one is apparently harder than getting a car, a year-long lease on an apartment, a credit card, and a driver's license combined. We're expecting that to be done by the end of the week as well. Hello, iPhone!
So now that everything's squared away, we'll be moving into our new apartment on Tuesday with nothing but a blow-up mattress and some paper plates. Then it'll be subsistence living for 2-3 weeks until our things arrive. Oh, the life of two young people in a foreign country. Bob's boss is nice enough to lend us some sheets, pillows and a blanket for our bed, but it looks like we'll be spending a lot of time out on the town.
My post is getting pretty long here, so I'll update you in a few days when I can show you some great pictures of our new apartment. Miss you all, and Happy New Year!
