Alright, I’ll admit it…I love to travel to far off, exotic places…but hadn’t even considered that when David moved to Queensland it was a new(ish) destination for him. Yes, he had lived in Qld for a short time after moving up from Adelaide years ago…but he had been busy working and getting used to the area he lived in, so didn’t get around to doing all of the tourist type things (or to discover some of the great places nearby).
When I mentioned that I wanted to go and see the ‘Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures from the National Museum of Kabul’ Dave was happy to come along…but when I mentioned it was at the Qld Museum in Brisbane he was very keen as he had never been into Brisbane’s city centre…
So…after leaving the airport we took the M7 (which was a first for me too) into the city and parked at Southbank Parklands. After a short stroll around and a little bite to eat (it was only just after 9am but had been 5 hours since breakfast) we walked along the river to the Museum.
After watching a short film we were able to look around the exhibit at our own pace. There was a strict no photography policy, so we bought the book which contains excellent photographs of the exhibit and a lot of information about the artifacts and the Silk Road.
I have never really spent time learning about this part of the world and found myself feeling quite ignorant to the reality of the people who lived in the region before my time and also quite guilty about some of my preconceived notions about who lives there now. I’ve read many books about Jewish people who risked their lives to save the history and artifacts of their ancestors from the Nazis…but had never even thought about the Afghans who did the same.
Once we were done looking at all of the amazing pieces and reading the stories of how they were found and saved, we bought the book to bring home, then went to the museum cafe for lunch.
On the way into the museum we had noticed a sign for an interesting looking exhibit at the Art Gallery. I love that Brisbane has a cultural precinct, so the Museum; Art Gallery; Gallery of Modern Art; State Library; Performance Centre and Convention Centre are all within walking distance…
So, off we trotted to have a look at a collection of memorabilia from California’s early days. David really likes this type of ‘stuff’…I use that word as there is a lot of it, too much to describe individually… these are the types of items that we’ll see at a garage sale that I think are cute but worthless and he’ll buy for 20 cents and then sell for $50… We were able to take photographs in this one, so here are a couple of my favourites…
This one is making me consider going to the States for a holiday…
The bathing costumes were amazing and for real sized women who were encouraged to show off their curves…while also maintaining a perfect home…
I’ve always loved architecture and Frank Lloyd Wright was one of those visionary leaders of change that made homes work with the outdoors and the environment…not that my home is anything as spectacular as his designs, but he was an influence…
This was a very interesting piece of art. The different coloured wires were coiled through the others…you really had to look carefully to see the separate pieces and how they flowed…
After visiting all of California, we took a stroll through the gallery where David found several works by some of his favourite Australian artists. This isn’t one of those, but there was a chair here and I needed to rest my weary feet…and I thought this painting was interesting…
Seeing these exhibits has given me lots of thoughts to research more about and ideas for our next holiday…plus a firm reminder that we have loads to see still in our own ‘backyard’.