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Published: April 30th 2009
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Day 1 (Friday) - I arrived in Surfer’s Paradise and was thankful it was a pretty day. I had heard from other travelers that it had been raining there pretty regularly and I had a task ahead that was going to take some walking. Immediately upon arrival, I consulted a traveler’s desk to see if they knew of any places where I may find accommodation. Unfortunately, that was a big fat ‘0’. Oh well, I figured I would give the place I was able to reserve a shot as a lot of hostels hold places open for walk-ins. Halfway through the walk, I was beginning to feel that this was a bad idea. It was so far away that I couldn’t imagine having to turn back around. By the time I had reached the hostel, I was incredibly sweaty. Upon arriving, I was told by the manager that there were no vacancies for the evening. I asked him if he knew any place that might have rooms. He said he didn’t but after a minute of thinking told me that one of the staff members left that day, which left a spare bed in the staff bedroom. He asked if I
would mind, to which I responded ‘no’ but then he gave it to me for a discount anyways. What a turn for the better. I was excited to get into the room because the sooner I did, the sooner I could eat. In a flash I was back out the door. I decided to go back to the center of town where I saw a Korean restaurant earlier that had gotten my taste buds salivating. The walk was much easier without the bags but when I got to the restaurant, I found it had just closed 10 minutes before. I was walking away disappointed when I saw a sign for another Korean restaurant that picked my spirits back up. After lunch, I kind of meandered around town. It started to rain a little bit, so I purchased an umbrella and headed back to the hostel in the early evening. At this point I noticed that all my fellow hostel goers were either Europeans or Canadians on gap year (year between America’s equivalent high school and university). And as I would come to find out later, my hostel was reflective of the town. It rained a couple more hours but soon
enough it stopped and I headed back into town to grab some dinner. I found a pizza joint along the way, ate it quickly and then went back to the hostel. When I was getting back, a lot of the others were getting ready to go out. I was invited to go along but figured I would just rest and go out the next night.
Day 2 (Saturday) - I had to change rooms after waking up, which wasn’t too difficult but never the easiest task getting all items back in the bag. I decided to head back into town to grab breakfast and went by way of the beach. The beach is different than any other that I recall because it has so many waves so close together. Wave after wave come hurling towards the shore, often with no let up. I observed for a while, noting it would be tough to surf because catching a wave would be hard to catch as a beginner would always be off balance from the last one. My stomach reminded me that we were on a mission of other importance, so I continued walking into town. I found a little coffee shop and enjoyed a coffee and muffin as I did a little work on the computer. After a while, I walked through the small bit of town that I hadn’t been to the day before then headed back to the hostel with the intention of going to the beach. As I got back, I began to notice the storm clouds start to roll in, so I decided to wait them out. Sure enough, it began to pour. It let up eventually but continued to rain into the early evening. Therefore, I was left to watching movies in the common room. It wasn’t the afternoon I was hoping for but it was a nice change of pace. That evening I met some British boys after dinner and we sat outside and played cards for a bit. They decided to go out and invited me to join them about 12. I was pleased to be invited and agreed. We went on our way and in the process lost one who went on his own tangent but the other two and I made it to a club and worked our way into the center of the dance floor. To be honest, it really wasn’t my type of place and I had been at these types of places too often lately that I got pretty tired of it quickly. After about an hour or so, I called it an evening and went back to the hostel.
Day 3 (Sunday) - I started my morning once again by getting a coffee and muffin but this time at a later hour. I was determined to try my hand at surfing while in Surfers Paradise. I got back to the hostel just before 1. It started to rain a little so I had to wait to go out till about 3. At 3, I chose a board to rent from the hostel. There were only two, a long board and a short one. Having only experience with a long board and it being easier, I chose it of the two. I walked down to the beach and then made a ten minute down the beach to find the area assigned for surfers and when I turned over my board, I realized that it had a fin missing on the bottom. There was one on the right, one in the middle but none on the left. I thought that this would be more than a little hindrance, so I walked back up the beach and then across to the hostel to switch to the other board, which had the middle fin missing but at least not just one of the sides. So I went back on my way and found the area I had been 25 minutes before. I went out to the waves and had my confidence wiped out quickly. It was so hard to catch my bearings with waves coming in on top of waves. Only once in the few hours I had the energy to stay out there did I really get up and when I did a wave behind the one I got up on ate mine and then knocked me over. Surfers Paradise needs a ‘Good’ in front of it. I went back to the hostel and was very hungry even after eating all that humble pie. I was also pretty tired from my workout fighting against all the waves. After cleaning up, I went down to the kitchen area where I made a meal for myself (microwavable shepherd’s pie), ate it, and then watched a movie that the large group downstairs was watching. By the time the movie was over it was getting pretty late so I decided to go get as much of my stuff packed as I could before my swimsuit and sarong (and towel) dried overnight. After I was done, I laid in my bed for a few minutes reading my book. It felt so good and I was enjoying the book so much, that I decided not to leave.
Day 4 (Monday) - I woke up, got cleaned up, got dressed, finished packing my bag, and finally checked out. Luckily the hostel gave free rides to the bus terminal so I was not going to have to fight the blazing heat again that day. I waited on my ride for only 30 minutes, then went to the bus terminal, where I was taking a direct bus to Byron bay, which was $2 more but at a much more cooperative time and an hour faster. Having a little under an hour till I was to depart, I ran to a coffee shop around the way that had free wireless internet for customers around the corner. I enjoyed my ice coffee while sending some last second emails. By then I had done all I could do and had to hustle back to catch my bus. With that I was on my way.
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