Tuesday 4 May 2010

April 18th - 24th

So our first night in Surfers Paradise we just chilled out in our nice apartment thing. The weather was pretty rubbish with rain anyway so we didn't want to venture outside, plus several nights of partying had knackered us all out!

The next day we explored the town a little bit whilst Anna and Ryo went off to find a backpack for Anna - they were heading off to Asia the next day and needed to get sorted! Me and Nic chilled out on a beach for a little bit - it was so windy that the sand kept blowing in our faces though, so we didn't stay too long. That night we went out to a club called Sin City with a tour group type thing from our hostel - we got in free and also got a free drink, not all bad! It was a random club though, the bar staff was all female and dressed in not a lot, they also danced on the bar occasionally (reminded us of Coyote Ugly) and the toilets were totally plush! Not bad as far as music went, though there were a lot of idiot blokes in there, but no real surprise! Was a good night, we met up with Joanie from Stanthorpe again and met a couple of her friends, but didn't stay out too late - probably home by about 1am after me and Nic went on our almost nightly hunt for drunk food! Yum yum..

The third day involved more chilling out - it was raining again in the morning so we didn't do anything much, but in the afternoon it cleared up so Me, Nic and Anna headed out to go to the Spit - the little bit of land that curls around Surfers. It was quite a nice walk, we found a little deserted beach and chilled out there for a while. Anna and Nic found a random little blue animal thing which to this day no one has been able to identify, straaaange! Went back to the apartments and made an epic dinner of rice and salad and bread and garlic bread and god knows what else, the other guys had prawns as well - yeeeugh! Later that night a few of Anna and Ryos friends came to visit from Brisbane - Andriss and Maria (I think?), two people Anna knew back in Estonia and the other was Peter, Andriss's boyfriend. Was a good night, we chatted to them for a bit in between packing up our stuff.

The next day me and Nic left Surfers to head to Redcliffe and go stay with her Aunt for a few days. Was weird to say goodbye to Anna and Ryo, we were only travelling with them for a few days but it felt like ages! Took us a few hours but we got to Redcliffe and we were staying with Pat and Malcolm, and they were both really nice. We ended up staying for two nights. The first night we went to Bingo which was damn amusing - reminded me of going with Aunty Jackie back in the day when I was like 15 or something and she had to pretend I was 18! Was really fun, me and Nicola split a set of books between us and we both won - however, I won $30 and she won $140!! God damn, wish I'd chosen the other half of the book! Was good though, because all four of us on the table won something (Pat, Nic, me and Nic's cousin Tracy) so quite a productive night! I was just happy I'd won back the money I'd spent to be honest, hehe!

The next day we just kinda mooched around for a while, was a nice lazy day. We went for a walk with Pat and went down to the seafront, chilled out in a nice little swimming park place they call the Lagoon - was really nice and warm even though it wasn't that warm of a day! We went over to Nic's cousin Tracys house for dinner where we had something called 'Silver Side Up' - I didn't know what it was before we ate it and I deliberately didn't ask knowing how picky I can be, it was actually pretty nice! We ended up playing on the nintendo wii a bit later on, was fun to go back on one, been a while! I played a bit of bowling and a bit of boxing, all good :) They were all so nice as well, was a good night.

The next day me and Nic were in no real rush to get to Brisbane so we went into the town for a while to do some random bits and bobs shopping and we were also gonna go to the cinema. We booked in our tickets to go and see 'The Hot Tub Time Machine' and then headed down the food court to get a subway, where we ran into Leighann and some other peoples from Stanthorpe. They'd stopped in Redcliffe to get some lunch, which was the most random thing ever as its not exactly on the way and its not a backpacker place either, it was totally the most random place you'd ever expect to run into people but it was nice to see them anyway :D We had to head back to the cinema which was bad timing as we didn't get to chat to Leighann and people for long, but we'll hopefully see them in Bowen soon anyway! The film was totally random, funny at times but was nice just to go to the cinema again - it also reminded us that the Eclipse film is out soon, July 1st, and I can't wait - mwah!!

Later on that day after figuring out where we were going to stay, we left for Brisbane. It didn't take us that long to actually get to the city itself, but when we were in the city we got COMPLETELY LOST. It had the most ridiculous one way system and hardly any signs and what signs it does have aren't clear at all! We had a map, but it was getting dark so I could barely see it and then to top it all off, the area of Brisbane where our hostel was (west end aka south of the bridge) wasn't shown on the map!! We ended up stopping and getting directions from a bloke in a garage and found our hostel eventually, but feck driving in Brisbane again - total utter nightmare!!

Anyway so that evening we went out to meet a couple of guys from Stanthorpe who we'd been chatting to on facebook and were staying in central Brisbane, at Base Backpackers. Took us bloody ages to find that too, we went walking and got lost for AGES so eventually Matt came and found us and took us to the hostel. We chilled out with them (Matt, Oli and Liam) for a bit and some of the guys they'd met, at the hostel on the cool rooftop area, and then everyone headed down to 'The Valley' aka Fortitude Valley aka the club capital of Brisbane. Was amaaaazing, we went to a club called The Beat which was $10 entry but well worth it, got there about 11pm and stayed until about 3am just dancing the night away! Had a good few drinks too, some lovely *ugh* shots and free food! Mwahaha.. seriously such an amazing night, its a supposed 'gay club' but its more of a mix really, theres a few rooms with definite gay vibes going on but downstairs was basically just like a normal club!

So around 3am me and Nic decided we were going to leave, and when we went outside Matt came out to ask us why we were leaving, and what he didn't realise is that in Brisbane they have a 3am lockout on all clubs - if you go outside after 3am, you can't get back in, to any of them! So because he'd stepped outside, he couldn't get back in, and so everyone ended up leaving at the same time and we all headed back to Base instead to chill out on the balcony. One of the security came at one point when the guys were smoking up and was asking me and Nic if we were actually staying there, but we told him we weren't and he was cool about it and let us stay for a while. We ended up getting back to our hostel around 6am - its awkward being in a dorm and rocking up home at 6am and trying not to wake anyone up, fecking difficult!

Woke up in the morning and had a nice breakfast at a cafe round the corner and then just mooched around for a while exploring Brisbane. We got lost again a little bit though we had a map this time, mwah! Went to the museum which was cool but we went in pretty late and it shut at 5pm so we didn't get to see too much, definitely something to check out again if I go back at any point! Had a nice dinner and then headed over to Base again - we were planning on saying goodbye to Liam, who was leaving that evening for a flight to Melbourne, but he'd already disappeared by the time we got there sowe just chilled out with the other guys instead. Was a fun night, after a few drinks we decided to go to the cinema but when we got there the film we wanted to see wasn't on anymore, so we went bowling instead! I played a game of bowling with no barriers, I'm proud of myself, even though I ended up losing.... whoops. Its that damn curve thing I have, no matter how I throw the ball it always ends up going to the left when it gets to the end of the lane, really annoying cos I don't even know how I'm doing it!! Anyway the velcro shoes were amazingly stylish and it was fun times, after that we headed back to Down Under Bar and drank some more. The bar shut at midnight due to it being Anzac Day the next day - everywhere closed at midnight so we went home via the most ANNOYING taxi ride ever - the bloke took us to the total wrong place then couldn't even find our hostel, then got annoyed when we wouldn't pay him the total amount that came up! What a piss take, taxis in Brisbane = SUCK.

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