Gold Coast

Spent my weekend on the Gold Coast, looking at views like this and pretending it's not winter here.

Yeah, my weather app blatantly lied when it said it'd be 75 and sunny all week because we sort of froze out on the coast. It was super windy and we complained about it like the California kids we are. We had a good time anyway, and we'll definitely be going back.

Martha, Bridget, and I left Brisbane Thursday morning and took the train to Surfer's Paradise. The public transit system here is supes great. We can get all over Queensland like nobody's business. Going back to NextBus and guessing when the 51B might show up is going to be rough.

Our hostel in Surfer's was pretty nice. We had a two bedroom suite type room to ourselves, and when we checked in the owner gave us a ticket for free entry to a bar that night. So Surfer's was living up to it's reputation right away (yeah, hate to break it to ya Dad, but Surfer's Paradise is not a luxurious beach front town. It's a tourist-trap party haven, famous as the place where kids go on their spring break trips).

Bridget, me, and Martha

We wandered into town on the beach and scoped out the city a little bit before deciding to cook dinner in our lil kitchen.

SUCCESS

Afterwards, we were supposed to meet downstairs to get a bus with the hostel to the bar. But we were still so jetlagged and tired that we were all ready to go to sleep at 8 pm. So we napped, got ourselves amped up for a night out, and made it to the bar. Whheeerrrreee we mostly avoided creepy older men and bailed early. 

The next day we hopped on a bus south to Coolangatta, a stretch of the Gold Coast that's a bit older, quiter, and less tourist-y. We checked into our hostel and met our two other roomies, a girl from Scotland and a girl from Barcelona. After that we made our way to the beach...

...such a gorgeous coastline! If I'm being completely honest with myself, it's similar to San Diego's, but everyone has an Australian accent so whatever. I'm in ANOTHER WORLD OKAY

After a while we decided we actually needed to do something, so we found a little cove, rented wetsuits, frantically ran around trying to find goggles, and jumped in to the water near "Danger Point."

my first time actually wearing a wetsuit...and obviously rocking it.

But there were no fish. 

We literally saw nothing.

Sand.

We saw sand.

And WE FROZE. Ohhh my gosh the water is cold. Thank goodness for wetsuits, because otherwise I would have died.

That night we actually did fall asleep at 9 pm. Yesterday was spent hiking Burleigh Heads National Park. It was actually one of the prettiest views I've seen. SUCH blue water.

Surfer's Paradise in the background

From the very top you could see hundreds of surfers. When we finally made it back down to the bottom of the hill/mountain/foresty place we sat and watched them for about an hour before going to get lunch. There were literally TONS of surfers in the water, and they were all impressively good. I fell in love with a guy in an orange wetsuit. He got creamed by a massive wave at some point and I think I actually shrieked.

The swells were seriously massive though. Some of them were definitely 10 ft, and these guys were surfing them like total pros. Made me wish I had attempted to get up on a board more than once or twice.

Bridget creepin on those Aussie surfers

Last night, like the crazy kids we are, we went to the movies to avoid the bar at our hostel. Bridget went surfing this morning, Martha ran, and I went and sat on the rocks by the water with a flat white (what they call a latte. I think.). It was a gorgeous early morning, and there were a bunch of surfers out again.

Aaaaaand that's pretty much it!

Loving Australia already, but there are definitely things I miss. We went to the grocery store today, and I couldn't find shredded cheese. OR TORTILLAS. WHAT WILL I DO WITHOUT TORTILLAS.

I found some awesome cookies though. So that's a plus.

Also dryers. Those just don't really exist here. Which is A MASSIVE BUMMER because it's winter so everything is cold...homes here are built to keep cool air in because it gets so blazingly hot in the summer months, but in the winter it means it stays freezing inside. When we moved in, there was a notice on the fridge from our housing peeps telling us all that, and basically saying we have to suck it up. So yeah, I miss dryers. Random.

Dang, I'm feeling a little pressure about this post. I think it's finally the one I'll link to facebook, so props to all y'all for reading all of this. I think I'm funny, so I hope you do too...

(but seriously let me know if I sound lame)