Surfer's Paradise

Well kids it looks like you get a double dose just because I have about 15 minutes of internet time left. I know you are licking your lips.

So when waking up at 6am on Tuesday I really felt like crap since I had been sleeping till about 830 each morning. Now I know this sounds lazy but the whole first week I had been getting up at 7 for no real reason except that I haven't fit in a hostel bed yet. The beds are about 2 feet too short on average. That's life and life is life. Anyway we get on the bus about 7 to head up to Surfer's which is an hour up the coast on a part called the gold coast. This area was the original Aussie holiday destination in the 40s and 50s I suppose. Got the name Gold Coast because the meter maids (parking tickets) all are hot girls wearing gold lame bikinis with cowboy hats. An interesting way to draw tourists but people still go. Now it's only Japanese that go but still a good time. So boarding the green bus again I see many familiar faces that I had missed in Byron the past week. We make it to Surfer's after an uneventful ride with a disenchanted bus driver. I am once again the only person who is getting off without a place to stay. Before I left I bought a YHA (youth hostelling America) membership and I haven't really used it. My buddy John also had one and was staying at the British Arms. It was a cheap place (22) with free breakfast (standard corn flakes, rice krispies, bread, butter) so I decided to stay there. It was quite a ways out of town but was on a marina, had a ping pong table, and about nothing else. We had a mad German, an unseen, and a crazy English as roommies and all was well. We walked around a lot and seemed to share many of the same humorous thoughts. Surfer's kind of sucks though.

We found some killer Mexican food at Montezuma's for 1/2 price and decided to try it. Good food compared to what I usually eat but I truly do miss decent Mexican. Wow. After that he sees that a band called Strung Out is playing and we decide to look into it. It's the next day for $35 and they rock. Whoa. Walk around a bit and take a siesta on the beach but are covered in sand by the never ending wind in a matter of minutes. One of the best naps of my life though. Nothing going on so we walk back to the hostel which is about 6km north and takes a good hour to walk. We get caught in a gale and so it takes 2 hours but hey who's counting. Chilled that night talking about crazy American stuff and having a grand ol time.

Same thing the next day only we go to the Strung Out show that night and it is certainly an experience. I have never been to a hard punk rock show before and this is a great intro in Australia. All black on everyone of course except me in my jeans, $5 flip flops, and goofy ass Tshirt. You could say I didn't quite fit in. It was a rockin show at the Troccadero (3rd to last show ever, thank goodness we made it). Walked home for the next hour and hit the sack. Had to get up early again to get a bus to Brissy. Got up and reception didn't open on time (8) because the night before was a club crawl that all the staff happened to participate in and I know the guy in our room went to bed about 545 or so. That is also what happened to the girl that was supposed to be working the desk. No dice but finally a guy that was going to drive the shuttle to the transit station got someone to get us our deposit for keys. That would have been my second lost deposit and could have been ugly. We make it to the station in the shuttle that is supposed to be in the shop at about 845 in time for our 9am bus. The bus shows up at about 11am after we had skipped the free breakfast and almost lost the deposit. This is the crazy life of a traveler.

Surfer's thoughts: Play on play equipment. Mariner's Cove is certainly a chilled out place to live. There are more rooms for rent in Surfer's than Vegas. Nobody would actually surf here. The wind didn't let up once. The lifeguards set up flags about 10m apart to mark swimming areas. These areas are about 1km from each other. Nobody has ever died within the flags, 30 people die a year though. Punk rock and it's followers are party animals who are also possibly masochists. Walking is good but can get old if forced on you. Live life one day at a time. Reading on the beach in the morning all alone is heavenly.