Feeling retched in Brisbane

Make it go away.  I can’t shake this cold.  The headaches, coughing, sore throat and runny nose are really getting me down.  Physically I’m feeling awful and, understandably, it’s having an effect on my emotions. 

As the title of this post states, I’m in Brisbane.  It’s awful to say, but I really wish I weren’t. 

This reticence toward my geographic situation is likely due to many factors

a)      I’m generally displeased with the world as a whole right now.

b)      I like Auckland and I’d rather be there, where I’d made myself a few fleeting friends and had started to get the lay of the land.

c)     This hostel is light years away from cosy, unlike the place I stayed at in Auckland, which really did feel like a house.  Here, the floor of my room (I splurged and got a single tonight in the hopes of getting a better night’s sleep and aid my road to recovery) is bare concrete. 





It’s been painted, but there are areas where the paint has chipped, and little bits of grey rock keeps sticking to my socks and getting transferred to the bed.
The walls in all the common areas are festooned with rules, warnings and admonitions like “Don’t steal!” and “Don’t use the kitchen sink to brush your teeth or shave.”  It’s hardly welcoming, even for those of us not planning on stealing or taking care of our hygiene in the kitchen.  Oh, and there’s no Internet, so though I’m writing this Monday night, I won’t get to post it until Tuesday at the earliest (as predicted, it;s now Tuesday and I'm having to post this from an Internet cafe where pimply, unhealthy youths are talking loudly).

d)      I landed at 5:55 and was greeted with a darkened night sky, pouring rain, and unseasonably cold weather (18 degrees).  I was really looking forward to warmth and sun without the risk of flash rainstorms that Auckland was so often delivering.

The only real reason I’m here is that I needed to land in Australia before October 19^th to activate my working holiday Visa, and I figured I’d take advantage of the warmer climates and get certified for scuba diving.  Alas, not one of the six or so PADI centre is offering a course that fits in to my schedule, so I’m out of luck.   I now wish I’d made my port of entry Cairns (where I’d be sure to find a scuba course) or Sydney (where I could have visited a very good friend).

But in Brisbane I am and I will make the best of it.  I’ll take this time to really relax and hopefully get better very soon.  On Wednesday or Thursday I may also head out to Moreton Island where there are wild dolphins that come in to shore to be fed (though I’m a little against this taming of them).  I’m planning on heading over to North Stradbroke Island, a little slice of paradise that my friend and I discovered when we were here last year.  I’ll hopefully spend a few days walking along nearly-isolated beaches, spotting stingrays and sea turtles. I’m looking forward to it.