I can’t get over how crazy parking and parking fees are in Brisbane. Coming from a smaller city I think I get spoiled. I’m sure parking fees are quite high in many cities around the world but I am not used to it.

Yesterday I was a bit flabbergasted at being asked for $15 for parking under the museum. It was 4pm and we only had an hour before it was to close. The sign said it was $15 for all day parking, no matter what time a person arrived. We decided to go elsewhere and found street parking for $4.40 an hour. Perfect for the amount of time we wanted to spend at the museum.

We headed back into town today to apply for visa’s for our visit to China. Kirsten went ahead while I looked for parking. That’s when I had a real shock. Across the river from the Museum in the centre part of town parking was $15 for zero to twenty minutes and $15 for the rest of the hour. This was followed by a charge of $15 per hour.

Knowing that it was going to take us some time to get our nine visa applications filled out I found a parking lot that let me stay 20 minutes for $5. I headed up to the visa office and confirmed with Kirsten and the rest of the family that I would be a half hour before I would return. I was heading across the Queen Street bridge over to the museum for their flat rate daily parking. Yesterday it seemed expensive but with a new perspective, it seemed like a steal of a deal! In the city, our four hour process of getting photos and applying for visas, would have cost us at least $75 (that’s on top of the $98 x 9 fee for Chinese visas)!