No sleep in Noosa

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Geen had tried to prepare me over the phone and when I first arrived, I thought, "actually, its not as bad as I thought". How wrong was I?
We booked into Halse Lodge, the YHA hostel in Noosa on the premise that most YHAs seem to be a cut above than the average hostel (wrong) and that we were assured of a quiet room (how wrong).
We were staying in a 16 bed dorm which was like an outside large garage which had been dressed up, and given the name, the Conference Room. Bunk beds and z-beds took up every available space and at the back, for some bizarre reason, stood a piano. We should have known then.
Halse Lodge is fairly sociable place, with a bar and a kitchen where you could buy meals and there never seems to be a vacancy. All good. However, approaching our damp and squalid room, we were dismayed to note a couple of large groups of people, all playing hilarious (?) drinking games and downing the goon like it was going out of fashion, right outside on the balcony bit. Hoping to retire for a quiet night with the book seemed out of the question and when a couple lads from the room apologised in advance for the noise they would be making later on, we knew we were in for an interesting night. To say that Geen nearly committed murder that night would be a serious underestimation.
Remaining outside and continuing to drink until midnight, we breathed a sigh of relief when the hardcore drinkers (yeah, right) departed for the clubs. No sooner had we closed our eyes though, that it seemed as if the gobshites were back again, shouting and finding everything they did hilarious. And then someone started on the piano. . .
After the longest night of our lives, Geen and I marched up to reception, demanding to be moved, whilst Paul, seemingly reliving his youth, decided to stay put. Our complaint was apparently hot hostel news the next day, with everyone seemingly aware that the 2 miserable old birds had kicked up a fuss and how the piano had now been nailed down! Killjoys? Us? Our next room was far more agreeable and made our stay in Noosa that much more enjoyable.
Noosa is a really pretty little town. The beach, whilst pleasant, wasn't fantastic as the water was a bit murky but it's reportedly really good for surfing. The main street in Noosa has all kinds of shops and restaurants which are a little bit more upmarket than some of the other towns we've been to. We didn't do a great deal here other than enjoy lazing on the beach (something we welcomed after the rain in Brisbane) and read.
We all had a night out . . well, Paul had several . . starting off at the hostel's bar which was not only cheap, but had really friendly bar staff and then headed to watch a band at one of the other hostels in town.
So, after a few days of just chilling out, we set off on the old greyhound once again for an 8 hour journey up to Agnes Falls and the town of 1770.

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