I’ve always had a love hate relationship with Brisbane. Growing up in the cane fields of the Sunshine Coast, the city was always looming in my mind as it was only an hour or so away. I spent many a school holidays with my grandparents and cousin in the suburb of Enoggera and it was a big deal for us to go in to town on the bus. Once in town I would be bombarded with noise and people and shiny products that I’d only ever seen on television.
In high school my friends and I would take day trips on the train from Nambour to the city where we would go shopping and enjoy the freedom of not being with adults. The trip on the way home would be the best because we were tired and would pour our little teenage angst pains out.
Years later, after living in the UK for a year and seeing such cities as Amsterdam and London, the city’s smallness was sufficating for me. I was a “world traveller” now and I disdained it’s big town attitude. I lived in Balmoral and West End for about 3 years and moaned about how shit the place was. But after a while – especially once I moved to West End – I grew to love the place again.
Although I’m now getting frustrated again living here (places to go, people to see) I’m still aware that there are things about this place I love.
So, I now present to you my list of things I like about Brisbane:
- Driving over the Story Bridge at night. The city is always beautiful at night and the Story Bridge shows it off with the lights on the water. Night makes the city look like a bustling mega metropolis.
- The Citycats. This is the most obvious display of the new Brisbane we are trying to be – a forward thinking modern place that knows it’s strengths and shows it off. Tourists love it and the best thing for commuters is that there is no traffic. My tip? Stand at the front and feel like you are flying.
- Coming over the hill on the freeway just before the Gaza Rd exit near Mt Gravatt. This is your first glimpse of the CBD if you are coming to Brisbane from the Gold Coast. Day or night this is the best view to give you an idea of the spanse of the city and skyscrapers are always interesting to me.
- Southbank. A pretty obvious choice as not many cities have a lifesaver patrolled beach in the middle of the CBD. This park is the major gathering point for Brisbanites especially at Christmas, New Years and Australia Day. It helps to have the river as the special guest star with the lights of the city and riverside expressway as props.
- The Myer Centre. This brought people back to the city and when it first opened it had a rollercoaster and ferris wheel on the top floor. They are long gone, but the Myer Centre still is THE PLACE to go shopping in the city. It helps that it is a major bus terminus underneath where all the sections are marked with Australian animals. Nice touch.
There are many more things such as Kangaroo Point, West End and Mt Cootha, but instead of me rattling them off I thought I might ask for comments. What is it about Brisbane that you like?
Is the CityCat thing some latent “Titanic” fantasy?
Which prompts me to ask, are you “The King Of The World”?
A few of my favourite things about BrisVegas……
+ The clock on the Suncorp building (for me it will always be the SGIO building); soooooo hi-tech in the 1970s!
+ Likewise the weather thingy on top of the Hitachi (MLC) building; no-one every remembers what the lights mean, unless it’s raining: “Oh, so that pattern must mean it’s going to rain!”
+ The Story Bridge – it’s alive; it moves, it talks, it sings! can’t wait until the BridgeClimb tours start.
+ The kangaroo sculptures in George Street.
+ South Bank Beach – it’s like a beach! In the middle of the city, man. Like, amazing….
+ Taking only 15 minutes to get from the CBD to true bushland (at Mt Coot-tha).
+ the crazy-happy guard on CityTrain, who is so chirpy and wishes everyone a good day when they get off at Central.
+ Stefan’s re-cycled phallic symbol at South Brisbane – who said nothing good comes of world-class events held in Brisbane?
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The thing I like best about Brisbane is I don’t live there. Having said that, there are things I do like about it:
– I love riding down by the bay along Wynnum-Lota, which is easily accessible from home and makes a nice adjunct to my rides around the Redland.
– I enjoy going the Planetarium at Mt Coot-tha.
– Seeing movies at the Eldorado Cinema at Indooroopilly.
– Eating pizza at Slice in West End. It is always interesting to watch all the different characters walking past.
– Coming over Camp Hill in the morning and seeing hot air balloons floating over the city.
Yeah, I don’t live their either, so my favourite things about Brisbane are probably things that you would take for granted.
1) I agree about driving over the Story Bridge at night – it’s beautiful. I almost crashed on the bridge one night because I was too busy looking around, luckily I remembered that I was driving. I did manage to stay straight in the lines however – very proud.
2) The painted power boxes. There is an artist who has gone around doing paintings over the boxes that are near traffic lights etc – I don’t know what you call them. But that is cool as! Whenever I go to Brisbane I’m always looking out for new ones.
3) My sisters house – it’s like one gigantic play house.
That’s all I’ve got really…
The myer centre is also the place to be food/drink spiked and gassed