Sunday, December 25, 2011

Brisbane Christmas, 2011

We have had a beautiful Christmas Day this year in Brisbane.  Last year it rained like crazy and we were lucky if we could get outside for more than 10 minutes at a time.  This year we had a long walk from our place to the CBD along a brand new walking path that has just opened up and had a chance to see the normally bustling CBD quiet and lovely.

A beautiful Christmas Day in the sub-tropics

We expected the CBD to be completely dead.  In Canada everything is closed on Christmas Day so we were surprised to see many of the pubs open for business.  The only difference is that on Christmas Day one can't just go in for a drink, there are rules about buying food, and it has to be food that requires a knife and fork, not just a bowl of chips (that is almost verbatim from all the signs we saw).  Still, it was nice to see the city was still busy and open for business.  (By the way, CBD = Central Business District...the same thing as downtown, if you are new to the blog and Australian-speak.)

Brisbane Arcade, built ~1910

As it was so quiet we actually had time to look around and see the buildings that line the mall.  There are some lovely turn-of-the-(last)-century buildings here.  Most of them have been completely redone on the inside but it is nice to see that where possible, the facade has been maintained.  Normally when we are walking down the mall we have our heads on swivels and are on full alert so we don't get run over by gaggles of teenaged girls and people who would rather text and walk than look where they are going.

Once we got back home we had a veritable feast of seafood!  It sounds nice, but unfortunatley we had to spend 45 minutes ripping the heads off prawns and pulling out their poopers, but the meal was delicious, nonetheless. 

Tomorrow we are off to Sydney for a small holiday, then back in Brisbane for New Years.  Merry Christmas!

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