When we arrived someone from the hostel came to pick us up from the bus station, we got back to the hostel, checked in and were glad to be told that we were staying in a house next door, this meant only having to share the living area, kitchen and bathroom with one other couple, great! Was our first thought, until we got into our room... the bed sheets were filthy! Blood stains and hair all over them so obviously hadn't been changed for a while and i've seen better mattresses in skips! They did change the linen for us but we had to stick with the lumpy mattress :(

We stayed 4 nights in Surfers and spent most of our time roaming around the city and on the odd sunny day lying on the beach taking in the early morning sunshine. The only way to describe Surfers Paradise is a glorified Newquay with masses of souvenir shops, surf shops and greasy spoon cafes. The streets are lined with high risers which are pretty impressive to look at but shade the beach from the sun from about 3pm onwards. The nightlife is buzzing with plenty of bars and clubs offering Hummer limousine experiences and 'free' booze.

For most of our stay we ate in and around Surfers but soon got bored of chips, burgers, battered fish and chicken schnitzel so we decided to venture out to Broad Beach on our last night, which we were told was full of more 'gourmet' cousine. We hopped on the local bus and made our way there. We were spoilt for choice with rows of Greek Tavernas, Traditional Italian restaurants and plenty of Seafood restaurants. We chose Sage, a modern australian restaurant which had a warm but vibrant atmosphere and settled for lamb shank, salmon fillets and sticky date pudding to finish, it was truly devine and worth the short ride.

We also checked out 'The Hogs Breath Cafe', (steak house), very popular over here and famous for their succulent steaks. The meat lived up to its expectations but the lumpy mash and over cooked veg was a let down.

Whilst roaming the beach in Surfers we came across the 'Meter Maids' we had read about, pretty girls dressed in gold bikinis who top up peoples parking meters to stop them getting fines. We had a chat to them and they told us that the local communities were unhappy about the parking meters being introduced so decided to hire girls to go round with lose changed topping up the meters to stop the government making money on fines. Nowadays they have no funding so charge money for people to have their picture taken with them, and also sell calendars and other souvenirs, of course, Ash went for the up and close photo opportunity! Lol...

Next stop - Brisbane to stay with the Rodgers family! :)