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Surfers Paradise

I'm sitting here in our hostel, Down Under Hostels, using their complimentary and Mac PC's and scratching my head trying to think of something good about the place. Don't get me wrong the hostel is alright, good facilities, spacious common room but our room opens out on to the common room so sleeping through the night does not happen.


But I can't quite warm to this city, is it the scarcely placed sky rise buildings, the shoddy shopping centres or the fact that we were promised sun and when we arrived it was overcast! We tried our best to find something good but have failed miserably even on day two. We took a stroll away from the city towards a garden Jamie quickly had up on his phone as a respite from the city; Cascade Gardens. Google Maps advises it is a 20 minute stroll from the city, 30 minutes later and we're still traipsing in the heat. I think the one hundred and one traffic lights slowed us down dramatically! I've ended day two with an oddly placed sun burn!


Cascade Gardens was really nice, we spent about two hours here relaxing by the meandering river beneath a tree and booking our bus with Greyhound Australia to Brisbane on Wednesday. We got all that sorted, our bus tickets and accommodation. After that, we made our way back in to city and found ourselves a nice kebab shop and got a chicken kebab meal each. Nothin' quite like a dirty kebab after a long stroll in the heat.


We took a stroll around the shops, with street vendors (similar to that in Thailand/Vietnam) trying to lure you in by firstly asking 'where are you from?'.... seriously like. Lonely Planet suggest that there are up to 20,000 visitors a day however we have yet to see such a crowd.

The beach is quite beautiful although a little windy and in the late afternoon it is quite unusual to see buildings cast quite the shadow over the beachfront! The sand is beautiful and the beach itself is quite clean. Lonely Planet states that 'paradise' has been tragically lost in this city aside from the beach so I'm guessing we are just too late in visiting this city...?


You will note the above are all free things to do (except the lunch) therefore we are still well within budget and enjoying our time here. There is a lot to do for those on a larger budget including Mr Ripleys Believe it or Not, Wax Museum and Warner Bros. even have a theme park here, however as you may remember I don't exactly like rollercoasters so I think I'll have to give that a miss.


Unfortunately we must avoid the beach and/or sun today like the plague, we're both like tomatoes after yesterday's heat. So I guess we're having a hostel day today.....I'm worried now my mother is reading this and will kill me for not putting on enough sun cream so I'm going to leave it at that!


All in all Surfers Paradise has been a bit anti-climactic, while we have enjoyed our time on the beautiful beach of the three days here we've only had the one hot and sunny day which may have taken away from the city's charm. Not to worry, onwards and up the coast we go.....


Talk to you all in Brisbane!


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