Our second day down under has come to an end. We have now checked in at our cozy granny flat in Mermaid Waters (Gold Coast) and will stay here for the next four weeks. I so look forward to not living in our suitcases, have a look at what we got in them and buy whatever we need.

It was raining when we woke up today. When we checked out at 10am, we weren’t really in the mood to go out, but the drizzle wasn’t too bad, and our sense of adventure got the better of us. We put the bags in the hotel and went on a walkabout. Even if it was grey and a bi of drizzle, it wasn’t so bad. 19C and the rain was barely noticable. It got warm as soon as we walked, but a bit chilly when we sat down. It’s very comfortable. But colder than in Sweden right now apparently, haha!

We walked across Story Bridge and through Kangaroo Point and along the Brisbane River to Southbank. We had a coffee at The Jetty, walked around, hid from swooping birds (no, we didn’t, it’s not swooping season yet, but Mikael had a small bird almost flying into his head honestly), saw the man-made beach Streets Beach, were super tourist-y by the BRISBANE sign, watched the Wheel of Brisbane (a copy of Lisebergshjulet) and spent some time inside the Queensland Museum.

The Queensland Museum was free and we watched both of their current exhibitions; Insect Agency and Dinosaurs Unearthed: Explore Prehistoric Queensland. Did you know that there are 1,25 million insects to every human on Earth? Or that Australia imported beetles 50 years ago to deal with a huge pasture poo problem? Or that three quarters of all of Australia’s 450 species of butterflies live in Qld? I really enjoyed that exhibition on insects. Mikael got really tired (and doesn’t like bugs for some reasons, something new I learned about him after more than four years) and we didn’t spend as much time as I wanted in the dinosaur exhibition. It was so interesting. The magafauna of Australia, wow! Supercool!

Mikael skipped lunch because he had troubles with his stomach after last night’s pasta. But I got hungry so we went to a sushi place in Queen Street. In Australia, you get a sushi roll whole, and eat it like it is. So weird. But it was soooo good! Also, the soy was packaged in small fish bottles. Very cute!

We walked back to the hotel, ordered an uber and Mikael fell asleep in the car down to Mermaid Waters. Since we arrived, we have had a lovely video call with his dad and wife and will now go to bed, at 8pm 😊 We are exhausted to say the least. 18k steps yesterday, 15k steps today. 33h of traveling the day before and lots of emotions.