Surfers Paradise-Not quite what I would call paradise!!

Friday 13th November 2009, Surfers Paradise

We arrived in Surfers at about 2pm local time. That is right we have changed time AGAIN!!! Because we have travelled today from the state of New South Wales to the state of Queensland we have now gone back an hour. So we are back to being 10 hours in front of you guys. Surfers Paradise is on the Gold Coast in the state of Queensland.

The bus dropped us off at the bus station and then we were picked up by the hostel from there. We were staying at Backpackers in Paradise. The hostel turned out to be just 5 minutes away, we could have walked but a free lift is a free lift after all! The hostel was quite nice, we were in a 4 bed dorm with a private bathroom, so therefore only sharing the shower with 3 other people instead of 103! Plus it was a girls dorm so no smelly boys! It had a pool which was a lot nicer than the one at the hostel in Byron, but we didn't actually use it. Bar on-site as well as a large communal area.

Anyway enough about the hostel back to us! Whilst on the way to the hostel the guy who picked us and a few others up gave us a bit of a running commentary. The one bit that sticks out was the line, Surfers Paradise is Australia's Ibiza or Magaluf and he wasn't wrong!!! It's a party town. It is also full of high rise apartment blocks and holiday resorts. It thankfully is not ugly but still we both quickly realized that this was no paradise and that if we had known this before we quite possibly would have missed it out and stayed in Byron Bay for another couple of days!! But never mind we were there now and we would enjoy it anyway.

Once we'd checked in we both had a bite to eat as we hadn't eaten since breakfast and by now it was about 3pm, and then put some washing on!! We were getting desperate for some clean undies!! Whilst we were waiting for this we used the internet and Caroline had a long tedious phone call with 3 mobile as hers has decided to break!

Once we had the washing in the dryer (no washing line) we headed out for a walk. The guy from the hostel had said that the river was near by so we went there first. The river is called the Nerang River and it runs through Surfers and many other places along the Gold Coast. It was pretty and there were several boats on the river at the time we were there. It is inhabited by bull sharks so not a good place for swimming but nice all the same. After this we went in the town of Surfers Paradise. We walked along various streets including the main shopping street. You probably could shop to you drop here as it does seem to have every shop for every budget, including Gucci and Versace for those on a bigger budget!! It also has every chain restaurant/fast food place ever invented!!

From the shopping street we hit the beach, a nice beach, very big and in better weather it would have been heaving! It was still pretty overcast here as well as Byron. But when we walked towards the steps to get onto the beach we were struck by the most amazing sand sculpture of a dragon! It was GOOD and it had taken 5 days to do! After taking a few photos we went to the evening market which is just by the beach. We had a walk through the market admiring several things that would look good in my house but not buying. Caroline did buy some soap that is locally made and meant to be good for acne. We wait with anticipation to see if it does the job!!

After the market we walked back through the town stopping at the supermarket on the way. Tea tonight was Veal Schnitzel's (on offer at $2 for 3 ) with salad and home-made chips. After tea we had a few beers at the bar and then went to bed with our books around 11pm.

Saturday 14th November 2009, Surfers Paradise

We left the hostel today around 12pm and went to the beach where we stayed till about 5pm. The weather was a lot better today, in fact it was HOT! And as predicted the beach was heaving!! But being a big beach also means there's enough room for everyone. It's a lifeguarded beach so there were strict flag swimming rules. And if you went outside the flagged area a man on a tannoy told the whole beach. We had a swim and once again had great fun playing in the big waves, no back flips today though!! We were also glad to hear, before entering the water that Surfers has very good shark nets which are checked daily. Although the story of a recent capture of a great white shark was a little daunting as the theory behind how shark nets work is not in our knowledge!!

We left the beach at about 5pm as the sun was being hidden by the high rises as it had started to drop but typically when we got on the other side of town by our hostel it was still very much out on that side, but no beach that side!! On our way back we popped into Coles to pick up supplies to go with pasta for tea.

Once back at the hostel we had a coke in the sun before using the internet. After this it was time to start getting ready! Because we'd had lunch so late it was a wee bit early for tea and as we were going our tonight on the Surfers Paradise Backpacker Big Night Out we thought we'd start the process of getting ready!!

About an hour or so later (so about 7:30pm) we were ready and with only 45 minutes to do tea. But as pasta doesn't take too long it was not a problem! But what was a problem was the fact that there was no tin opener!! The plan had been to do tuna and sweetcorn pasta with a tomato base sauce, this obviously was not too be. Caroline was not a happy bunny as this meant tea was basically half pasta/half noodles (we didn't have as much pasta as first thought.) with tomato sauce!! Whoops!

The pub crawl started at about 8:45pm. We had a few beers at our hostel before being picked up by a bus at 8:45pm. Several backpacker hostels are involved, you buy a ticket and for your money you get a free hat, a free glow stick, initial bus into town, free entry into 4 different venues (normally $10-$15 per entry) and a free drink in each place plus discounted drinks there after. So not a bad deal and we had a good night drinking, talking and dancing. Unfortunately the ride home was not included so legs were needed for this bit, and although a little bit slowly and at a pace of two steps forward and one step back we made it home at god knows what time!!

Sunday 15th November 2009, Surfers Paradise to Brisbane

Check out today was 10am, so feeling very jaded and not particularly great we packed up and checked out before finding a nice comfy sofa to place ourselves on until it was travel time!!!

As the bus station was only 5 minutes away we left the hostel about 12:45pm and made our way to the bus station. The bus was due to leave at 1:10pm, it was slightly late leaving but not much and then it was just sit back and relax for about 1 hour and 15 minutes until we got to Brisbane.

See you in Brisbane guys xxxxx