A More Relaxed Town

I'm finding Brisbane to be a city that relaxes better than DC does. It may just be me. I can relax more because I'm not working in the traditional sense. My schedule is quite loose.

But it feels like Brisbane is happier to let go and quicker to chill out somehow. I had tea with a local woman on Sunday and she said the same thing. This is a town that lives for warm weather, beaches, and good times.

Heck, the city built their own beach on the riverfront! These are a people who live to be outdoors and chillin'.

Saturday dawned stunningly beautiful here. It was clearly going to be a warm day -- up near 80 -- and suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuny. Bright blue skies. You know what I'm talking about.

We'd discovered an affordable movie theater on the south bank (only $8.50, which is about half what a ticket normally costs). It's 2nd run movies but at the rate we get to movies, that's just fine. Neither of us had seen "Despicable Me" and that sounded just about our speed so we headed out about 9:30 anm to make the 10:15 am showing.

Jeff's not a big walker and it's maybe 20-30 minutes to walk so we actually took the ferry straight across the river. If you draw a straight line from our apartment to the theater, the only thing in your way is the river. We were on the ferry for a whopping, oh, 30 seconds but it did save about 20 minutes of walking.

When we came out of the movie, it was noon and the south bank parkland was busy. Lots of people having picnics, cooking out, throwing frisbees, or just strolling along. It really is a sweet part of downtown Brisbane.

These people seem to have a strong and natural urge to kick back. Gotta like that.