Brisbane central

Today I had the chance to really explore downtown Brisbane - the city center and all that it has to offer. But I started the day at a local shopping mall - in order to pick up a few souvenirs and books, but also to get more of a feel of everyday life here. The mall was certainly similar to, say, Tyson's, in terms of scale - but much of it reminded me more of a British shopping mall, and this included several of the stores too. There were many very familiar, British stores - and British produce too. But there was also a Target and a K-Mart! Oh - and many, many coffee bars again.
In order to reach downtown Brisbane, I took one of the express buses that travels on the incredible 'Busway' - a simple, but brilliant concept. Separate, walled roads were built (in about 2001), purely for these express buses - to get people quickly in and out of the city without having to go through any traffic at all. A journey that would have taken about 30 minutes, took less than 10. Superb.
Brisbane was bustling - it was lunchtime on a regular workday. It was like many busy, thriving cities - with impressive skyscrapers and an encouraging amount of new development and infrastructure improvement still going on. Prime Minister Rudd has certainly made sure that jobs are being created and that construction is going ahead, to help Australia recover from the tough economic times the world is going through.
I walked down to the riverside, which was lined with cafes and restaurants and a marina too, and then onwards into the beautiful Botanical Gardens. It was reminiscent of Central Park - but with palm trees!
I crossed the new pedestrian (and cycle) bridge - the Goodwill Bridge - that took me over to the South Bank. This was an area of Brisbane that was re-vitalized significantly in 1988, when Brisbane hosted Expo (the World's Fair). The South Bank now houses an elegant riverside path and boardwalk, countless cafes and restaurants, a Museum, an Art Gallery, Theaters, Cinemas, concert halls and a huge Convention Center. Impressive stuff - and reminiscent of the South Bank in London - particularly as it also has a huge Ferris wheel on the banks of the river, rather like the London Eye.
There is even a beach and swimming area - which was being put to perfect use by many happy children and their families on this beautiful, warm afternoon. There were also countless Ibis birds - hoping a kind tourist would share their lunch with them. I noticed several signs warning against this practice!
Brisbane is very well planned and designed and contains just about everything you could want and need in a city. Looking across at the skyline from the South Bank, I remembered that just yesterday I had been looking at all this from the mountain top of Mount Coot'tha. It's equally impressive up close - and I'm thrilled to have had the time to get to know this exciting, surprising, beautiful city.