Double Trouble take Brisbane by storm - Saturday

This weekend, I flew up to Brisbane to visit my lovely cousin, Megan. She's quite an Australia pro, having gotten her Masters degree here and lived here for a while now. I've been sooo excited to visit her in Brisbane since we got here, and even more so after we had so much fun in Sydney a few weeks ago.

First, though, no good girls weekend happens without some tidy, orderly packing.

It got even worse after this!

I flew up to Brisbane Friday evening after work. It's a quick flight, about an hour and a half. Airport security is much more relaxed here (no taking off your shoes! You also don't have to show your boarding pass to go through security, so people can still meet their family at their arriving gate. It's so nice!), so it was a breeze getting through and onto the flight.


We didn't do too much on Friday after I arrived. As girls do, we had plenty to talk about and catch up on. We also went to the garage to look for huntsman spiders. These are the quintessential Australian spiders that are HUGE. Megan had seen one in the garage the night before and felt like it was important for my Australia experience that I see one while I was out of the city. Sadly (I guess!), there were no hunstmans to be seen on either of the nights we looked.

We went to bed pretty soon after the spider search since we had an early start the next morning. However, I didn't go to bed before Megan telling me the possums lived in the ceiling and not to be alarmed if I heard noises over my head or a possum fight. Between this and the spider search, you can understand why I checked the sheets for creatures before getting in bed.

Sunshine Coast Eumundi Markets & Noosa

On Saturday, we got up bright and early and headed up the Sunshine Coast toward Eumundi. First we stopped and picked up Megan's good friend, who grew up in Brisbane and graciously drove us around for the day.

Eumundi is home to the Eumundi Markets, which are big weekend markets full of crafts, clothes, souvenirs, and food.

There was also some weird stuff.

We had a lot of fun just walking around and shopping.

Then we headed up the road just a bit to Noosa. Noosa is a tourist beach town bordered by beautiful beaches. We walked around a bit so I could take in the sights. There aren't words for how gorgeous and picturesque the sands and water were there.

Less beautiful were the bush turkeys that were EVERYWHERE there. They seemed to mind their own business, but they looked pretty shifty to me.

Then we grabbed a bite for lunch and did some good people watching.

The highlight of my day came next. Megan had told me that Noosa was the only place she'd seen a koala in the wild, so I went with high hopes of some repeat success, however unlikely. BUT, luck was with us, and as we were getting ready to leave, we happened to see some people standing under a tree, staring and pointing up.

And then we saw this little guy!!!

He was pretty far up, so it was hard to see him, much less get a good picture. But we stood and watched him for a bit. He didn't do too much - at one point, he swung his leg down over the branch, and that was about it. But I didn't care - it was just the best thing ever!!

We couldn't really top this experience, so we headed back home. But this time we took the coast highway, which goes by beautiful beach after beautiful beach. It was really hard for me to believe there were so many gorgeous beaches in such a short distance. It's a good thing Megan's moving, otherwise I think I'd be in serious danger of becoming a total beach bum and visiting every weekend!

We closed out our afternoon with a lovely snack out on the deck.

A Turkish dinner in Brisbane

Saturday night was a big night - Megan's friends from work had organized a going away dinner for her at a Turkish restaurant in the city. We got ourselves ready (wearing very similar outfits, coincidentally) and headed out!

We took the train in and got off a few stops early so we could walk across the bridge and see some of the city. A river flows through Brisbane, so it has lots of bridges and scenic waterway walks. It was gorgeous even at night!

All of Megan's friends were very welcoming and friendly! The Turkish restaurant was really cool too. The food was delicious, and we got some entertainment during our meal too.

The belly dancer came by our table

It was a really lovely night, with perfect weather and good times.

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