The Cave

We moved into the hostel which was in Surfers Paradise on the Gold Coast about an hour South of Brisbane. Surfers Paradise is a bit of a party town and a popular tourist destination, for foreigners and Aussies alike, thanks to its beachside location and nightlife. The surrounding areas are stunning and much less party orientated but the work was in Surfers so that's where we settled.

The work at this hostel was much easier than in Sydney. We were still cleaning and although we were meant to do 5 hours 5 days a week,

The hostel was so small and there were so many staff that the cleaning team got away with working about 2.5 hours a day. You did 4 cleaning shifts a week and 1 'repping' shift. This meant that you organised and got people to sign up and pay for a group meal in the evening followed by a night out in the city. The perks of this shift being that you got free drinks at the bars you went to. The more people you got signed up, the more free drinks you got. This meant you got a free night out once a week which was a nice bonus, especially as it counted towards your accomadation work!

At first we got put in the all girls dorm in the hostel which had hair straighteners and loads of mirrors, a bit of luxury by hostel standards! This hostel was completely the opposite to the one in Sydney, the rooms were bigger, each dorm had a kitchen and there were loads of sofas to chill out on. It even had a pool! It had a really friendly and chilled out vibe and was just what we were looking for!

Unfortunately the nice comfy accommodation didn't last too long as due to previous staff moving on we had to move into 'The Cave' this was a small house in a block of flats just down the road from the main hostel building. Nicknamed the Cave most probably due to the dark, damp cramped and dirty condition! Amie and i were a bit apprehensive but decided to give it a go and see how it went. There's no denying that the cave was disgusting and cockroach ridden and not somewhere you would like to stay, however the people that moved in in the days after us are what made it amazing. I definitely made friends for life in the cave and we all helped each other through, even when the cockroaches came out to play. We became a little cave family and were cave women, i got the label of the pet dinosaur due to my pretty impressive dinosaur impression :D.