Strange Days in Brisbane

There was a day last month when Brisbane resembled a scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Around mid-morning, winds began to pick up, eventually gusting to 70 km/hr. The air started getting drier, and everything began to get hazy as if a thick fog was rolling in. The skies outside turned grey, then orange, then completely indistinguishable. Remember that scene from the movie where the house starts to rattle and an eerie light filters through the windows and under the floorboards, right before the kid starts to open the door? That's a bit how I felt when I realized something strange was taking place outside. I opened the front door to my house and this is what I saw:
A dust storm had descended upon the city, the most severe one in recent history, covering everything in a fine orange layer. I walked around, scanning the horizon and realized that the sun had been completely blotted from the sky. People were walking around with facemasks or covering their mouths with handkerchiefs. It felt like a hazy apocalypse.

Then, as quickly as it had arrived, the dust storm was gone, leaving a bewildered city in its wake.

This is a picture I snapped up of the field the next day. Everything had returned to normal (except that Brisbane is usually perfectly sunny without a cloud in the sky).

Ekka Races

Every year, a flood of visitors arrive in Queensland's capital city to experience the ten days of attractions taking place at the Brisbane Exhibition. Because Australians have nicknames for everything, this event is simply known as the Ekka. The highlight of the week is the public holiday that lands on the Wednesday, known as the "people's holiday." On this day, everyone at the uni gets the day off, so everyone gets dressed up and goes to the fairgrounds to see the ekka horse races. A holiday in the middle of the week and chance to get dressed up? I know, and it gets even better.

Because this is Australia, every event has a theme, and involves drinking. In this case, girls are dressed like they're going to an English tea party, complete with ridiculously outrageous hair accessories. Hats the size of dinner plates. So my day started off with 8 am mimosa and breakfast at a friend's, followed by a 9 am wine party at the local park. Everyone I passed on the streets was wearing tuxedos and cocktail dresses, and could not walk in a straight line. We arrived at the races by boat and the scene before me was spectacular. Picture Oktoberfest combined with Queen's homecoming and an open bar wedding, multiplied by a city's entire student population and you'll get the picture. By the time we got to the races at 11am, people were already throwing up in garbage bins. You'll notice that none of these pictures contain any evidence of actual horse racing. They were there though. Or so I was told..

Stradbroke Island

After a month spent fruitlessly searching for housing upon my arrival in Brisbane, I took off for a 2 week road trip to Cairns. Since then, it's been one Aussie adventure after another. The month of August arrived with warmer weather, perfectly sunny skies, and the irresistible urge to take off and explore the entire eastern coast.

My irresponsibility was rewarded upon my return by finding an amazing house just seconds from the uni, with a colourful cast of roommates. There's Ned and Thomas from France, Tania the PhD candidate researching pandemic influenza strains, Randy from Indiana, Igor the Brazilian with a Russian name and Clara, the token Australian. Listing them sounds like that scene from Forrest Gump where he names off everyone in his fighting unit.

Shortly after I moved in, we rented out an amazing beach house on North Stradbroke Island, one of the worlds largest sand islands just an hours drive from the city. The house was more like a 3 level condo located on the highest point of the island, with fantastic views of Moreton Bay and steps from the beach. The renters strictly advertise that no partying and no more than 8 people in the house at the time. So we squeezed in 15 friends and played hide and seek with the landlady. Here's a pic of the house and our view from the breakfast terrace:


While exploring the island we reached the northern point and found everyone gathered along the lookout point by some overhanging cliffs. Before I could ask what the commotion was about, I saw water spouts and white foaming seas on the horizon. A pod of humpback whales was passing by on their yearly migration from their summer Antarctic feeding grounds. We watched
them breaching the surface, then disappearing in a foaming whitewash for almost an hour before they moved on.

Me at North Point lookout, and a view of the Main Beach:
The rest of my time there was spent surfing (or attempting to), doing bushwalks around the island and enjoying freshly caught fish from spearfishing enthusiast on our trip. A great weekend to get to know the roommates and unwind before the beginning of the school semester. The Straddie crew, and sunset from the ferry taking us back to mainland, and reality: