Sunny Brisbane

I went down to Brisbane again to take care of some business. The errands themselves went rather smoothly. It was sunny today instead of the rainy and cloudy weather last time. I also remembered to bring my camera so the pictures this time are 100% mine.

Brisbane again reminds me of Boston, but with a twist of Taiwan in the way the commercial stores are arranged with the signs and everything. Parking has not improved since the last time I went. Still hard to find parking. Still outrageously expensive. The weather was rather warm, probably a combination of being coastal and the humidity. There were many people walking around with shorts and t-shirts.

I was surprised by the number of people walking around in the afternoon. You get the feeling that the city should be larger than the 2 million by census. I suppose if I were to examine it in greater detail, the dense number of people actually only occupies a few square blocks of the CBD. Once we got to the South Bank side of Brisbane, the number of people walking dropped off quite a bit.

Here we are driving out of Toowoomba. Note the fewer cars and greater number of trees. This will change as we go on.

This is what you see driving towards Brisbane. It's a one hour forty minute drive of mostly flat land. Toowoomba sits atop a mountain about 500-600 metres above sea level.

Welcome to Brisbane. Here we are on the motorway (or freeway in the States) heading into the city. I mean, it's just like any other real city with skyscrapers and everything.

In true British colonial fashion, there are assorted buildings that hark to the European influence of the early settlement years in Australia; however...

I would say that most of modern Australian architecture is very modern. More modern than in the States I would say. While you may see modern buildings and designs in the States, too, I think it's overall more conservative than in Australia. Europe, too, I hear.

The way signs are arranged for stores is like Taiwan. It just reminded me a lot of it, so I had to make a comment about it...

and the number of people who were walking around at 1 to 3 pm on a Monday. You don't see this in LA, but probably would in NY.

Otherwise, to be honest. Aside from the driving on the left side of the road and the Aussie accent (see below clip for further entertainment), you don't really feel that far removed from what you might be used to in the States. Maybe some things are more expensive due to import tax, maybe the names of common stores and banks are different, maybe people speak differently, and maybe a BMW costs more than should legally be allowed, but overall I think there's not that big a difference.