New-world city
Brisbane is the capital of the state of Queensland with a population of about 2.5 million people, making it the third-largest city in Australia. Brisbane calls itself a "new-world city" as it is rapidly developing and forward-thinking while still sharing the vibrant, laid back and friendly atmosphere of East Coast Cities. It is the fastest growing city in Australia, attracting many young people because of its better, warmer climate and lower prices compared to Sydney and Melbourne.
Brisbane serves as a gateway to the state of Queensland, particularly to the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast, where tourists can find various surf beaches, each located very close of Brisbane.
Natural climbing walls inside the city
I arrived to Brisbane from Sunshine Coast. In my hostel, the City Backpackers, I was greeted friendly by a few Germans who were still dozing in the afternoon to sleep off their alcohol intoxication. Their vocabulary didn't know much more words than "booze", "weed" or "ay mate". They were in Australia actually only for boozing and smoking pot. Where they got the money for that, I wondered myself a lot. The whole hostel was full of such drunkards, so I changed the next day to a more quiet hostel. The Breeze Lodge was a bit off the center but very clean, comfortable and and with a relaxed atmosphere. It was also close to Kangaroo Point, from where you have a great view over the city. Not far away there is also a natural climbing wall where you can climb against a (quite high) fee. And that in the middle of a city!
Similar to Melbourne
Brisbane reminded me very much of Melbourne. The Central Business District (CBD) is filled with many skyscrapers and cute little cafés on every street corner. The cool quarters with trendy bars and restaurants are located a bit outside and are separated by the river. Both are very modern megacities with a young age average thanks to the many universities. This makes the cities open for innovation and gives them a pleasant character. For example, I witnessed an incredible number of people driving around on the new e-scooters. And as for almost all Australian cities, you see extremely many Asians (especially Chinese). In the great Cafe Bonsai Botanika, which I visited, I was certainly the only non-Asian.
If you like it warmer you should prefer Brisbane, because Melbourne is much colder than Brisbane. Especially older Australians move away from cold Melbourne to warm Brisbane, also because they are less affected by allergies here.
Nice to live, boring for tourists
Brisbane as well as Melbourne please more when you live there than when you travel there as a tourist since both cities lack remarkable sights. To explore the city you should cross the river with the red ferries for which you don't have to pay anything. You can take nice walks along the river where they have a nice promenade full of joggers and cyclists. The city also offers a nice public lagoon where you can swim. It is also definitely worthwhile to visit the Queensland Museum with its many exhibitions about the history of Australia including its flora and fauna. Moreover, there is a prepared 7 metres long specimen of a giant squid that was caught in 2004 in front of the coast of New Zealand. These can grow up to 13 metres long.
My travel speed adapted to the casual atmosphere of the east coast and so I used to chill longer at places than usual. After almost 1 week I left Brisbane and drove further south to the Gold Coast.
