Got to Brisbane around dinner time on the 8th May. Didn't really do anything for the rest of the day except wander round town and look in a few shops. There were two girls in my room, Lucie and Frankie, who were volunteering at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. They had the weekend off and were planning to get the train down to Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast the next day, so I invited myself.

We got up early on the Saturday and went to get the train, then a bus, then we were at Surfers. I could have spent some time in Surfers as my bus drops off and picks up there, but I'd heard mixed reviews about it so I'd decided to miss it out. I'm glad that I still got the chance to go there. There are loads of high rise hotels and, in a way it looks more like a city than a town. We chilled out on the beach for a bit then went to get some dinner and have a look round the shops. I was after getting a hoody from Cotton On so we were on a mission to track this one particular hoody down. We failed! Lucie and Frankie went back to the beach for a bit while I looked round the shops somemore, then we met back up to catch the bus back to the train station. There was talk of going out that night so we stopped off at the bottle shop and we all decided to buy a bottle of this 18% dessert wine. Big mistake!! Once back at Surfers, we showered and got ready etc. I put make up on and straightened my hair for the first time since I left and it was weird seeing how different I looked! Frankie had a headache so she went to bed, while me and Lucie went up to the roof where everyone was drinking before going out. We drank our wine and listened to music and played drinking games and at about 11:30 we went up to City hostel as there was a free mini buses to the Valley, where all the clubs are. Lucie was really drunk and disappeared and I couldn't really be bothered going to the Valley, so I went back to the hostel, hoping that Lucie would be there so I could go to bed. She was so I went to sleep.

My god! The next day was bad times! I spent the majority of the day with my head in the toilet then went to bed really early!

Monday, Lucie and Frankie were at the sanctuary, so after dinner I went for a wander across the river to South Bank Parklands. It's nice that although Brisbane's a city, all you have to do is cross the river and you're in really nice green areas. I then went to the City Botanic Gardens then walked back through town to the hostel. Nicola, who I went to Fraser Island with, was back in Brisbane so I met up with her that night for a pub quiz at her hostel. We didn't win. We were rubbish!

Tuesday, I met up with Nicola again and wandered round town. Went in Brisbane's answer to the Discount Variety Store of Rainbow Beach, but it wasn't as good. That night there was supposedly a stripper on at Down Under Bar so a few of us went to that. The stripper wasn't due on until midnight though and I knew I wouldn't last that long so me and Nicola left at about 10:30pm.

This brings me up to yesterday. My bus to Byron Bay was due at 1:30pm and we were told to be at the bus stop for 1:15pm. I was there at 1:10pm and there were already five other people waiting to get the same bus. When it still hadn't come by 2pm, one of the guys rang up and he was told that all six of us were down as 'no shows' and that the bus had driven past at 1:45pm and we weren't there. This was a lie as we'd all been sat there! So basically, the bus had gone, we'd missed it. Tough! I had my accommodation booked in Byron so I had to spend another $50 on another bus down there and I intend to send a strongly worded email to the bus people! Or rather, my dad is writing one and forwarding it to me because I'm rubbish at complaining!