With a plan to go to Mount Coot-tha we headed into the CBD for breakfast, because that was kind of in between. But not really. One more Reddit recommended (or was it warned on the Brisbane subreddit, I can't remember now) was on the cards - the Pancake Manor. What could go wrong.
Nothing heralds a classy fine dining experience than rubber armour on second hand mannequins.
The place was certainly in keeping with the theme, and it did kind of give off a Manor-ish vibe. Much like hair on the table-keep gave off pubic hair vibes. A brave choice for someone serving people food, add an element of doubt if anyone found a coarse wiry hair in their breakfast.
The serviettes promised perfection. No idea who this is supposed to be, but she's a lying idiot.
The pancakes were good, plump and fluffy kind of ruined by the weirdly salty butter. And looking at this photo, even more weird is that the butter had started to melt by the time it arrived. And didn't melt any further. It was as if the solid cold butter but was added after the melted foamy butter. I guess they wanted it to look good. Maybe if they didn't fuck up the hash brown so badly it would have made a difference.
Bonus point to the place (god knows, they need it), it was clean and free of sticky tables. There was so much sugar on Louie's plate, and looking around the other tables there was so much ice-cream, syrup and caramelized fruit out that diabetes Australia ought to be picketing the place but everything was clean.
After breakfast, the Mount was kind of forgotten and we went for a look around the CBD area. They have a whole stack of the cool Australian stone buildings that are all over Sydney. I guess Melbourne has them but I don't really remember seeing any.
This Trypophobia inducing knob caught our attention and while we were being weirded out by it, we noticed there was a Chinese New Years stairs thing, which then led us to notice it lead up to the Sky Deck which is on our list. The Mount was definitely forgotten about by now.
On the way we spotted these panels which supposedly represent the personality types according to the year you were born. Lets see... strength, well I have a strong profile viewed side-on. Reliability, yeah you can rely on me to point out when someone makes a dick of themselves, usually myself. Determination... does belligerent stubbornness count?
Patient? No amount of clever word-play can mould that word into an intolerance of half-wits and fucknuckles. Achieves success through the shotgun approach, firing many ideas into play and crowing about those that work, hiding those that didn't. Yep, I'm dedicated and resilient to that concept.
It's like looking into a mirror.
Pretty great view from up here, apart from the dodgy old New Zealand tourists getting in the way.
One thing I've noticed is there is a bit of traffic around here on the main roads and all of it flows pretty well. I haven't seen anything that approaches the complete shambles that is Auckland.
Our spot for a morning refresher. I did a vague check of my watch before I ordered an adult beverage before remembering it was a Saturday and I was on holiday. No idea what sort of cider it was, but Monteith's Crushed Apple Cider is still my favourite by far.
The Sky Deck goes around the front of the round building, with the glass floor directly above the gap. It's one of the most amazing buildings I've been in, with spectacular views and angles all over the place.
After the sky deck it was time to go bush. Or garden at least. A short walk took us to the City Botanic Gardens, which was promised a cross between a tropical rain forest and a Deep South bayou garden. Well my brain promised it to me by the looks of the trees on the outside. It was mostly lawns and big trees. Some dirt as well.
Loads of trees, I imagine the do well in the warm wet climate. Nothing seems to be dry here and there is a lot of water being used for watering grass and water features.
Crazy root tree and the path that many insane people run down. It was 32c and muggy as all get out. There was one creature wearing a jacket running past. What the hell?
The next episode is without photos, but is remarkable for the first time I got on a Lime bicycle. That lasted for about 30 seconds, until Louie sliced open his finger trying to get the helmet out of the crazy lock contraption. Not being a boy scout, I didn't have any plasters in my bag so it wasn't really practical to go cycling with him dripping blood everywhere. And off we got and walked to the nearest pharmacy, which wasn't really near.
Irish Psychic. Not sure if this meant he tells you he sees potatoes in your future, or you have to tell him his future. Either way the cost of the 10 minute session was too high for my (checks notes) patience and honesty and I wasn't allowed to stay and annoy him.
Eat Street is a bunch of food outlets in all sorts of little lanes and areas. Loads of people there and it was interesting watching all the different types of food go past. Pork lollypop was not for me.
Bagels for lunch, and poor Louie had to go through all the prompts and questions. I whipped out a "number 9, everything and peach iced tea" before she could even ask. Luckily Australians are far more adept at adapting when a customer doesn't follow the script, unlike their NY counterparts.
Louie's NYC bagel, none of the fillings had anything to do with New York. Shaved ham, lettuce, egg salad? The bagels were good though, not the horrible pretend "genuine" ones we get in NZ that are as tough as a boot.
For a change, we walked through South Bank again, this time along the arch way thing. Loads of shade thankfully now the sun was out in full force. Who would have thought it would be so hot here in February.
We ended up in front of the Brisbane sign and relaxed here for an hour or so. It was here we got to view first hand a class A Twat. I think he was doing some sort of exciting dynamic piece of Brisbane but the guy had the camera so close to him, and kept on whipping it around to whatever he was talking about that it will be impossible to watch. He was dressed up as a wannabe Steve Irwin or Russel Coight but without the talent or personality. He ended up trying to chat up a bunch of German girls and showing off his dancing moves. Just a complete car smash.
I'm pretty sure we were in the background of some of the video, and Louie wasn't happy about that, but I assured him nobody would ever see it.
I tried for a while to get a photo without anyone in it, and this is the best I could do without some Photoshop work.
This is definitely going through the "remove people" algorithm. One of my favourite shots of this afternoon.
Next stage was a ferry ride to Eat Street. An extortionate 50c for an hour ride down the Brisbane river.
The thriving heart of the Brisbane CBD or something. Maybe just a couple of buildings.
This walkway puts our local one to shame, mostly because it isn't in the process of collapsing into the Orakei Basin.
On the way to Eat Street, not exactly the Gold Coast. This is a cheap cash-in on the program with a "guided" 10 minute tour through some merchandise.
Excellent cold drinks, non-alcoholic cocktails. They have a strange amount of dicking around with the more expensive ones. With "cans" they fill them up, then press the can lid on top, with the tab already opened. Why? And the jars is just silly. We went for good old fashioned plastic.
Arancini balls. Not great. Crunchy.
They also had a pretty good band going, it really set the place going.
Chicken wings, damn good.
And so ends our first full day here. Really enjoying ourselves, loads of walking as usual (17,000+ steps each day so far), it's hot but not insufferable (yet).
On the ferry back, I spotted a lot of small black dots in the sky overhead. Bats! Big fuck-off bats.
Louie didn't believe me, because bats aren't that big and that many, and demanded proof. Thanks to the 10x zoom of my phone he was educated and somewhat alarmed.
Evening on the river. We got off the ferry early and took a bus to see how that was. Pretty damn good as it turns out. There were a couple of guys from Translink on there but they got off somewhere around Fortitude Valley (can't think why they wouldn't be needed after there...).
Oh, what a surprise, the bus stop was just near the Gelato shop from yesterday. It would have been rude not to go in.
Berry pavlova again and Macadamia - just as good as the first time.
I'm not sure what we are up to tomorrow, any plans seem to get changed so I'm sure we will figure something out in the morning!
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