Surfers Paradise

I wanted to do my laundry Saturday morning, but the hostel only had 2 washing machines and the staff needed them to do their sheets so I had to wait till the afternoon. I decided to take the bus to Pacific Fair to see what they've got there. It was a 40min bus ride, at first I thought it looked like an outlet mall with all the shops outdoors, but further in they got an actual shopping centre and it was really big. There were supermarkets and large department stores like Target, Coles, and Myers as well. I wasn't too intrigued by their shops though, their fashion wasn't to my taste, however I was able to buy a Swiss Army Knife for my brother that I had lost during security check back in Brisbane. I think I only spent an hr at the Pacific Fair, then I decided to take the bus further up to Australia Fair, another big shopping centre that I hoped may be better.

It was about a 15min ride up past Surfers. The mall was big, but it was dead. Barely anyone was in the mall, and some of the shops were even closed! I don't know if it's the weekend, or the holidays, it just seemed dead everywhere. Weekend's usually when the malls are supposed to be busy ain't it? At least in Vancouver, especially during the holiday season. I had a MosBurger for lunch, then I headed towards the beach at Broadwaters just down the street, I needed some fresh air. It was a nice area with a café, a couple water parks, a beach area, and a little pier where some people were fishing. I relaxed at the pier, and looking over the water I could see a theme park. Gold Coast actually has a bunch of theme parks like Dreamworld, Wet 'n Wild, Sea World, and Warner Brothers Movie World, but I'm not really into theme parks... There were also some sail looking architecture that reminded me of Canada Place, high-rises where Surfers Paradise is, and the Q1 Building which's where I'll be heading next.

I took the bus to Surfers and went straight to the Q1 Building. Surfers Paradise didn't interest me at all because it was so commercialized that it didn't seem unique at all. Also it's got all these fancy hotels, even a Hard Rock Café and something that said Vegas, that made it seem like a little Vegas by the beach. Inside the Q1 Building was the SkyPoint, which's a 360° observation deck of Gold Coast. It cost me $22 for a day pass. It's the tallest residential building with 77 floors, a lounge area that cost an arm and a leg, and a lift that takes you to the top in less than a minute. The view was pretty cool. On one side you see the high-rises and the fancy hotels, on the other were the Surfers Paradise canals, then there was the ocean and the coast line. The canals were really cool to look at. They were actually man-made which made more sense, and apparently there are bull sharks in the water so definitely not suitable for swimming. I started making my way back to the hostel around 6PM because it looked like it was about to rain, and I also wanted to make it to the bottle shop before they closes. This time I was able to get off at the right stop, went and got myself 2 6pks because they don't sell them in a dozen and 24 would've been too much for me. Had pasta for dinner, watched some Supernatural, and retired for bed around 10PM. A couple girls have moved in, had a chat with one of them and turned out they were Australia born Koreans. Them and a bunch of others were in town for a day trip from Brisbane.

Sunday was super sunny. I was having breaky and Saul came to say hi and asked if I wanted to check out Currumbin Creek with him. I told him I've got stuff to do and luckily he left me alone. Since I didn't get to do my laundry the day before, I gotta wait for the laundry room to open up again. It was a super hot day, already 30° at 11AM. Finally I was able to drop my laundry then I headed for the beach. Later that evening I was making dinner and this bloke came up to me and told me I got an awesome shirt on. I was wearing my Canucks tank top. I've seen him around and he seemed like a cool dude. Turned out he's also from Vancouver, and he goes to SFU, same as I did! He wasn't creepy at all, just excited to meet a fellow Canuck.

Next day I went to Rainbow Bay, since I went to the wrong place last time. I walked all the way along the beach and up this hill to a lookout point.  All along the railing with lovelocks were plates that commemorate fallen soldiers during the Darwin raid by the Japanese. The view of the ocean was stunning and it was a beautiful day. On my way back I was waiting at the bus stop and noticed a couple dudes with backpacks who seemed confused about which bus to take. One of them took the same bus as me, but got off a couple stops earlier. Later on when I was doing my sudoku in the outdoor patio at the hostel that same dude showed up, apparently he got off the wrong stop and we started chatting. He's Czech, and he works in Abu Dhabi in military design or something for one of the emirates, and he comes to Australia to spend his holidays. He seemed nice enough... 

On the morning of New Year's Eve, Saul came up to me again and apologized for whatever douchey move he's made, I just said ok and left it as that, didn't want nothing to do with him no more. Later on I was outside having a beer and a bloke sat down and started chatting with me while he's eating his mango. He was another Aussie who was travelling with 6 other guys, 2 of them were from Perth. They all met up and rented a van together. I've seen them around as well, always come back with boxes of beers. They planned to go to Tweed Heads on NYE because apparently that's the border of QLD and NSW, and since there's 1hr difference between the 2 states, they were hoping that there might be 2 fireworks back to back. I told him I'm going to Byron Bay after New Year and he said they're heading the same way too and could give me a ride. I said I already got the Greyhound ticket, plus one of me and 7 other dudes after what happened with Saul? No thanks...

There were fireworks all along the coast starting at 8PM. I was still debating whether I wanted to go out or not, then I found out that the buses were free and they run all night long, so Czech and I decided to go countdown at Surfers, he also brought a bottle of champagne. The bus started to get packed as we got closer to Surfers, and a bunch of people dressed up as Waldo. They got really rowdy and started chanting on the bus, and the young Asian bus driver got really pissed off, even called the cops because apparently someone was smoking on the bus but they never found out who.

The plaza at Surfers was lively with people. We found a spot on the beach, which to my surprised wasn't packed like Vancouver whenever we'd have our Celebration of Lights fireworks at English Bay. There was a DJ playing top 40's. 5min before midnight it started to drizzle and us and a group of teenagers who were right next to us were just like WTF. The rain got harder as it got closer to midnight and everyone started getting up but we were all laughing then New Year hit and everyone just started dancing. Czech suddenly grabbed my hand and we ran into the water and watched the fireworks. The water was warm and I really wanted to go for a dip but I was wearing denim shorts. We went to catch the bus back but there were so many people, and for some reason our bus either never came or was full and didn't stop. I was getting hungry and annoyed after waiting for a good hr then a bus came that only goes to Burleigh and Czech just grabbed my hand again and we got on. I pulled my hand away on the bus, feeling kinda uncomfortable. We got off at Burleigh, he bought me a kebab, and we were able to catch the right bus soon after, but we didn't get back to the hostel till 3.30AM. I kinda kept my distance from him afterwards, plus he was leaving soon anyway.

Slept in on New Year's Day, went to the beach, took a dip and nearly drowned myself. I was still in shallow water but a wave caught me off guard. I bumped into the Aussie and asked about their NYE. He said there was no back to back fireworks so it kinda sucked for them. Today's my last day in Cooly and I can't wait to get to Byron Bay, I've heard good things about it. The Aussie and his mates had already left in the morning. I also met a really nice girl from China who was travelling on her own as well. She's been staying in my room and I thought she spoke really good English considering, but she doesn't believe so. I also went to the Pacific Fair again and bought myself a pair of boots from City Beach for $70 for my Jackaroo school, a cheaper substitute for cowgirl boots.

Tonight they had LOTR on in the lounge room and a lot of us were watching. I had a 2-seater to myself, so did a few others, and Saul actually had the nerve to come up to me and asked if he could share the couch with me because he didn't wanna sit beside a weird old man or share with anyone else? I looked around, didn't say anything and wasn't really moving so he left. I saw across the room the Canadian who probably saw everything, had a smirk on his face. It was quite obvious that I didn't want nothing to do with the dude....