Dennis, Rachel, and I flew to the Gold Coast on the 20th and settled in our first hostel in Surfer’s Paradise. The hostel was all right, I just didn't like the fact that you can hear what everyone is doing in the bathroom. Oh, and there were lovestains on my bed....
I went to Australia only having heard of a few cities here, and had an image that most Australians would look like, you know, sexy surfer guys and beautiful beach babes, but I haven't seen any of that really until I hit Surfer's Paradise. (No offense.) It makes sense to show off their bodies all the time.
Let me just start off by saying that this whole spring break mostly consisted of eating McDonald's, Red Rooster, or Hungry Jacks, and crap we made from cheap groceries, and showing off the effects of the food on the beach. That's when you know its going to be a good vacation!.. regardless of the fact that at this point, I only had under $400 USD left to my name.
We ran into other Newcastle Uni students the first night, and boy were they plastered. Haha. Its always fun to see crazy drunks. Instead of joining them, we decided to return to the hostel because we knew that we would go crazy the second night for Den Den's 21st birthday!!! WOOOOO!
Angela met up with us the next day. Remembering back on my study abroad experience in Europe, I had a plan for each country I hit because I only had so many days to do as much as I could, and that feeling of planning what to do was miserable. I went on this vacation with so much more time to spend and with less to expect. I'm really glad she came because unlike us, her spring break was only a week, so she was adamant and prepared to do as much as she could.
Dennis's birthday was a fun day! He used chopsticks for the first time, although it was incorrect.
We made friends with a Moroccan guy in our hostel, I don't know how to spell his name, but the English pronunciation was "New-Ah-Mahn". He wants to move to Australia and is testing out where he would want to live, and he only has sixteen days to do it. Ahh! The more people I meet with plans of travel and to move somewhere new just makes me so ready to graduate and move on with my life. The other Norwegian guys met us the day after Dennis's birthday and bought him flip flops... Trust me, he needed them, and a blowup doll. He probably needed that, too. Haha.
Justine also joined us a few days later and we moved to our second hostel in Surfer's. This one had a kitchen, balcony, and living room. This hostel was so much better than the first. The only bad side was that some of the lights wouldn't turn on, and I saw two cockroaches.
Martin and I spent the next day at the beach while everyone else went on an outback tour. Its always awful when you are on a budget. The good thing was, the weather was wonderful.
And if I did go on the outback tour, I would've never witnessed this..
I swear, he was only like 50 meters away, but I never saw him move that chair to or from the beach... Hahaha.
I had many firsts and crossed off a few things on my Bucket List this first week.
I learned to surf through Tranzsurf. They were great, except for the fact that they told us they took pictures of us, but have yet to post them on facebook. They took us Tweed's Head. The water was so clear. It was just gorgeous. You have to see it for yourself.
I went zorbing at Ozball, which was what I wanted to do for a year after seeing it on the Travel Channel.
I went in a cave, although it was for the Glow Worm Tour, but yeah, a cave is a cave. Also a few of my friends bugnapped the glow worms. Poor babies.
I saw a fail sunrise... Yup, can't really explain that, but we went to the beach to see the sunrise... but we didn't see anything. It just basically went from night to day instantly.
I was in a 3 person bicycle, mostly in the front seat because my legs were too short to reach the peddles... Not something you want to admit as a grown adult.
I made my first Tacos, didn't know that all I needed was a spice mix.
I threw a boomerang in Australia! Even though it didn't return to me.
I spent $35 on a steak at Cav's Labrador... It was good, but I didn't think I would do that in my financial state, and I was also not in the financial state to go to the Whitewater Park of Dreamland, but we went anyways.
I went to my first strip club for Martin's birthday. I was so excited for this, but it was definitely not what you see on TV. I wanted titties in my face. So disappointed. :(
Our last day in the Gold Coast, we decided to go to Byron Bay for Rachel, Kyle, and Martin to skydive. Sigh. This is one of the things I really wanted to do, but it was over $500 to do... like I said... I had LESS than $400 at this point for the rest of the semester... that's two whole months. So Dennis and I went to the beach while they did their thing. Still jealous and bitter, but I saw someone wake-boarding and windsurfing, and that was pretty cool. Its so weird to see this in person. You never see that in Boston.
Byron Bay was nice but all you could really do there was shop or go to the beach, but the windy weather was not permitting that. So we left and drove back to Surfer's. Then Dennis and I went to pick up the car we rented and drove to Brisbane.
Surfer's Paradise... I don't love it, but I also don't hate it. Its nice...I can't explain it, but it was like this calming feeling took over when I first arrived, maybe it was the company I was with or maybe it was the fact that I was somewhere new, but I was in a good place, physically and mentally. Its so dreamlike. I feel like its just a vacation spot. I don't think I would live here, its too touristy, and it should feel like a home, not an escape, but nonetheless, it was amazing!
I went to Australia only having heard of a few cities here, and had an image that most Australians would look like, you know, sexy surfer guys and beautiful beach babes, but I haven't seen any of that really until I hit Surfer's Paradise. (No offense.) It makes sense to show off their bodies all the time.
Let me just start off by saying that this whole spring break mostly consisted of eating McDonald's, Red Rooster, or Hungry Jacks, and crap we made from cheap groceries, and showing off the effects of the food on the beach. That's when you know its going to be a good vacation!.. regardless of the fact that at this point, I only had under $400 USD left to my name.
We ran into other Newcastle Uni students the first night, and boy were they plastered. Haha. Its always fun to see crazy drunks. Instead of joining them, we decided to return to the hostel because we knew that we would go crazy the second night for Den Den's 21st birthday!!! WOOOOO!
Angela met up with us the next day. Remembering back on my study abroad experience in Europe, I had a plan for each country I hit because I only had so many days to do as much as I could, and that feeling of planning what to do was miserable. I went on this vacation with so much more time to spend and with less to expect. I'm really glad she came because unlike us, her spring break was only a week, so she was adamant and prepared to do as much as she could.
Dennis's birthday was a fun day! He used chopsticks for the first time, although it was incorrect.
(Photo by Rachel.)
Justine also joined us a few days later and we moved to our second hostel in Surfer's. This one had a kitchen, balcony, and living room. This hostel was so much better than the first. The only bad side was that some of the lights wouldn't turn on, and I saw two cockroaches.
Martin and I spent the next day at the beach while everyone else went on an outback tour. Its always awful when you are on a budget. The good thing was, the weather was wonderful.
And if I did go on the outback tour, I would've never witnessed this..
I swear, he was only like 50 meters away, but I never saw him move that chair to or from the beach... Hahaha.
I had many firsts and crossed off a few things on my Bucket List this first week.
I learned to surf through Tranzsurf. They were great, except for the fact that they told us they took pictures of us, but have yet to post them on facebook. They took us Tweed's Head. The water was so clear. It was just gorgeous. You have to see it for yourself.
(Photo from Rachel.)
(Photo by Rachel.)
(Photo by Rachel.)
I saw a fail sunrise... Yup, can't really explain that, but we went to the beach to see the sunrise... but we didn't see anything. It just basically went from night to day instantly.
I was in a 3 person bicycle, mostly in the front seat because my legs were too short to reach the peddles... Not something you want to admit as a grown adult.
(Photos by Rachel.)
I threw a boomerang in Australia! Even though it didn't return to me.
I spent $35 on a steak at Cav's Labrador... It was good, but I didn't think I would do that in my financial state, and I was also not in the financial state to go to the Whitewater Park of Dreamland, but we went anyways.
(Photos by Rachel.)
Our last day in the Gold Coast, we decided to go to Byron Bay for Rachel, Kyle, and Martin to skydive. Sigh. This is one of the things I really wanted to do, but it was over $500 to do... like I said... I had LESS than $400 at this point for the rest of the semester... that's two whole months. So Dennis and I went to the beach while they did their thing. Still jealous and bitter, but I saw someone wake-boarding and windsurfing, and that was pretty cool. Its so weird to see this in person. You never see that in Boston.
Surfer's Paradise... I don't love it, but I also don't hate it. Its nice...I can't explain it, but it was like this calming feeling took over when I first arrived, maybe it was the company I was with or maybe it was the fact that I was somewhere new, but I was in a good place, physically and mentally. Its so dreamlike. I feel like its just a vacation spot. I don't think I would live here, its too touristy, and it should feel like a home, not an escape, but nonetheless, it was amazing!
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