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Published: January 3rd 2011
North Stradbroke Island
on a nice walk along the beachGettin' Dizzy in Brissie
Well ... we never really finished this blog when we should have. I think we had good intentions, but here we are two years later ... sitting back in Bangkok ready to write about the Philippines, and I find this entry ... never completed. I can fill you in super fast style.
Brissie was amazing! The weather was wonderful ... like spring time. We stayed at a backpacker's hostel, and it was pretty nice. As we walked down the street from our hostel to take a walk around the city, we passed a Seventh-day Adventist church. Pretty interesting! We walked to a local beach that was handmade next to the river. They had several pools surrounded by sand ... it's open like a park. Pretty fun! Then we walked to a huge park on our way to the shopping district downtown. We grabbed some not so yummy mall food then went shopping and headed back to the hostel. We didn't stay in Brissie for very long .. as we were headed to sunshine on North Stradbrook Island.
Maddie in North Straddie
We took the train to a town to find a ferry to get to
North Straddie Island. We got off the train, and instead of hailing a cab, we walked ... and walked ... and walked to the ferry. I guess if we had known it was like 3 miles away, we may have considered taking a cab. The ferry was amazing! We saw two whales on the way to the island! Incredible! Once on the island, we stayed at the only backpacker's hostel in a 6 person dorm room, because that's all they had available for the first night. What a mess that was! That afternoon, a huge fight broke out between two or three of the other guys who were staying in our same room. They were drunk--and probably high--a few punches were thrown, some hair was pulled out, and there was blood everywhere. They were promptly kicked out of the hostel. After that night, we asked to be moved to a private room that became available. Thank goodness! We took a long walk on the beach that first night. It was the most desolate and beautiful beach I have ever seen! There were beautiful rocks we climbed and wound our way around the beach side. It was amazing. We finally found
a grocery store and got some yummy food to eat while we were there. The next day, we booked a snorkeling trip. It was SO COLD in the water--this time of year is winter in Australia. The snorkeling was okay ... I'm sure it would have been better at the Great Barrier Reef, but we just didn't have the time to make it up there. We did see a Manta Ray while we snorkeled. The next day, we headed out to the Gold Coast.
Making the Most of the Gold Coast
We found a super nice hotel here. The beach was pretty chilly, but that didn't stop Billy from digging a large hole in the sand. That night, we ate a nice meal at an Italian restaurant, and I bought an opal necklace ... since it's made in Australia and that's my birthstone. The next day, we went to Hollywood Land ... a theme park by Warner Brother's. It was super fun! We rode some amazing rides, and we had a great day running around there. The next morning, we ate a breakfast of delicious pancakes, packed up, and headed out to the airport for our jaunt around Sydney.
North Stradbroke Island
good times in the water The coast truly was golden!
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