Gold Coast & Brisbane

Spent a whole five days in the area around the Gold Coast now, so here comes the blog.

Waking up the next day I was a bit frozen, as the temperatures had plummeted. The Gold Coast always seems to show the warm side of things on pictures (who wouldn't) but they do get winter were it can get cold. The usual Ozy philosophy of not knowing what insulation is seems to still hold true. My planned swim for the day also went belly up as it started raining a bit throughout the morning and the cold wind wasn't making the sea any more appealing.

So I wondered how to spend the day. Had a bit of a walk around again, all packed up. In the end my decision was to go to the cinema, as a few movies had recently been aired that I wanted to watch. Prices were good, too, so that helped in that regard.

So a lot of the day went away with watching Independence Day: Resurgence and Warcraft (first movie is top).

In the evening I got back to the hostel and met up with a Dutch guy who was my room-mate for the night. He had been out whale watching and had met up with two Australian girls who he was going out with that night. As I had nothing planned to do I tagged along and the night went haywire from there. Long story short (as I will NOT be going in to details) I ended up coming back to the hostel at 2AM somehow, after getting lost for a while in the city. Really nice to see my bed.

The next day I contacted Aaron, a guy I had met in Alice Springs a couple of months before and lives near the Gold Coast. Agreed to met up with him the next day and then I was of to Brisbane to met some family. Due to Simon, Julie, Alex and Rhys flying to Hawaii, they where getting their complete house painted in that time. So I booked in to a hostel in the centre of Brisbane and drove out to met them. Julie was home, so we had some tea and talked a bit until Simon came home from work. So our extended family has managed to pretty well span the world. Only continents missing are Africa and South America, that is unless we have some more family there that I don't know of. Once Simon got back we went out for some dinner at a steak house with some of the best meat I have had in Australia so far. We picked up Alex from the swimming pool on the way who is an avid swimmer. After a delicious and stuffing dinner we went back and after a few more hours, I said my goodbyes and drove back to the hostel. The bad weather once again seems to have followed me, as a storm was ripping through Brisbane and driving took some extra attention, due to various hazards on the road which needed avoiding.

Back at the hostel I got a thin sheet for the night which met I was an ice block by the morning.

The next morning I left to meet up with Aaron and picked him up mid afternoon, before heading back to the previous hostel. Once the hostel stuff had been dealt with we went searching for some food and had a few drinks in an Irish pup whilst I got the rules of Rugby explained to me. Another very popular sport in Australia.

The night where then spent in a mix mash between going out and meeting some people and playing poker.

The next day the played poker money was then spent in a surfer s club between all the people that had played whilst watching a lot of expensive cars driving past (including the new electric Tesla cars, which look very interesting). The evening was then preoccupied with a bit more poker and some hot chilly (as in a 12/10) and I said goodbye to Aaron who was heading back home before going to bed in the hostel myself.

All in all the Gold Coast seems to be the ideal place for anyone that loves city's and I can see the appeal of it. I did end up going swimming at one point, which was sort of a highlight for me, as most oceans I had been so far in Australia are to dangerous to safely go swimming. The only people in the water where two Kiwis and me, as 20°C is to cold for Australians.

A lot of things summed up in to one, the Gold Coast is a fun, clean and beautiful city.