10:32 PM
At least the sand is.
I’m back! Just got back from Gold Coast today and it was a blast. We left on Sunday morning and checked into our hotel, then headed out to walk around. Surfer’s Paradise is spread out along a huge beach with many surf shops, bars and restaurants. Our hotel was right in the middle of things with a view of the huge beach. Sunday we went to the beach, got some drinks and went out for dinner. We were exhausted so we were going to call it an early night, but on the way back to our hotel we got recruited by a promoter to check out a club. We went and got our free drink, then went to bed. Monday we got up and out to head to the beach again and eat lunch out. Funnily enough, we ran in to a boy we knew from Macquarie and his friends, so we hung out with them at their hotel that night and then went to a bar/club for a little bit.
Gold Coast is about 2 hours south of Steve Irwin’s zoo, the Australia Zoo, so Lindsey and I bought tickets to go up there for a day on Tuesday. This zoo is really amazing, the animals have tons of space and are really happy. And there are tons of them! There are huge enclosures where visitors can walk with the animals and feed them, as well as many interactive activities. We finally held a koala and got a picture with it! There’s one in the album (link below) and hopefully the real one that I can scan in. After the long day at the zoo we headed back to the hotel, went out for dinner and then met up with the boys we knew. We all went out together and then went swimming in the ocean at 2am (you only live once...).
Wednesday Lindsey and I slept in a bit more than we anticipated but made it to Brisbane, which is only an hour north by train. We went shopping and explored Queen Street then had some Malaysian for dinner. Took the train back home and hung out in the hotel for a bit, we were tired.
Here comes the really funny part of this blog post: Lindsey and I are idiots. Thursday we both decided to head to the beach for a while until we had to grab our bags and go to airport to fly home. We checked out of the hotel, however the receptionist asked us why we were leaving, they had us written down for another night. We assured her that we were going home today and that they must have made a mistake. Then we were on our way.
The airport took about 2 hours to get to since we had to take 2 buses, but we finally made it, although a little bit late. We ran to the JetStar counter and hurriedly tried to check in, only to have the man look at us and ask, “Really?”. Turns out, our flight home wasn’t until Friday.
...yeah. So after being mortified and leaving the airport as fast a possible, we realized that we would have to go back to the Marriot and check back in for another night, and run into all the staff members we had come to know, and told that we were going home. Talk about embarrassing. We got another room and, hey if we’re still on vacation, let’s go out. Italian dinner and then off to an Irish Pub. It was Thursday so people were out having a good time and we met a couple guys that we hung out with for a bit. We were exhausted from traveling for 4 hours though so we went home and slept (plus we had to travel to the airport again the next day).
Lindsey and I killed time Friday morning by enjoying the weather (we had perfect weather all week by the way, no rain at all) and then again, went to airport. As a side note, our favorite concierge came up to us on our way out the door (again) and asked why we were still here, didn’t he watch us leave for the airport yesterday? We grudgingly told him what we did, and he laughed, gave us chocolate and then said, “Oh and thanks for promoting the American stereotypes.”
Great.
We made it home finally, and had a quick dinner. Cydney was so excited to see us, we missed her so much (she’s making me write this right now). I’ll probably go to sleep early tonight, even though it is ANZAC day, which is a big day here. Tomorrow we’re running errands, heading to the gym to run and swim (yes, me, I know), then going to a rugby game, and then out.
Sorry this is such a long post, I’ve been busy as usual. Here’s the album link:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2305031&l=4fa24&id=824622
Love, love, love!
No comments:
Post a Comment