I really liked this hotel. Stay 3 days and get the deal! You must stay Ocean View room. You wake up with the sun rise!!!

Once we were all recovered from the big weekend, and I could again feel my feet enough to consider walking, it was time to head north from New South Wales to visit my next friend, Selena in Surfers Paradise.

Jon jon had to go up that way to collect a waterblaster so he could do a bit of cleaning around home, so again I managed to spend some time with him driving me about the place.  I was a little bummed to have to cut a track from him but I only had two weeks and still had 4 more chums to catch. 
  Jon jon dropped me right on Selena's doorstep and then shot the gap back home.  He is due to return in the weekend and play on Tamborine Mountain, so I'll be seeing him again then anyway.

It was good to catch up with Selena.  She used to be my neighbour in Te Puke and had come over here at the beginning of the year with a couple of her kids.  She'd been back to NZ since then so I'd only seen her a couple of months ago. 
  We caught up with the goss and I spent the next couple of days exploring the shopping centres around her place, riding busses, drinking coffee...  you know the sort of thing.

On the Friday night we went into the towncentre and checked out the market.  It wasn't too fantastic but considering it was the middle of winter the place was humming quite nicely.

17 July 2005

Lying on the beach in Surfers Paradise I’m watching some Japanese tourists being swept away by high and unpredictable waves. They scream as if a tsunami had just hit them.

The sand is floury. I feel like on drugs. Surfers Paradise looks as if God had a crap here. Construction sites are everywhere. Skyscrapers spring up like mushrooms and cast an ugly cloud over the beach. The people seem happy as hell as if this was their personal paradise. This place is so strangely surreal.

Before sunset I walk back to the Islanders Hostel, a place that sucks for getting to know people. The only person in my room is Joshi from Japan. Joshi is really called Joshi and here partly for a holiday and partly to do kickboxing. He devours vitamin pills like the cookie monster cookies. I tell him that I have a Byron-Bay-Hangover but he just laughs instead of commiserating with me.

I eat a Subway Sandwich but it doesn’t taste good. I smoke a cigarette but it doesn’t taste good either. For a while I walk around town without a plan. Back in my room a couple has arrived. A couple that pays for two beds but sleeps in one. Backpacking couples are always strange. Of course they say “hi, how’s it going?” or something like that but besides that they mostly stick to themselves.

Around 10pm I fall asleep accompanied by the couple’s kissing noises and my own beating of the heart.

18 July 2005

I wake up. One month in Australia. Eleven still to go.

Everything hurts, especially my spine which is probably due to numerous different mattresses.

To ease my pain a bit I decide to go for a swim on the beach again. A wave eats me up, whirls me around, thereby almost undresses me and spits me out again. Shaky I get out of the water again and air-dry the water on my skin.

After a couple of hours of getting an imaginative tan I walk back to the hostel. I read a book for a while and then try to get my laundry dry which is a matter of pure luck with Australian driers.

I need a regular life. I’m already looking forward to (hopefully) finding a job in Brisbane. At the moment every goddamn day is weekend and in the long run this is not good. It’s nice when wanting to work. Work means time passes, money comes and with time and money the desire for more travels. And life goes on.

I like the smell of the sand and sea. I like that my skin is softer than usual. I like listening to music while roaming the streets of a new place. I like the thought of getting to Brisbane tomorrow. I like the thought of staying there for a while. I like the thought of meeting interesting people there. Permanent people. And the fact that I like all those things makes me happy. Always complaining doesn’t do any good either.

Plan for tonight: Sit down in the pedestrian area and watch people for hours until I get tired and hopefully fall asleep with a smile on my face.

But “life is like a box of chocolates… You never know what you’re gonna get”. Thanks Forrest!

So I go to the Down Under Bar instead which is right next to my hostel. There they serve “free dinner” when you buy a drink. The drink costs AU$ 5 which is more than you’d normally pay for a drink but still cheap in connection with the food. However, the dinner turns out to be a total flop. It’s two wrinkly sausages with mashy mashed potatoes (bangers and mash), broccoli and carrots. I take a seat next to three girls from Birmingham. They are travelling around Australia with OzExperience.

I blabber my usual stuff: where I’ve been, where I’m going to, for how long and so on. A bit later another English guy and James from Ireland join our conversation. We’re all having pints. One of the girls is named Lindsay and I get the feeling that there’s always one Lindsay in a group of English girls. We’re showing each other pictures on our digital cameras. Of course they think Nemo at the Sydney aquarium is “soooo cute”. They only have party pictures.

A bit later I join the two guys for “raising some hell”, as they say. They are having a spliff on the street giggling like kindergarten kids. Passing a nightclub they ask the bouncer if there were any gorgeous girls in his club. The bouncer goes “yeah yeah, mate, no worries, we have the most gorgeous girls in town, they even dance on your lap, mate, no kidding”. I see saliva dribbling from my two companion’s mouth, so we check out the club. The interior is huge but the crowd consists of a mere 15 people. And no girls. The music sucks as well. We play some pool because that’s what men do when there are no girls around.

Three beers later the guys suggest to go to “Hollywood Showgirls” which is just across the street. So I’m willing to have a look. But I soon learn that the entry is a horrendous fee of AU$ 10. Seeing my shock the female (!) bouncer of the club is trying to season the offer for me a bit more.

Bouncer: “The girls are all naked inside!”

James: “Totally naked???”

Bouncer: “Yes, they take of all their clothes and dance on your lap!”

James: “Wicked!”

James just looks at me with his eyes wide open in fascination, he wants to go in right away. I say “no, thanks” and go home which I’m very happy about. First of all because I saved 10 bucks and secondly because I resisted the temptation of this “seducing-men-with-phantasies-of-naked-women” scam.

I fall asleep with a smile on my face.

Leaving Byron was immensely difficult; there's not a lot to do in this town, and there's even less to do when the rain comes. But there's something about being a backpacker in Byron that just sucks you in. Whether it's getting drunk in Cheeky Monkeys and getting a snog from a random 18 year old blonde (in my case), or even just sipping goon with your international hostile mates outside your dorm, there's a real fun, friendly, family spirit that's infectious. Also it's the reluctance to have to head off to pastures new. I was waiting for the weather to clear up, but after waiting so long I knew I had to get on the move again.
Waking up at half six in the morning for a bus to takes me to Surfers Paradise sucked, especially since I went to Cheeky Monkeys and got drunk again the previous night. But what was worse was the sight that greeted me when I actually arrived. To quote my sister, it was "like Benidorm". Huge towering high rise hotels dominated the skyline, and everywhere was shop after restaurant after club, all catering for holiday masses. I thank my lucky stars the council of Byron voted to keep it the way it is; you will never see McDonalds there, thank god.
The weather was again equally poor, thick blanket clouds absorbed the sky and the rain was constant and lasted until the evening. No one bothered going to the beach when it was like this. I had booked into Islander Hotel, which had a section converted into dorm rooms for backpackers. It was okay, nothing special but it had an ensuite bathroom and TV, and the Bristol lads I was sharing it with seemed amiable enough.
I bumped into Freddie, a guy I met in Cheeky Monkeys. Him and his mate had been in Surfers for one night and had now booked into my hostel. While getting some food we were acosted my some English guy in a booth on one of the main streets. He somehow managed to pursuade us to go on an organised pub crawl around the town, taking in several clubs for a while and having one free drink at each club. I was still tired and wanted a break from alcohol but somehow he gave us a discount to ensure I went along; my contribution was only $20. The pub crawl started at the ridiculous time of 5.00pm. I was determined to mainly just use my free drinks and not buy too many, especially as the prices were atrocious. The other guys just bought drinks as they needed but I managed to hold off to a degree. We went from club to club as the organisers rallied round us, talking to us with megaphones. I found them pretty patronising; generally I do know how to cross roads, thank you very much. The last club we went to was holding a magazine sponsored swimwear contest. I remember thinking some of the girls looked pretty uncomfortable as they paraded around the stage to a bunch of randoms staring at us.
The next day I woke up at 12 having had a much needed long sleep. The first thing I did was book my bus ticket out of this place and up to Brisbane. I knew that I needed to get out of hostels for a while and that I needed to carefully plan the next few days. I found a hotel that was right near the coach station; perfect for arriving and leaving on time. I know Brisbane is a major city but I really can't be bothered with getting trains to my accomodation, even if it means paying more. I booked into the George Williams hotel, which is actually run with the purpose of raising money for YMCA. It infact has a YMCA gym attached which hotel members can use free of charge. The rate was fairly reasonable; $129 per night for a standard double with hot breakfast voucher to use in the attached restaurant. This would be exactly what I needed to sort myself out and use as a base to explore the city. I booked three nights, meaning I have a weekend at Brisbane and can then start my traveling again fresh on Monday morning.

...and other sports

Tuesday:

Our bus from Byron left at 10:35, Marj and I were on the same Premier bus and the guys took the Greyhound. At the bus stop I ran into the guys from highschool again who happened to be on the same bus as me...small world. It doesn't take too long to get to Surfers from Byron so that was a quick bus ride, we got there at about noon. But there is a time difference so that helped too. Our hostel also picked us up from the bus stop too, which is always good. We stayed at Surf n Sun Beachside backpackers, which is an awesome place, I would def stay there again. But it was raining when we got there! What the heck is with all the rain here right now! I heard this is the most rain they've gotten in 25 years...not cool. We wandered around town for a bit in the rain and met up with Amy, a girl I met in Fiji who is living in here with her friends. We had lunch at this Irish pub type thing which was super cheap, 9 bucks for fish and chips..not bad eh. Afterwards we did some more wandering, nothing too exciting, met up with Justine for a bit and then split up again. We all planned to go out that night so we went back to get ready and nap and whatever. Amy came with us and we chilled in our room for a bit and then Marj and I had some gourmet dinner, Nesquick cereal. We sat with some guys here on a rugby trip from NZ and they were really funny, we chatted with them for a while and then played some Kings Cup, or as they say over here, circle of death. It was tons of fun, everyone got really smashed. Then the whole hostel went out together to Melbas bar at about 10. We got free entry and a free drink, which was sweet. I ran into the guys from school again, chatted with them for a while. Justine came and so did Amy and it was a blast, I maybe drank too much though..oh well. It was a sweet night though.

Wednesday:

So we slept in a little bit today, or at least I did, wasn't really feeling 100% to say the least. We went to the beach for a bit in the morning but the weather wasn't that great so we didn't stay that long and the sand was ridiculous and kept blowing in my face and I was getting really annoyed so we left and changed and whatever. We went for a dip in our pool and then wandered the city again, had some lunch at a small pizza place that was actually really good. $5 for a good sized pizza and a pop. After some more wandering we headed back to the hostel But as we were heading back we got suckered in to going on a $40 pub crawl that night that started at 5. We had to go back because the pub crawl started so early. When we got back I got ready and then ran into one of the Kiwi guys, Gareth, from last night and we chatted for a bit and watched part of Harry Potter 5 that was on the hostel movie channel. We all headed off to Cheerleaders at about 4:45. By the time we got there the line was already huge, we found out there was about 300 people on that pub crawl. So it started off at Cheerleaders then we went over to Strike, the bowling bar. There we met some Aussie guys from Melbourne and chatted to them for a bit then one of them went for a bowl and then said I should go, so I did and after I went some girl came up to me and was like 'Um you just took his turn' I was so emberassed! I didn't know, I thought you could just go up whenever you felt like it. Silly me. After Strike we went over to Melba's for a bit..then we went to another bar that I cannot recall the name of. The last bar we went to was called Bedroom, based on the one from Sex and the City. There were a bunch of beds everywhere, it was sweet. Except that we all started drinking at like 5 so by the time we got to Bedroom we were so tired and there were so many beds everywhere yet you weren't allowed to sleep! I ended up going home about 12:30 I think.

Thursday:Happy Valentines Day!

I woke up feeling like butt today. The boys decided to have a romantic day at Dreamworld together while Marj and I went shopping. We went out at like 10 or 11 and wandered, bought a couple things had some lunch then went back. On our way back we saw Gareth, Hayden and John from NZ and went to the beach with them for a bit and then went back to our hostel. Afterwards Gareth and I went over to play a game of mini golf at King Tuts Mini Putt...lol. It looked really cool when you walked in but turned out to be really easy and lame. But it was still kinda fun. After the mini golf we went back to the hostel and I chilled with the Kiwis and this old Canadian guy for a bit, who whipped out a guitar and started playing songs for us. EVERYONE always plays Wonderwall, I hear that song wherever I go! Its like the only song people know I swear. Anyway, after a while me Marj, Tobias and Mat went out for a nice romantic dinner....at Red Rooster lol. We came back and there were tons of people there, it was punch night. I also got a valentine from Gareth haha it was cute...but kind of embarassing as the girl yelled it out infront of everyone haha. But at about 10 everyone headed over to Shooters, which is decorated like a country bar but unfortunately does not play country music! Lame. We didn't stay there that long because we had an early bus in the morning but we did stay long enough to run into Laith, Nick and Mike from my highschool haha. Also as we were leaving we saw Amy and her friend. We chatted to them for a bit but went home pretty shortly after, probably were in bed at 12:30.

Upon arrival in Surfers, we were met by a stretch limo, waiting to take us to our hostel. Our room was fantastic...a whole apartment for the four of us, complete with olympic sized bathroom and kitchen....or so we thought! We spent the whole day gushing over our new residence, spreading our stuff over every available surface...until later that evening when people started wandering through and using OUR facilities. At this point we realised that our palace was infact being shared by another 6 people...and our beds were in the communal area! We quickly got over this when we saw the beach however. It stretched on for as far as you can see, and the waves were humungous! The first day, me and Laura trotted down to the sea, wearing our 'fashion' bikinis...took one step forwards and 100 steps back...now minus said bikini! The strength of the waves were phenominal. We couldnt understand how the children were managing to stay alive in the swell, when we could only teeter around on the edge screaming like girls. To combat this problem, the next day I donned a full body sock, and waded in with no fear of indecent exposure. And the result was awesome! Standing up was not an option...as the waves approached, you had to dive underneath them (SO MUCH FUN!) Unfortunatly, Graeme's 6'3" didnt take too kindly to being launched underneath waves...leading to him headbutting the floor on several occasions!

The rest of the day involved standard beach antics: digging holes, burying flip flops etc. Scott seemed to get the raw end of the deal on all occasionas however!...We buried him up to his ankles, and then proceeded to tickle his feet until he went red....then we buried his $70 flip flops and managed to convince him that someone had probably stolen them...at which point he went around the beach in a panic asking people if they'd seen the flip flop thief! At the point where he was wondering whether to tell the life guard, and started wandering over to a man with a metal detector for help, we decided to let him in on the secret...and suffered his silence for the rest of the day!

Went over in Surfers for a week end for my mate's 21st, it was awesome I had some real good time =)

Surfers Paradise was a lot of fun. There wasn't much to it really, just nice beaches and lots of hotels.  Not much shopping, just souvenier shops, places selling bathing suits, fast food restaurants and ice cream shops.

Most of our honeymoon was spent here in a holiday apartment at Pacific Point on the Beach. Pacific Point was nothing flashy, but it was bloody cheap and had a full kitchen which we wanted since we didn't want to eat out every day.  It also boasted a pool and a bbq area which we used quite a lot. It was a 10 minute walk from the centre of Surfers, and right across the road from Main Beach. Also very close to King Tutt's Putt Putt, and a little corner store and bottle shop. I would reccomend this place if you want to stay in Surfers for longer than a couple of nights, and you can get a good deal where you buy 5 nights get 1 free sort of thing at this website. We even got upgraded to a bigger room which had 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and an ocean view, instead of the single room river view.

We spent a lot of time at the beach, and also in the centre, which had the Ripleys Believe it Or Not Museum. Ripleys was really fun. We also went to a Wax Museum, which was just awful. There were two sections, the Wax Museum and the Chamber of Horrors.  I think it was like $20 to get in to the Wax Museum by itself, or $30 for both sections, but I didn't particular feel the need to see a bunch of torture devices and wax models of corpses so we just went to the Museum part. There were a bunch of celebrities, the best of which we'd already seen pictures of in the brochure. The thing was, they were all behind glass, so we couldn't take our pictures with them or anything which sucked. There was an audio guide being played throughout, with the volume so low we couldn't here what it was saying, and we went through the whole place in about 10 minutes. Most of the dummies didn't look much like the person at all, and there were lots of old politicians and who wants to see that really? We felt pretty ripped off by the whole thing and would not recommend it.

We had a number of great snacks here, mostly ice cream and gelati, there was plenty to choose from. There was also a place that sold pizza by the slice and they had the best Margherita pizza I'd ever tasted (I'm sure it'll be better in Italy next year though).  The best thing about Surfers is that there are brochures and guides of the place everywhere, and the guides have lots of coupons, so we got lots of stuff really cheap. If you go there pick up some brochures, you can get 2 for 1 smoothies at Boost Juice Bar as much as you want, and theres heaps of meal discounts too.  There was even a 2 for 1 coupon for the Old Time Photos so we got a couple of Old Time Photos done.  Old Time Photos are like a Surfers Paradise tradition, everyone gets them and they are a great souvenier. Do it!

The longest journey yet, we left Sydney station on a greyhound bus that left at 6pm and arrived in Surfers the next day at 10am, long long long journey but deffo worth it!

We wonderd with our backpacks to the beach and through the shopping area just to have a look before jumping in a cab and getting dropped off 20 mins later at my good friend's mike's house, and what a house at that. not only is the weather fantastic up here but i get to spend time with my mate who moved over here 2 months ago. He has a pool, jaccuzi, Outside eating area, goegeous kitchen and house, massive tv and a shark fish tank! So we didnt waste any time getting down the bottle shop and getting a create and testing the pool and jaccuzi...

After catching up we went into Surfers itself for the evening and eneded up in a club called 'bedroom' which is actually a massive bedroom, beds everywhere, brill club just crap music!

I'm not actually going to go in to too much detail at the moment becuase i got alot of sunbathing and drinking and catching up to do!

peace!

Today we spent shopping in Surfers getting all our last min bits and pieces. Once you get on the trail you realise there's little things you need. Sure, they aren't essential, but that giant beach spread, little hairclips for pinning back hair, extra socks, mean you have everything you want at your fingertips. Start-up costs I call them.

We wandered back to the hostel along the beach. The weather hasn't been great, but it was actually pretty cool on the beach. In fact I think I prefer beaches in this weather - almost deserted beach, moody purple sky, cool breeze through your hair and pock-marked cool sand under your toes. I much prefer it to the busy yellow hot days, walking that far through people would have been impossible in the sunshine.

The hostel was holding it's bi-weekly club crawl that night, but we were so tired when we got back we relievedly admitted to each other that we would rather give it a miss and just settled for a drink at the bar. Should have known better than to go down before they left, and Megha had soon had her arm twisted and bought me a ticket with 5 minutes to change. I had reservations, but still wanted to make friends, so we joined the fun bus and the 50 other people from 5 other hostels and set off into town. If I tell you that first we had to adorn ourselves with a red or green sticker according to our 'availability' and were handed two condoms then that will set the tone for the evening.... (I refused to wear any sticker on principle, call me a kill joy if you like but I'm not that kind of girl)

We stopped first at the bowling alley where it was just a free-for-all. When you weren't queueing to grab a bowling ball you were making friends with the person standing next to you. I was amused to meet a guy who works at Columbus Boys School in the town next to mine, that I drive past all the time, and chatted to a few other people from other hostels. We then moved on to a series of other clubs, each time being handed a free drink on arrival and pizza in the queue to sustain us. A war started out over the coloured glowsticks each hostel was identified by and I was offered many drinks and kisses for my rare pink one, all of which I declined. The collector of all 6 colours could get a free surf lesson at 8am next morning. Our room-mate Renae managed to get all 6 but since she didn't get in till 5am and needed to present her winnings at the office at 7am she obviously didn't make it. I doubt anyone else did either! I love to dance, so I had fun dancing, but the general point of the evening was somewhat wasted on me. I enjoyed myself to a point, but left around 4am to walk home. On the whole, it's a lesson learned. I did 18-30 when I was 18yrs old, I don't need to do it now. Next time I will hang out at the hostel with the other people for whom pulling and shagging isn't their foremost goal, rather than be herded like cattle and spat at by the locals (!)

We checked out early, dumped our bags at the hostel 2 doors up (Wizard of Oz - affiliated with the hostel we were in and annoyingly much nicer with common room, dvds and TV etc) and wandered down for a five dollar lunch and wireless at Five-O's bar above McDonalds. We concocted a rough plan for the excursion we want to go on but our phones wouldn't call the 1800 numbers so we decided to leave it till we got to Coolangatta, before setting off to catch our plane around 3.30pm. As we landed at 7pm it became clear that it had been raining, and our shuttle bus drove through some amazing forked lightning till we finally arrived at our hostel in the pouring rain. My flip flop fell off as we were running and started floating away! So much for the Gold Coast and the jealous friends we left behind! At the hostel we ran under cover into the bar area with pool table, TVs, sofas and books. It seemed like a really cool place so we dropped our bags and came downstairs for a drink. It's the first time we've shared a dorm, and the first time we've had to strike up conversation with other travelers since our last hostel we had a room to ourselves and no bar. I suggested a pool game as a good way to start conversation but it was Megha's request for an ATM that got us chatting and soon we were sat down with a Matt, Maria, her swedish friend and Tiger, a rowdy old fella down here to do security for the upcoming Indy 300 streetcar racing. Since the bar was shutting soon, Matt cleared out the bar of beers and when they shut off the lights we sat in the dark with a torch chatting. We stayed up till about 1am until the younger kids paired off for a grope so Megs and I went to bed. It's a bit weird hanging out with kids, but I'm hoping the excursions will see a more varied age group and more cultural past-times!

So we caught seperate flights this morning: Neil to Brisbane for work, me to Coolangatta cos it's cheaper. I caught the bus to Surfers Paradise to drop some stuff with the ex-fella for him to take back to UK before heading up to Brisbane by train. I LOVE Surfers Paradise, what a vibrant little place! I can't wait to spend a lot of time here! I dropped stuff at his hotel and then headed down to the beach, which is just fabulous sand. Without a towel I had to sit straight on it. I am sandy now. This is an under-statement.

I met Andy a little later and we went for dinner at the Captains Table and then for a walk on the beach where we said our last goodbyes. I took the train from Nerang to Brisbane and walked to Neil's hotel, ready for new adventures tomorrow.

Perhaps I'm being a but harsh - Surfers is much nicer than Blackpool, but it's a real sea-side town with a similar vibe, but much nicer people, restaurants, beaches and things to do!

We arrived mid afternoon on the Greyhound from Byron, and had, if memory serves, already booked a night at the Surfers Paradise Backpackers Resort (to give it it's full name) on the Gold Coast Highway. It got a good write up and was recommended by people we'd met. The had free laundry services, and fans in the rooms and nice looking facilities so we thought it'd do.

We ended up staying two nights nights, which was absolutely fine. We were in a 6 person dorm the first night, and had to move to another the second, as we'd only booked night by night, which wasn't a problem.

We spent our first day finding our way around - the hostel's really well located and there was a free bus to get you from the transit centre to the resort itself. The staff we really friendly, and helped us decipher the bus timetable to get out to Dreamworld (more on that to follow!).

For me, one of the best bits about Surfers was that it had a Hard Rock Cafe - if I'm in a city that has one, I HAVE to get there, I always buy a shot glass and at least one pin badge, a habit I started when I was 10 in Singapore (the badges, not the shots!). We didn't eat there, but found a nice cafe on the seafront and wandered for the rest of the afternoon, picked up some dinner and went back to the resort, where the kitchen facilities were top notch, and it was nice to eat outside, where a group of people were playing volleyball. At night we went out for a walk again, but decided against the hostel's organised pub crawl - we were off to Dreamworld the next day, and knew we'd need our sleep!