We took an Uber from the airport and went straight to meet our new lovely Finnish friends Solei and Sirpa. We had been in contact for months with Solei but this was the first time actually meeting the sisters :) Also it was so lovely that they had Finnish coffee, cinnamon buns and Finn Crisps (with Salami) there waiting for us. We were in heaven!
We chatted quite a bit and got to hear the valuable local tips on what to do around the area. Thanks to these ladies we also got to experience the local life little bit as Sirpa had arranged us to be housesitters and dog watchers for a week.
Housesitting is quite common in Australia and I hear there is some pages where you can register and you might find free accommodation like that and end up spending part of your vacation petting cute dogs and chilling at the backyard in the sun with a pool. That's what happened to us anyway :)
We had a car in our use for the first week which was great. It was scary though.. to drive a MANUAL car for the first time on the other side of the road. The shift stick was on the left and the signal on the right and window wipers where the signal usually is... So like our new Finnish friend Mika says "the tourists always have the cleanest windows" 😂. Well we sure had it like that. We had some car trouble after visiting Aldi (local Lidl) for the first time.. After visiting the shop and buying all the food, the car didn't start! Oh crap! Luckily the car owner's dad lived nearby so I called him and he came to give some extra power for the battery and he had it replaced so we would not have the same trouble again.
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| Our street with the quirky car |
The north Strafford Island and Brisbane city exploration - week 1
Solei and Sirpa say that one of the best places to visit (on Earth I think :) ) is the Straddie island. It's easily reachable from Brisbane and especially from Cleveland/Ormiston area where we stayed. The ferry ticket costs total of 14$ or 20$ per person depending which company you choose. You could also take your car there but it's more expensive and there is no point if you are just visiting for one day. The ferry trip took something like 20-30min I think and then there was a bus waiting at the harbour, ready to take people to Point Lookout. The return bus ticket was around 10$ each and the trip to other side of the island took maybe 25min. At first the bus ride gave me a feeling that we were in Ruissalo Turku, with the exception of road signs about koalas and kangaroos 😎 When you get to Point Lookout you'll find a couple of restaurants, beaches and also good public toilets, but the absolute must is to do the Gorge Walk. I mean really, you gotta do it! Even after seeing the pics that Solei and Sirpa had, that could not prepare us for the views and wildlife we got to see.. It was astonishing! We ended up seeing two kangaroos, stingrays, seaturtles and one undefined whale/dolphin/shark creature. We could have spend longer time there, but we were worried about the little doggies so we just spent few hours on the island and went back to our petting and belly rubbing duties :) (these little dogs that were on our watch, Keksi and Pertti*, were so cute and affectioned! we really fell for them ❤️
*The names of the dogs might have been changed due to protecting their privacy :) )
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| Doing the Gorge Walk |
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| A roo |
The next day we hopped on a train and travelled 50 minutes to Southbank which is the cultural center and quite laid-back urban city area with many restaurants and a beautiful riverside. We wondered around for some time and ended up enjoying some greek food at Zeus restaurant and some live music at a park. It was very nice and with time and more money, we could have stayed longer there. But again the belly rubbing duty awaited us.. or so we though!
We arrived back home around 6pm only to find only one dog in the backyard.. that was weird at first but after looking all over the place, we realized that Pertti had gone missing! OMG! I called the owner's mom and she calmed me and said that Pertti has done it before and we should not worry too much about it or go look for him.. but we worried and went out looking for him and called his name hoping so badly that he would appear from somewhere.. but nothing :( after returning home we just sat by the open front door and waited.. and waited.. and waited. We must have looked so sad and desperate there. I started to search local missing dog sites from Facebook and at first we got nothing, but then at 10pm I saw Pertti's photo on Queensland lost pet registers site!! OMG we found him! Maybe 15 minutes after that Pertti was back home with us. We were so happy! Pertti on the other hand seemed very nonshallant and was playing it very cool. We learned that he had found the tiniest and quite high up hole from the fence and escaped from there and wandered a bit until a neighbour from the nearby street found him. Pertti ended up having great time with the neighbours and enjoyed some BBQ and got lots of cuddles also. Hah.. that little furball! Phiuuff luckily this story had a happy ending 🙏
After that episode we weren't too keen on going far from home and it was 37 degrees out so pool and some BBQ suited just fine for us. It was a wonderful place to housesit and the dogs, like I said, stole our hearts a bit. We also felt really good having our Finnish friends and the owner's parents support there as we tried the local life :)
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| Keksi |
Week 2
Their place in Kuraby is nice and it gives you a homelike feeling as it is the actual home for Mika and Elina. Mika has helped various Finnish working holiday travellers to get their things going when moving here down under so we highly recommend starting your Brisbane life from here.
We rented an automatic car from Mika and put it in very good use from the get go as we drove to the Gold Coast. Our friend in Finland has said that Surfers Paradise is a marvelous place so we had to see it for ourselves. And it was pretty! Amazingly long coastline, lovely city feeling with restaurants and shops and highrise buildings. We spend few hours there and then continued our way to Currumbin and oh I found heaven there on the beach! Some spots had silky smooth sand so I could not do anything than just lay there for a bit. I was so offline :)
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| Enjoying the silky smooth sand |
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| Coffee @ Hard Rock Cafe |
The next day it was time to do our duty as Finnish citizens and we drove up to the consulate to cast our vote in the presidential election. It was our first time doing it abroad so it was really an interesting experience. After that we drove to Mount Coot-tha as we heard that it would have an awesome view of the city. I think it would been even better to visit there around sunrise or sunset but the view was pretty cool daytime as well.
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| Mount Coot-tha lookout |
After playing tourists it was time to put the gamefaces on and play some frisbeegolf (disc golf). Around Brisbane area, there are few courses but what was odd was that we were the only ones playing! We visited three different parks and in one of them (Logan) we met a local lady who said that in her 10-12 years living near the park she has never seen anyone play this game.. :o what the heck! I mean it's not easiest to get proper discs here as they don't sell them in the local sport shops (we googled).. but still! Though I must add that the weather was maybe too hot so maybe it's more like a winter sport for the Brisbanites.. well anyway we were amazed but extremely happy we had the courses to ourselves :)
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| Can you spot the basket? |
Weekend fun at Eat Street North Shore
We started to get hungry so we first tried small hot dogs for starters and then headed to South American joint where I took a beefy bun and Matias had a plate full of everything. We finished the foods with a nice local Out and a Bout pale ale.
We highly recommend to visit this place!
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| Huge portions, happy stomachs |
how to get there?
If you have a car then you could drive there, but we definitely recommend the ferry option. I don't remember how much the ferry was because we payed with GoCards, but it was not more than few dollars. The trip took about 40minutes from Southbank and it was a lovely way to see the area. The way back especially was wonderful as you can see the city lights in the dark.- Sini
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| Brisbane city lights |
Our route so far
