just returned from a trip to gold coast. qld is so different from how i remember it. or... i don't remember much at all!
i used to go to gold coast frequently when i was living in brisbane. visiting again, it looks so different to me. like a completely different city. but a friend who lives locally says it didn't change much.
for those who don't know or remember, i grew up in qld.
last time i went to brisbane was almost 10 years ago. the prior visit was another almost 10 years before that.
i stayed in gold coast this time because my bff from overseas is staying there. the closest i got to brisbane was logan city, visiting another friend.
there are friends i didn't get to see because we're not staying in brisbane.
my biggest complaint this trip is, it's hard to find a place for coffee in late afternoon. most coffee shops close at 3pm! i thought it was just gold coast but i was told it's the same in brisbane.
since i don't remember much about the place, it's like i'm visiting a new place.
in fact, apart from same language and currency, it was like a different country.
maybe because gold coast is a tourist area?
one major difference road-wise, it's quite common to make u-turn at most intersections. thought the navigation is playing up when instruction says to make a u-turn at the next light... :D
the road trip
we decided to drive because our car needs exercise. it was lucky we made this decision and was unaffected by crowdstrike. (for future me, this was the biggest IT glitch that crippled almost all systems world-wide.)
we are so impressed with the new highway. it's "new" considering we haven't done interstate driving for almost 20+ years.
back in the days, there were lots of 1-lane roads (the frustration of following slow cars.) lots of bypasses into local towns (so many slow downs). what's worse it was quite common to get windscreen damaged. happened 2x, iirc.
driving experience is so much better this time. tax money well spent.