We left Hervey Bay at the crack of dawn and took the train back to Brisbane. Jackie decided to go right away to Surfers Paradise but Gina and I decided to spend the day in Brisbane. We really had no idea what to do so we just "went were the wind took us." We roamed around for a little while, passed more Royal Botanic Gardens (seriously, this country LOVES gardens) and then we realized we have no idea what we are doing. So we went to a hostel and picked up a city map. There were a bunch of different suggestions for things to do in the city but since we only had a few hours we decided to just pick one--XXXX Brewery Tour! Gina and I had been talking about going on a brewery tour for a while but we didn't know if there was one in Sydney. This was perfect. At the entrance to the brewery, they had this awesome old school delivery car.
The tour was pretty interesting, honestly not much different from many other brewery tours. But, they did talk about the environmental aspects of brewing beer and how they are updating the brewery to be more "green." That made me happy. But what made me even more happy was the 4 beers they gave us at the end of the tour. It basically paid for itself! We got to try XXXX Sparkling Ale, a beer that was no longer going to be brewed after that week. I don't know why because it was really good. While we were there, a huge group of people dressed in the strangest costumes came in and they were quite...spirited. Definitely an amusing group of people. We later realized it was a pub crawl. Apparently, the bar is actually legit. Once we finished our beers we went over to the souvenir shop and picked up some gifts. By then it was about time to go so we walked back to the Greyhound station and waited for our bus. When we were there, some random guy came up to me and said "University of Virginia?" I looked down and realized I was wearing a Virginia Volleyball shirt and just said "...yea" He responds with "Class of 2006, Wahoowa." Love it. Quite random. Also random, we ran into a girl who was on our Fraser Island trip in the Greyhound station. The bus ride to Surfers was actually pretty sweet. Our driver was really cool and he just popped in a movie for the trip. There were some people who were going to be on that bus for a lot longer than we were, so I guess that made it bareable (the ride to Surfers was about an hour and a half, some people were on that bus for 12 or more hours, yikes.)
We got to Surfers and found our hostel (Backpackers in Paradise) and got settled in. We called Jackie because it was her birthday and we were going to go out to celebrate. She was staying at a house with some friends from her school in Wollongong. We walked over there and hung out for a little while and then went out to celebrate her birthday at midnight. A few of our friends who live with us in Sydney actually met up with us at the bar we went to. It was a lot of fun with everyone there. We ended up taking a cab back to our hostel because we weren't exactly sure where we were, but later that week we realized we were like 4 blocks away from it... I think we got ripped off...
We didn't really have any plans for our days in Surfers, mainly just sit on the beach and hang out. So, that's what we did. It's such an awesome beach town--a lot of shopping, restaurants, bars, and of course surfers. Uni Games was going on that week so there was a ton of students from colleges all over Australia competing in every sport imaginable. From what I hear, most people don't take it too seriously; they are just there to have a good time and happen to play whatever sport they play. I really wanted to get involved with volleyball, but I just didn't follow through with it early in the year. Anyway, the second day we just sat on the beach, ate some fish and chips, sat on the beach some more. We went to Hard Rock for dinner for Jackie's birthday. It's the only one in Australia. That surprised me a lot. We back to Jackie's hotel and then went out from there. We were going to do this bar crawl but Jackie, Gina and I decided to go back home; at that point we were too tired to function. The third day was a lot of the same, but we decided to go to the pool at Jackie's house. Before then, we had plans to go bike riding along the Gold Coast but you had to put a $100 deposit on each bike and we weren't really into doing that. So sitting by the pool and the hot tub sufficed for the day. I don't think we went out that night either, the sun pretty much whipped us out. The fourth and final day was just as productive, we once again sat on the beach, watched beach volleyball this time, and saw a girl get rescued. Ok, I didn't see it because I fell asleep on the beach but everyone else did. We went in the water a few times which was beautiful and so refreshing since it was so hot in the sun. But when the sun went down it got a little colder so we kicked around a soccer ball for a little and I reconfirmed my hatred for sports involving things hitting my feet. When it was time, we packed up and headed back to the hostel to pick up our bags and jump on the bus to the airport.
Goodbye Surfers Paradise, hello Sydney.
After the horror that began our trip, the relaxation in Surfers was the perfect way to end an awesome Spring Break. I was so nice and tan when we got back, and now I look and my pale sickly self and whimper. Sadness...
But, looking back on all of my blog posts, I realized that I've almost completely neglected my adventures here in Sydney. I've been having more and more since I came to the realization that my time here is quickly coming to an end. I will definitely update you on more of those, but it will have to be next time. Now, it's paper writing time because yes, I am actually at school here though it may not seem that way...
Much love,
Lara
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