We arrived in Surfers Paradise after the longest, most un-comfy overnight coach journey from Sydney which took us 16 hours! We pulled up at te coach park which looked quite familiar and we soon were informed that it was Infact the coach park that was filmed in the Inbetweeners 2 movie. We got off the coach and was met by a mini bus that took us to the hostel we were staying at.
The hostel was simple, chilled, quite small and had a cute little pool with some wacky bean bag seats around it. We chilled on those while we waited to check in at 12pm.. We had no idea there was a time difference from New South Wales to Queensland which was an hour behind because Queensland doesn't have daylight savings and so we ended up checking in at 11am thinking it was 12... The guys behind the desk looked at us funny as we came back to check in like 20 minuets thinking, wow not long to wait like usual but Infact we had turned up the check into our room an hour early but we didn't actually find this out until later on that evening. They probably thought we were abit odd after that.
Anyway we freshened up and then went for a walk along broad beach to Cavil Avenue where the shops were and did a food shop for the few nights we had booked in at the hostel.
Hostel life in Surfers Paradise Backpackers Resort
We were quite lucky with the people we got in our room this time, there was our bunk, then a really nice Brazilian girl called Amanda that we got to know throughout our stay, a guy that was a manager of the hostel and lied there in the room, hugeeee guy who looked quite scary but he was actually really nice, a girl above him who was there a couple nights for a cheerleading competition, and then the weird one... There's always a weird one. Some guy (German I think) who would make the weirdest noises in his sleep and come in a stupid o'clock and forget that the door didn't work and couldn't get back in because he shut the door, meaning I was woken up a few times to let him in as my bed was closest to the door. All in all not a bad bedroom clan! Most of the people stayed the duration we were there but we also ha another weirdo come in the room for a night. Some American guy who was really hairy and had this awful chesty cough and he would yack up his guts all through the night. Was rather gross! He also slept with a book on Star Wars and a pack of batman playing cards. Pretty sure he was single ha.
Sorting our lives out
We came to Surfers Paradise because Byron Bay was fully booked up in every hostel because of the schoolies. Schoolies are school graduates that for two weeks they go to places like Bali and the main cities and the goldcoast to party and quickly find their alcohol limits. Considering we had been warned about them, they weren't that bad and it didn't seem as crazy as we thought.
I also knew that a good friend of mine from back home in Bognor was living in surfers paradise so it made sense to go really. We came to surfers to have enjoy the beaches after being in a busy city and to see if it was a place we would want to live and work for a while. The first few days we were giving out CVs and enjoying afternoons on the beach and deciding if we liked it enough to stay. Our plan changed by the day and we weren't sure when we were going to do our regional work to be able to apply for our second year visa or if we were going to find bar work over Christmas and try and find an appartment somewhere. Whilst handing out numerous CVs in cafés, bars, shops and restaurants we were also on gumtree and wwoofing looking for couple jobs for our farm work. We found a few jobs and got in touch with people and we found a horsey job but the woman was abit off and ended up not messaging back after she received the photographs of me riding that she asked for. The riding I do is usual trail riding and none of this fancy show type riding and I think she freaked a little and didn't message back. Which was a good job because we came across another stud farm horse job which sounded
perfect and was only an hour away and that's where we are now :)
How straddling an artificial crocodile ruined my day..
After we bagged the job we had a few days where we could just relax and enjoy ourselves a bit more without having to think about adult stuff. We celebrated the day after we got the job by going to DreamWorld which is Australia's biggest theme park which we went with Amanda, the Brazilian girl that was staying in our hostel room and her friend. There was a big storm that day which actually worked out for us as the park was pretty empty and it wasn't too hot. As well as roller-coasters they also had an animal section where you could pay to cuddle a koala and feed crocodiles and stroke and feed kangaroos. We got some aboriginal body paint too which I got a gecko on my hand and Callum got some tribe journey painting on his arm which really just looked like a few flowers, he looked amusing for the rest of the day.
The day went from great to me being a massive grump all because of a stupid artificial crocodile... Let me explain.
So me being immiture I see this massive fake crocodile so I decided to straddle it and ride it for a photo. Before hand I had been a on a rapid ride and I got ridiculously wet and I was wearing my favourite new hippy pants and when I climbed on the croc I heard a massive rip. Oh crap I had split my trousers from one end of the crouch to the other, baring all to the world! I was mortified but more because I had ripped my favourite item of clothing and not the fact I was mooning my bum to the world. We have to go and buy something from the gift shop to wear. Luckily there was a roxy shop and after a while trying on stuff I found a dress I liked in the sale. Not very suitable for a theme park but it was the only thing I liked and could justify spending the money on.
I was in a mood for the rest of the day just sulking like a kid because my beautiful trousers had broke and I was in a dress at a themepark.
The Australian version of big brother was based at DreamWorld and you could walk around the big brother house and meet 3 of the "stars". We walked around and then skipped the bit where you could get a photo with the stars which got us some odd looks from some teenage girls and then a group of girls overheard me say "it's weird when you have no idea who these people are" and the look on their faces was like I'd never heard of Jesus. They were horrified. So horrified they obviously didn't hear my English accent and realise I wasn't from
Australia. Couple hours later I was watching Callum and the two girls on a ride while I held the bags and I found myself stood next to this chick from the big brother house and she looked at me as if to say "why are you not asking for my autograph or a photo". It was a good day but I've learnt to never straddle a large reptile ever again, fake or real.
Boogie boarding and dinosaur jellyfish
A few times we used the hostels boogie boards to take down the beach which was great fun considering the waves were pretty big! You either got battered by the waves or you caught a wave that took you all the way into shore. We were going to rent out surf boards but they were miles up the beach from where we were and really expensive. We will defo rent them out some day when we go back on days off.
Despite the typical Aussie beach fears of sharks and probably some sort of sting or deadly bite from anything living in the ocean, there were hundreds of these massive blue jellyfish that you'd see washed up all along the beach. They're not deadly though, if you are unlucky enough to get stung like Callum was, it just hurts for about an hour and gives you a red mark for the day and then it's gone. But after he got stung I was very weary and everytime I saw one I'd run out the sea like I'd seen a great white.
Familiar faces..
It's a small world out there right? You hear crazy stories of people somewhere around the world and they bump into old friends in the oddest places. Well, I guess I knew john was in surfers but it was still awesome seeing him over this side of the world. We met up and went for dinners out and drinks and we met his lovely friends and house mates. It was so nice to see a friendly face from Bognor of all places in this awesome beach town.
I'd definitely recommend visiting Surfers Paradise and staying in Surfers Paradise Backpackers Resort for a cheap, chilled vibe for a hostel.
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