Sunshine on the Sunshine Coast!

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I have been on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, just north of Brisbane for the last couple of months. I went there from Cairns after the Cape York trip. I went to visit my friend Amy on my way to somewhere (can't even remember where I intended to go now!) but I lost my purse in Cairns just before I got on the bus and then one thing led to another and I ended up staying there til a couple of days ago! It was great, I got a bodyboard, tried surfing (stood up once and got very battered and bruised!), had 6 different jobs, taught myself to play the guitar, went to the beach every day! My first job was for a sports marketing company, we were selling tickets to raise money for Surf Lifesavers but I quit on my 4th day cos I didn't really like it and I preferred hanging out at the beach! So I was a beach bum for another week or so before getting a job at a restaurant. They didn't give me many hours so I started cleaning at the hostel as well. Then I got promoted to making beds! I worked on a ginger farm for one day- the farmer called the hostel and said he needed people for one day. He was an awesome guy who sailed over from Barbados and hung out on random Pacific islands for ages before moving to Aus. Then I quit the restaurant cos I got a bit sick of it, and got a job totally by accident washing dishes at the organic cafe next to the hostel, which was my favourite job cos they were the nicest people ever! Meanwhile, I was still working at the hostel making beds and occasionally on reception, and working at a pub in the evenings!
It was a total culture shock when I first got there, which was a surprise! I hated it so much at first, but I stayed while I was waiting for my new bank cards and caught up with Amy, who I lived with in Galway. I didn't realise how much I had got used to being in the middle of nowhere! The biggest town I had been to was Cairns but it doesn't really seem to get crowded there and it feels like just a big country town! Cape Trib was pretty empty, Cape York is really remote and Atherton was just a farming town...so it was really weird at first. Maroochydore is soooo different, the beach is always busy, there are high-rise apartment blocks everywhere, people dress up and go out for lunch, there are cars!!! Crazy!! But as I got over the culture shock, I noticed that the people there are still really in touch with nature, like the other places I've been- they get up at 5 when the sun rises to go to the beach for a surf and go to bed early, the hinterland is beautiful and the things that people there enjoy are mostly outdoorsy, like surfing, kitesurfing, fishing and stuff. So I'm glad I lost my purse really because otherwise I might not have given it a chance and I met some awesome people at the hostel. Loads of people there were staying long term, mainly working and surfing, and planning for Christmas so they would be with people they knew, so there was a really nice family feeling there.
I'm going to put things in separate blog entries for all the different places we went...and photos will hopefully be up tomorrow...

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