Why do the tourist when CS is there?

Untold scenes between the ones from the last and the next episode...

• left Townsville after staying with Lana and then Jason;
• Maria traveled to Airlie Beach first and did an initial hostel scouting as I found no available host;
• after doing not much in AB, said goodbye to Maria and take on an 19hr coach ride from there to Brisbane;
  

Mie Yamamoto, a smiley, tiny, cute little japanese girl living in Brisbane was my first host in the city. She lived very close to West End, the hip neighborhood, a tiny version of Melbourne's Brunswick St.

Another guy was aready crashing there, Gabriel, a very, very easy going American who had done a fair bit of traveling and living outside the US. It was real fun to hear him comfortably speak in japanese with Mie, it made me envious:)

I thought I'd take a look of the city, check out the Andy Warhol exhibition at the GoMA and other worthy sightseeings.

Almost none of that happened! I ended up going to the GoMA when it was closing, at 5PM!!!! Djeezus Kreist!!! Are the employees all in a hurry to go down to the pub or what?

Whatever!

After a couple of visits to the state library's free internet access computers, I spotted and joined a CS meeting, a post-Australia day trip to Springbrook. The forum was a bit foggy, it was not confirmed how many people would show up and how many cars would be available to take us.

Beni, one of the most, it not THE most active CSer in Brisbane offered his flat as a place to meet and drive away. Everyone and more showed up, and by the time we reached the beach, we had 20 people in 5 cars!

The beach... I can only think of how awful it must be to have such a white and sensitive skin that any extra ray of sun results in a sunburn. I just say that because, thanks to my origins, I am a tanneable and tanned little man. But rest assured, I sunburned too while snorkeling and eventually, part of the skin on my shoulderblades peeled off already. By the look of the weather forecast for Sydney, I don't think I will get any more sun to remediate that before I leave on Tuesday:(

We had fun at the beach. The silica sand was squeaky. Every hard step in it felt like I had rubber boots:P This was the ideal place and time to get to meet everybody. This is one of the marvels abouts CS and the meetings. Nobody's really judging or restricting contact with other people, joy and fun and easily expressed without any remorse. Buuut... it can happen that I encounter people I (or anyone else) consider really boooring... but this was not the case, not by far!

Megan for example, she's absolute brilliant! Sparky, funny, has a fab laugh and heaps to talk about. I absolutely loved that girl. In her honour, I leave one of my favourite pics of the day where she's the star:)

Earlier last year in Munich, I met Noel at a CS meeting in the OF premises. Brie was the organizer at that time, Noel and his mom were there. He was part of this group and he hadn't changed at all. I like him but now, after how this trip has influenced me to interact, I found it so much easier to talk now. The whole environment was better now, but I believe I was so much more open. Staying too long in the same spot is not good for me...

After the beach, we finally headed out to Springbrook. Beni's plan was to go on a bush walk but there was not enough time for that after our picnic. So we stuck with other plans that sublimely filled our day through the night.

First, the waterfall... a-m-a-z-i-n-g!

Let's make a deal, we all agree that pictures never pay real tribute to the real thing, right?

Then, the natural bridge. Water comes down into this cave, the pond it falls into is swimmable and we all decide to take a dip in this freezing water.

This cave is the home of little bats and glow worms. When the night comes, the first ones fly away and the latter do what they are supposed to... they glow:) The most amazing items are actually not the worms, but the mushrooms found on the way. I am sure a junkie would think about taking them trying to make his own eyes glow. It's almost as if they were growing next to Springfield's power plant.

Checking out nature and all its wonders (I am about to shed a tear now) is really great, but the whole day was good because we were a big group and we all got along. I mean, if we'd go for something longer, I am sure, the people's cranky side would show up and conflict... but then again... that's not what this was about.

As always, I carry my toys around, just like kids do. When the night is at its darkest in the middle of a hill between the trees, my LED glowing Poi come into play and do what they do best, entertain and impress. I love them and I love meeting people willing to spin them, even if they are not particularly gifted for it. I am definitely not gifted to spin poi, I can what I do thanks to practice. After a little snack on the road, we ended up at Warren's place in Surfers Paradise, had a beer and left home to sleep!

Most of us met up the following day at a park in Brisbane. Our whole day event went so well that an additional meeting was just a natural thing to happen.

For that occasion, I thought of taking my new host in Brisbane with me, Elizabeth. I had to leave Mie's and it's always good to surf other people's couches and have them integrate the local community if they desire.

Once more and definitely better this time, we had a poi spinning teaching session. The most curious moment in these teaching sessions happened with Sivan, she could do a forward 3 beat weave (low-complexity forward spin), but could not do the most easy thing, spin backwards and do eights:)


I ended my days in Brisbane with a little solo tour on a rainy day, met up with Sivan (a beautiful israeli girl, with a great sense of humour and a very good human touch feeling) and Mie for a last meal, drink and conversation and set myself on the way home to Elizabeth's. The next day I took the bus and met with my next great fun provider, Gabby, to get a ride in her car down to Sydney.


Before moving on, this is all to say that although I did not visit Brisbane per se or as it "should" be done in the regular touristy terms, I had a blast and do not regret not having seen more city things.


My favourite pic of Brisbane... just a bronze man... contemplating...



More about Gabby later on. It's already 18:30, I haven't done much, Martin and I will



N.-