Brisbane, Australia, Part I

My first even remotely negative couch surfing experience occurred in Brisbane. I sent my request about a week in advance and had been given the OK just to let her, the host, know exactly which day I will arrive when I could as I was driving up and the specific day of arrival was a bit in the air. I did so. I texted. Repeatedly. I called. Repeatedly. I arrived in Brisbane with a CS host that said I could surf at her place but never gave me an address nor would she pick up or return my efforts to contact her. I was pissed but all in all this is not such a bad experience just inconvenient. I ended up spending my first night in Brisbane in the campervan that took me from Melbourne to Brisbane so it was a familiar sleeping space. The second night was spent on the couch of a friend of a friend. I ended up finding another CS host but I found a ride heading north so my time in Brisbane was cut short.

While trying to contact my CS host I was invited by Tobi (my ride from Melbourne to Brisbane) to play jugger, which is an alternative sport and completely new to me. The rules had been explained to me in the van and again once we arrived but made little sense until I started playing. So, I will not explain much of the rules here just know this: each team has five people, four with (padded) weapons the fifth is the "quick" and is the only player eligible to score. If you are hit by a weapon in a legal area you kneel down and are out of play for 3-5 seconds. A point is scored by moving the "skull" to your opponent's side of the field and placing it around a stake.

I started off as a player with a weapon (an "enforcer") because the quicks are much more important than any individual enforcer and not where a novice should start. The game was fun and the rules made more sense once I started playing. While competitive, it is a friendly game. It also helped that there were other people who had never played before either. I was not particularly good at being an enforcer but I did not do terribly either. I quickly picked up some basic strategy and was able to use people's expectations of my (lack of) skills and (lack of) knowledge of the game against them. I certainly screwed up a few times but it is expected given I was still learning the rules and new rules while I played. After a few games I asked if I could try being the quick and I finally found where I could help out my team the most.

At the beginning of a game and after each point scored the skull is placed in a circle in the center of the field and the quicks stand anywhere along the circumference of the circle. Once time starts the quicks try to get the skull. This involves quickness and usually some wrestling and I played up my quickness since my wrestling is, well, let's say not an advantage for me (oddly, however, I ended up being pretty decent at that part as well). I immediately got the skull and then did what I was supposed to do until I tried to put the skull around the stake, at which time I did what was just about the worst thing you can do in this game (have the skull go out of bounds). Lesson learned. With the help of my team I eventually got the skull back and scored a point. After that we scored about ten more consecutive points. Compliments all around including, "That was textbook quick play" from one of the veterans. In truth, I had little idea what I was doing other than using my speed and being aggressive. It was fun and I plan on playing again if I can.

That night I went out for drinks with the jugger crowd. We went to a bar that has six TVs attached to video game consoles. While drinking you play video games. I cannot believe I did not think of this idea myself. I do not care much for video games but it was still fun. My first drink did not sit well and I decided to stop drinking and just hang out. That lasted until one of the jugger players, Garth, realized that, after most people had left, of the four remaining, he was the only person drinking. He got the four of us a round of drinks, despite our insistence that he did not, so that he was not drinking alone. After the drink Garth wanted another one and once again did not take no for an answer. He insisted that we leave this bar and go to another that makes excellent cocktails, called the Bowery. I should tell you a bit about Garth. He was recently paid AU$40,000 by a former employer upon leaving the job as part of his compensation package and despite his best efforts to spend the money had only manage to spend $2500 and was looking to spend more in a hurry. At the time, he had five weeks before he left for an international vacation (which is basically him travelling around the world to various jugger games including the world championships in Germany). We arrived at the Bowery and he asked each of use what kind of alcohol we preferred. After an unusually long time the bartender and his girl friend brought us our drinks and joined us as well (Garth and them are friends). The drink I was handed cost AU$19. After some conversation a second, different AU$19 whiskey drink arrived. Both were good but I do not think I would pay that much for a drink. Even if I was trying to waste AU$40,000. By this time Garth was drunk and we left the bar. An interesting and enjoyable day with new, interesting people.

The next day, despite the poor weather, I walked around Brisbane. Brisbane is a nice town but does not offer much for tourists. I think it would be a good town to live in and visiting briefly is nice and should be done but there is not much to do after only a couple days. I continued to walk around even though my camera battery had died and I saw many of the attractions. It was good and I will be passing through Brisbane again for sure as I left my big bag in the garage of the friend of the friend and will do more exploring then.

During those couple days in Brisbane I managed to find a ride north to Airlie Beach from two French girls on gumtree. I had never met them and only talked briefly on the phone. They picked me up the next day and off we went north. What could go wrong?