just got to Brisbane for the second time today

I'm exhausted!! I got to Brisbane this morning at 5:30 am after a 14-hour (I think ... could be +/- an hour ... the time changed and I lost track) train ride from Sydney, where I visited the Ian Thorpe Center for a shower/sauna/steam and then spent the rest of the day walking around Sydney, carrying one of my heavy bags. Before that I was in Melbourne. I left Melbourne Boxing Day evening and took a delightful 11-hour train ride to Sydney. On both of the trains I had my own single seat; it would have been better if I lucked out and got a double seat all to myself for the entire journey (more room to curl up and sleep) but it's highly doubtful that would have happened on a busy holiday train so I was very thankful for my awesome single seats. okay, back to the present. I am sitting in Brisbane, which happens to be the same city I rolled into at 5:30 this morning, then scrambled to find a shower before my 8:55 BUS (yes, bus, not train -- I had received a text from Queensland Rail the night before telling me that my 23-hour train had been replaced by a coach ... sweet) out of Brisbane, up to Townsville. The shower thing was an epic disaster. I was so happy because I knew exactly where I could swim and shower all morning ... the Spring Hill Baths, which are just about a 15-minute walk from the train platform, up some stairs, through the beautiful Roma Street Parkland, up a hill, and then down a side street. It was a little harder this time because I had both of my heavy bags with me (it was too early to check the larger one in for my next train) and by the time I got to the baths I kind of felt like I might die. And it was closed. =( Apparently it's Boxing Day again today, since the real Boxing Day landed on a Sunday, and Christmas landed on a Saturday, everyone got an extra two days off. Sweet for them but terrible for me!! I walked around, trying to figure out what to do, thinking about heading downtown to shower at the hostel, or maybe catching a bus to the other public swimming pool on the other side of town ... the buses weren't running (at least not at any of the bus stops I passed) because of the "holiday." I had to walk all the way back to Roma Street station to use the showers there. Which I found out closed down, probably years ago. I was desperate so I texted my friend Ronnie who hosted me through CS about a month ago. Thankfully he was home and awake and even though he had another couchsurfer that he had to drive to Byron Bay, he said of course I could come shower -- he even offered to come pick me up!! My hero!!!! He came and got me and I took a 5-minute shower at his house, put new clothes on (I'd been wearing the same ones since Melbourne. yay me!) and felt 1000 times better. He dropped me off at the station and I ran up to the platform and got on the bus. The Queensland Rail guys started off the journey by very kindly giving us all bottled water. I was pretty stoked about that and also the fact that I had made the right call by getting on the second bus. The first bus filled up but only three people got on the second bus. We picked up four more at a nearby station and ended up with seven people, plus a driver and two QR guys, for a grand total of 10 people on a giant bus. Woo hooo! I had as much room as you can possibly have on a bus and I fell asleep after about an hour. When I woke up (in Kybong: BFE), I was told by another passenger that QR was buying everyone lunch!! Up to $14!!! That was awesome. I got a greasy BLTA on white bread and a box of dried out watermelon ... not the greatest lunch ever but it was FREE! Another win for QR! :) We had about an hour to kill at the transit centre/truck stop so I just ate my food, went on the internet and wandered around. I got back to the bus and there was some confusion because some extra people were getting on our bus. Apparently we were driving them to a station about 30 minutes away, and we could get on the bus or wait, because the bus was then coming back to Kybong. That was a little weird but I decided to get on the bus and go for a ride rather than wait in the rain and possibly get left behind. On the way to the other station (Gympie North), one of the QR guys informed us that after we picked up everyone else from Kybong, we would be going back to Brisbane. ????????? We had driven four hours, but we had to turn back because the road about an hour or so past Gympie North was flooded out. So they could take us there and we could wait for a train up, but they preferred to drop us off at Roma Street to wait for the train (that we may or may not be able to get on) because it was more comfortable and we'd have more options there. So we went back and picked up the rest of our little crew, then drove all the way back down to Brisbane. For about the first two hours we were uncertain about whether we'd be able to get on the Tilt Train (the all business class train that runs from Brisbane to Cairns) but our awesome QR guys came through and got us all booked on the Tilt Train. Woo hoooo!!!! We got back to Roma Street about an hour ago and I got my ticket so it's official. At 6:25 I'll be leaving Brisbane once again, and if all goes well (KNOCK ON WOOD!), I'll be rollin' into Townsville tomorrow afternoon. Here's a pic of me happily waiting in line for my Tilt Train ticket after a verrrryyyy long day (make that a very long THREE DAYS):