Surfers Paradise

Oh the Golden golden coast is so amazing. We left Byron bay in the morning when it was pourring down with rain. We then had a short coach ride to Surfers Paradise (about 1hr 30). As soon as we arrived in Surfers I knew that I was going to love it. It is like a cross between Blackpool, Vegas and Rio de Janeiro. When we arrived it was raining but it didn't detract from the amazingness of the city. Our hostel was right next door to the bus station and I was really pleased with our choice. It was more like a hotel than a hostel. A big high rise hotel with a pool and it shared facilities with the hotel it was part of so it made a really nice change to staying in typical backpackers places. We shared a room with three French people who were really nice. On our first day there, we didn't do much because of the rain; we just enjoyed the facilities and went to Burger King (or Hungry Jacks, as it is called here in Oz) to go on the free internet. The hostel had a nice chill out room with a TV so we made dinner and then relaxed in front of the TV. The next day it was also raining so we bought a 24 hour internet card and spent most of the day chilling out in the hostel online. We booked our rail passes for Japan and did some research on that. It was a really relaxing day and that evening the rain stopped and there was a spectacular sunset over the beach. We were happy to be situated right next door to the supermarket (Woolworth) so we took full advantage of that and used the big kitchen to cook a nice meal (lasagne and beans mmm).

Our penthouse

The next day was Saturday – the day we were due to meet Louise and check into our apartment that she was renting out. We checked out of our hostel and met her at the apartment, which was actually more of a penthouse hotel suite. We were blown away! The apartment is right on the beach with the biggest balcony I have ever seen. It has two bedrooms with en suite, a big open plan kitchen and lounge and a washer and dryer all for our use! It also has 2 pools (indoor and out), a jacuzzi, sauna and steam room. We both felt like we had landed in heaven and it was like having a holiday in the middle of a holiday. We sat in the apartment for the whole morning and showed Louise some of our travel photos on the plasma TV. Louise had a nap because she had been up at 3am to catch the flight from Melbourne and Jemma and I both made ourselves comfortable in the flat (luxury shower, did our washing, watched TV...). At night we wandered into the city centre to get dinner and ended up getting takeaway. We then relaxed in the flat with a movie and some chocolate; it was absolute heaven.