Back to Brisbane

Why is it that all the Wicked Campervans look better and newer than ours?!
Anyway we arrived back in Brisbane and had 3 nights to check out this supposed laid back city.
Our hostel is good, it just feels strange again to be back in a proper bed!
No matter how much you look at a map of Brisbane not one bit of it will show you how bloody steep some of the streets are. Why did no-one tell me this!? Added to the fact that during the day it gets to around 35 degrees celcius makes walking around pretty hard work.
To be honest by this stage I was ready for a change and wanted to leave Australia. Not that I hated or anything it's just I was ready to move on. Still, I was going to give Brisbane a chance.
A small Chinatown area(again a huge Chinese population in another city, how come they don't live anywhere else? oh yes, money) was ok and we got an average meal in there. Next day we headed out to see what looked like a really cool park area. It was too. Roma Street Parkland. Thing is getting there wasn't easy. The map again failed to notify my of the incredibly steep streets we had to plod up to get there. Damn it! Once there we strolled around the tropical lush forest areas next to water fountains, palm trees, exotic bushes and a small river. Not bad, not brill. Frickin hot either way.
By this stage I'd become a complete coffee addict. Iced coffee that is, it's too hot for a warm one. Australia has a great selection of iced coffee and everyday I make it my duty everyday whilst filling up the van to buy some, Paul's Coffee and Farmers Union are the bast but from state to state they don't sell the same stuff. Not sure why anyone would care but there you go. Suffice to say we ended up spending a bit of time in various coffee shops doing nowt and preparing for the next destination.
There are some nice looking buildings here, such as the old Customs house, that have mostly been renovated and changed into restaurants, bars or University buildings.
The quirky art thing of this place is that all the electricity boxes, you see them in England all the time and they are all green, are sprayed up with different random art and drawings. Why not.
Across the river near the arena where we saw Tori Amos is a strange mix of stuff. Quite good aswell. There's a man-made beach area, under renovation at the time but a great idea I thought. Near that was a tropical forest with bamboo and a boardwalk leading to a Nepalese temple. A bit surreal but very well built. Did no-one notice all the naked carvings of various sexual acts? It was clear to see this was a fertility temple, if you get my drift. This was all built was for the 1988 world Expo that was held in Brisbane. I beginging to see why, it's quite a nice place.
Away from the temple was a 'lifestyle' market. Which just means a hippy market to me. It was pretty good though as there was an excellent Spanish guitar player there. He was shreading it up outstide an old colonial style building that made us instantly think about the South American adventure to come! If it was for the zombie brained lumps asking us for a 'fag' without even a please or thank you I'd think more of the place. I tell thee, manners are lost on a large portion of these people.
There's a decent shopping and bar street but it's a pity they've obscured the great looking buildings housing the shops with a giant metal frame thingy.
Brisbane isn't a great place, it's not a bad place either. The main areas, of which there are 3, are too far apart for my liking so we ended up doing a massive amount of walking in baking heat. It's disjionted but I'm sure if you lived here you'd have a bus pass or something. Laid back this place is not. Cars screw down every street and if you don't move away from traffic lights within a nano-second of them turning green you're garaunteed to get an earful of horn!
Our time in Oz was over. A bit of reflection perhaps?