Although we landed in Brisbane we heard it was lame; so upon landing we hopped on a train immediately for Surfer’s Paradise. It felt weird being back in a developed country where everyone speaks English. It was like a different planet after being in Asia for so long. It was nice. The only thing that wasn’t nice was the cost of travelling there. Everyone told us to be ready to break down and cry when we were forced to start paying $25 a night to sleep instead of the usual $3-$5. It did hit our budgets pretty hard, but we took comfort in knowing we would be staying with friends for the last week of our trip.
A short train ride landed us in Surfer’s and we made out way across town to our pre-booked hostel, Cheers Backpackers. It’s a nice enough place, especially on the first night when we were the only ones in our four-bed dorm, but the fact that they don’t let you bring your own alcohol in is annoying. We only ended up getting caught once though; the manager seemed to be the only one who really cared. We did end up rooming with a couple random guys, including one who was a proffesional poker player, and complained frequently about how bad the dealers were in Surfer’s.
Surfer’s Paradise is relatively small in square mileage, but is full of massive residential towers, including the tallest one in the Southern Hemisphere. The first couple of days it felt strange walking around the city in just shorts until we realized everyone else was. We kept expecting to see men in suits going to work in a nearby office tower, but they were all just residential ones filled with vacationers like us. It’s long expanse of beach is gorgeous, but the water was about 15 degrees colder than in Bali. I would never have thought of Australia as being cold ever, but as they were still in their Spring at the time I guess it’s reasonable. The Coles was great there to. We started on our regular diet of toast, eggs, and peanut butter in the morning followed by pasta meals later in the day pretty quick and stuck to it. Eating all Coles brand items helped with the budget as well.
We met a few good people at the hostel and went out a couple nights with them, including a young German guy who had just finished high school, Tom, a Brit, and a 33 year-old Swedish bartender who traveled frequently and lived and acted like he was still 25. Our first night out we were shocked that everyone was wearing jeans, dress shirts, shoes, and heels, and that we weren’t going to get in the bar with shorts and flip flops on. Also having to pay cover wasn’t too fun either. The goon kept us happy though at $10 for 4.5 litres of 12% wine; even though it tasted so awful.
On the one Saturday we were there we did a pub crawl with all the hostels in town. We got loaded up on a bus and ushered around to a few different clubs on Orchard Avenue. I had a good time at several different bars, but it was so disorganized that I got lost a bunch of times, and Alex actually got left at the first bar and just went home after we realized everyone had left but him.
In all Surfer’s was fun, but we missed Asia. People were more stationary in there travelling here; getting jobs and such. We missed having new people and new destinations every few days. We kind of missed the ghetto feel of everything as well. One thing in Surfer’s that did make me laugh was this meat head who annoyed everyone at the hostel. It was funny to see him in the morning eating his eggs and rice immediately after arriving home from his daily gym session. I don’t think he ever really had anything to say besides the simple single lines from popular techno songs like ‘Barbara Streisand’. Alas we would make our way further south down the coast to the backpacker haven of Byron Bay.
Steeves
