Free travel! The Gold Coast

Cheers Mates!

Why does everybody say that here?  Oh well, I think I kind of like it.  Anyway, today we arrived back in Brisbane after a weekend of free travel.  Due to our extremely busy schedules, lack of Internet access, and our abilities to procrastinate, our group finally made travel arrangements the morning we were planning on leaving.  Ultimately, we had decided to go to the Gold Coast, which is about an hour north of Brisbane.  However, we did not know how we were going to get there until the night before we were to leave and we did not know where we were staying until the morning that we left.  We found out that we could use our public transportation passes to get us there, which saved a ton of money.  Next, thanks to Reel doing some intense searching on booking.com, we booked two condos at the Surfers Paradise.  They turned out to be very nice and had incredible views of the ocean, mountains, and surrounding areas.

One of our views 

...and the other one (sorry its hazy)

When we arrived at where amazed to see how nice of a place we had gotten at such short notice.  That night, we had decided to cook in since we had two awesome kitchens and a grocery store within walking distance.  We were able to get 3 huge things of lasagna, salad, and bread for just $5.50 per person.  It really makes since to cook when you have big groups trying to eat.  The next day was an absolutely gorgeous day.  On the beach it was sunny, with a slight breeze that kept you from getting too hot.  The name of the area is called Surfers Paradise because it is famous for, guess what…surfing.  It was too windy for us to try to learn to surf in the afternoon so we stuck to body surfing.  The waves were huge and the water was warm.  What more could you ask for. 

Walking onto the beach

White sand, blue water, and huge waves.

For our second night we had planned on cooking burgers.  It too was a great deal for feeding 11 people, but the cheapest burger meat isn’t necessarily the best for cooking on those really weird flat top griddles that the Australians call bbq’s.  Everyone was pretty worn out from sitting in the sun all day and some of us got a little too much sun.  I managed to get burned only on my lower back, simply because I forgot to put sunscreen there.  It made it uncomfortable to sit down, but I’m surviving.   We all made it back safely today and are all looking forward to the upcoming week in Brisbane. 

On another note, I found out today that we are going to try to the Australian Open in Melbourne next week.  I am speechless.  It’s going to be amazing. 

Until next time,

Cheers! (again)

Steele