Brisbane, Australia

The first time I flew out of the Philippines, the immigration officer held me for over an hour because she was skeptical about my papers. At one point, she asked me why I was going to Europe instead of Australia, where my sister lives. I answered, with confidence of course, “I’ll be there after Europe, I promise.” To the officer, I apologize it took me so long, but hey, I made it. No broken promises.

My brother and sister have been living in Brisbane, and my mother was also there on vacation for almost a year. So, Iris and I decided to visit during the Christmas break. I have to be honest, I’ve been wanting to visit Australia, and realizing it made me excited.

As soon as we landed in Brisbane, we were greeted in the most Australian fashion: a Snake Presence in the Vicinity warning posted at the airport exit. Fortunately, it wasn’t an actual snake that G’day, mated! us. That would have been a big naur.

My first impression was that this country is HUGE. Unlike most European cities, owning a car in Australia is a necessity. Although there are buses and trains, it’s not as convenient as in France, for example. This necessity is quite apparent from the car dealers adjacent to each other.

Anyway, enough with the rants. Let’s focus on the most important things: kangaroos and koalas, which are chill AF. I’m not gonna lie, I was expecting to see a lot of venomous spiders and snakes at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, but I guess they are too cool and dangerous to get caught and caged in a sanctuary.

Brisbane was our base, but we didn’t have enough time to visit the whole downtown area because it was too far from where we stayed. We went to the Brisbane sign, though, so that’s what mattered, I guess? 😛