The worst night's sleep ever...

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After categorically the worst night's sleep ever, it's time to move on today to Surfers Paradise. I had to move rooms last night and this room, although the same size, appears to be the dorm from hell (with the exception of one girl, who was quite possibly one of the loveliest people I've met since I started travelling). One girl had the most revolting cold so spent the entire night snorting and snoring. Another thought she was English, on account of her watching so much English television that her accent bore no signs of her German heritage, and believed someone had stolen her swimming costume. The final two arrived at 11.30 and woke the dorm up. The remainder of the night was like a stand up sit down orchestra, with them all running to the loo every 30 minutes. If I got 2 hours sleep I was lucky. I can't escape the dorm fast enough.

My bus was late afternoon so I spent another grey day in Brisbane catching up on emails, swimming in the ice cold roof top pool and cooking. Literally nothing else to report... a bit like yesterday which is why there was no blog entry. Brisbane on a grey day leaves you with nothing really exciting to do - photos look miserable and a walk around the town is at best what you can hope for. I settled for two lazy days of doing nothing - catching some shut eye and resting up pre-Sydney is how I justified it!

The bus duly arrived and I had to pay a further 10 dollars for the privilege of loading my own bag on, as it exceeded the 20kg weight limit. How, I'll never know - I've thrown so much stuff away on this trip and sent all souvenirs home weeks ago, but the case is getting heavier and heavier. Someone's secretly stashing bricks in it I'm sure.

On the bus and it's empty, so it's a nice hour and a half trip to Surfers, with loads of leg room. I'm sad that I'm not driving because it's so much fun getting to see the places you wouldn't otherwise find when you're on the bus, but I've travelled this bit before so it's not so bad. We headed past the theme parks (can't wait to try them out!), before going into Surfers, which instantly becomes familiar. I have a vague recollection of trying on copious amounts of Dior jewellery here last time, whilst staying in a smart hotel for the first time in weeks. This time I'm in a hostel and will be lucky if the budget stretches to a friendship bracelet. Still, it's nice to be back, and Emma, my mate from Monkey Mia, is already at the hostel so I'm not on my own.

Well as it turns out, I was for my 6 person dorm was empty apart from me. Emma took pity on me and moved rooms, so to celebrate, we drank too much wine. I did a deal with the bottleshop guy for free mini bottles of cava in return for purchasing 3 bottles of borderline goon, which enabled us to sing Adele songs at the top of our voices and be banished to our rooms before midnight by the management. Rebellious souls that we are, we sang again once inside the four walls, until it was time to crash out. Tomorrow will be fun - not only to look at the many many photos we decided to take of our party on the balcony, but to go back to Surfers to find out if it's as bad as I remember. We're a little further out at this hostel, north of the centre near to Southport, so hopefully we've got the best of both worlds - the ability to see the cheesy sights of the centre with the ability to relax by the harbour (our balcony overlooks Mariners Cove, a beautiful little harbour) and drink wine away from the madness. It might transpire I like it here after all...

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