Have I found the cycling paradise?

What can I say about Australia? "Wow” comes into mind. “Unreal”, “Heaven”….something along those lines.

Before I start writing an entire dissertation about my first impression about Brisbane, I will keep it in bullet points:

• Holy cow! Everywhere mango trees (my favorite fruit) Delicious, juicy and for free! 
• Weather! It is always T-Shirt or less weather. Rain? Well, let it rain, it is still so warm that it doesn’t matter if it is pouring.
• Cycling scene – Overwhelming! If I would do every group ride in town, it might take me a year or two to do all of them. At 5:30am when I ride 20 minutes to a group ride meet up point, I see 10 other cycling groups on their rides, no kidding!
• Every group ride ends in a café. And oh my god, they make amazing strong coffee!!!
• The terrain is great here in Brisbane. Mostly undulating terrain... those short little 10-20 seconds pitches everywhere make every ride more or less to an interval training.
• Scenery – love it. Very varied. You got the ocean with some beautiful beaches in riding distance, the river through the city, the subtropical vegetation and colorful fauna everywhere. In fact, this morning at breakfast, rainbow colored parrots argued over the nectar of a pink tree flower. Seeing kangaroos on a ride is not unusual either. 
• Atmosphere – relaaaaaxed. The best indicator how relaxed a region is the time in the coffee shop after a group ride. I might have spent a solid 1.5-2 hours there. Of course, with a coffee shop and bakery on every corner combined with the amazing weather makes it hard to be stressed out.

Yep, I think I will stick around here for a while. J