Brisbane: The City We Would Move to if it Weren't for Our Friends and Family

Our beautiful Brisbane morning

Arriving at your destination late at night when everything is dark and closed, only to wake up to a sunny and beautiful day in a new city is one of the true joys of traveling.  And that is exactly what happened to us in Brisbane!  We flew from Singapore to Brisbane on a late flight, arriving to a totally dead city.  We were thrilled to open our eyes to sun and a sparkling jewel of a metropolis.  The bright city has a picturesque river winding through it, which allowed us to take in our first views of the big B in the best possible way - from the inexpensive and super-convenient City Cat water taxi.  We were soon saying things like, "We could live here if it weren't for our (damned) family and friends."  And we still think that is true.  Maybe Brisbane won our hearts because it was so different from some of the hot, muggy Asian metropolises we had been to in the last few months.  Maybe we liked Brisbane so much because of its similarities to home.  (Indeed, a theme began to emerge in Brisbane and followed us throughout Australia:  "It's just like home...but a little bit different.")  But we also think Brisbane is a special city - alive with friendly people, beautiful parks, a gorgeous river, and a smart food culture. 

Like Seattle, the big B is a city made up of many different neighborhoods, each with its own vibe, food, and sub-culture.  We took most of a day in Brisbane to explore as much as we could on foot. In just that short time we got a great feel for the city;  we saw several of the neighborhoods and were charmed by their individual personalities, visited many of Brisbane's older buildings, meandered along the river, and soaked up the positive vibe the city exudes.  We ate a breakfast that reminded us of Seattle to the extant that we had an entire conversation about which neighborhood the restaurant would be in back home (and settled on Wallingford).  Beyond the food, we just enjoyed being able to read everything from menus to street-side plaques and marveled every time someone spoke English to us (though not every Aussie is easy to understand on the first try, and our Irish hostel mates might as well have been speaking Chinese at times). 

Brisbane's Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary helped make Annette an even bigger fan of the city.  The sanctuary was the first of its kind and today it is home to over one hundred of the grey furballs, gobs of kangaroos, and many other Aussie animals.  The kangaroo area consists of a big field where kids of all ages can feed the kangaroos and get up close and personal with one of Austalia's most beloved animals and national symbols.  It was really something to get so close to so many kangaroos, but the real event at Lone Pine is getting your photo taken while hugging a koala.  The moment they put the koala, Max, into Annette's arms, she knew it was love.  She loved the firm hug of the koala and the cuddliness (they are as huggable as they look).  The koala we held didn't stink to high heaven, as we were warned.  He just gave darned good hugs and gave Annette thoughts of animal theft (how good can their nighttime security really be?)  We also saw a baby koala, which was even more cute that you would imagine.  One the highlights of Lone Pine for Jeff were the pictures of celebrities who had visited and held koalas: Steve Austin, Regina Spektor, and Mikhail Gorbachev were some of the most amusing).

We left Brisbane with just under two weeks to head up the East coast to Cairns.  We had a hop-on hop-off Greyhound bus pass (no relation to the US company) and tours booked for Fraser Island (the world's largest sand island) and the Whitsunday Islands.  Brisbane was a great city, but with just under two months in Australia we knew we had to move on and see what else the country had to offer.  Though, everywhere else we would visit had a high bar to meet!


Notes:
Brisbane impressed us in many ways, but one was the city's cleanliness, especially considering that earlier this year Brisbane had some horrible flooding - water reached as high as 4.5 meters in some areas of the city.  But we couldn't tell there had been any flood at all.  There were a few posters that reminded us, but the city itself was spic-and-span.  Healed, restored, and full of energy.  Cheers to the people of Brisbane and Queensland for rebuilding so quickly!


We arrived in Brisbane to beautiful, sunny weather.  Therefore, we were a more than a little perplexed when we began to see signs in shop windows about the chilly weather.  This was their winter, but it felt like a beautiful summer Seattle day.  This is cold to these people?!?

Our koala photos.  Clearly, Annette can take a better photo than Jeff.  And Max obviously prefers Annette to Jeff.