Paradise, Surfers Paradise (#)

Monday morning. Wakey wakey at 9 am, to catch a train to Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast (H) Did some research over the weekend for accommodation and made a couple of appointments for Monday arvo (afternoon in Aussie lingo) to go and have a look at 3-4 appartments. It's a 1-hour train ride from Brisbane to Nerang and about half an hour bus drive from the train station to the center of Paradise, Surfers Paradise. The return trip costs you about $15 travelling off peak, which means anytime from 9 am to 3:30 pm and from 7 pm onwards. Perfect! We arrived there around 1:30 in the afternoon and took a straight stroll to the beach, with a quick stop at Hungry Jack's on Cavill Avenue (one of the main streets of Surfers) to get that yummie chocolate ice-cream that just makes your day :P And the beach!!!! 10s of kms of hot white sand, deep blue ocean waves that foam and roll over to the beach. Surfers.. on their boogie boards. Full show! Ayee :)

Relaxing 2 hours. Hot sun, cool ocean breeze, good music. Chilllllll!!! But what's that noise in the Paradise? Schoolies!! The traditional high school hangbang. Thousands of school kids celebrating the start of their summer holiday. The one and only destination: Surfers Paradise, Gold Coast, Queensland. Imagine that!! Boom boom boom let me hear you say way-ooh!! :) Oh no, off we go.. to see these 3 places for rent. Walk straight ahead along Via Roma St to the Isle of Capri. If the heavily developed coastal strip with high skyline buildings and the beach sits on a narrow barrier sandbar, then most of the private houses and villas are built on the artificial islands further inland. Much of the land between the coastal strip and the hinterland was once wetlands drained by the Nerang River, but the swamps have been converted into manmade waterways (over 9 times that of Venice) and artificial islands covered in upmarket homes. Some of the streets actually stretch out in the water, so most of the houses have their own little boat and bridge.

Anyways, the first place we went to see was about 30-minute walk from the beach on the back of the Isle of Capri. Beautiful resort complex with pool, spa, sauna, BBQ. Reminded me of a similar complex in Calabria, Italy where we had this massive Erasmus Event in May 2004. Flashback! :) The flatmates would be 2 young Aussie blokes, one of them working as a personal trainer and carpenter - great combination ;) Not bad looking, probably fun to live with, just that the place is a bit too far off the beach. And that was our condition #1 - must be walking distance from the ocean. It's pobably once in a lifetime that I live on the Gold Coast, so I'd rather take the full package. Back to the beach front! C ya guys! Old Burleigh Rd, one street back from the beach, two bedrooms on offer. Sounds good, there we go. Oh no, he comes and openes the door. Hello, Mr M. Bye, Mr M. Not the ideal type of flatmate. And unfurnished rooms. Where's the bed? No thanks. Turn around the corner, just a few steps away is Wharf Rd. Cool top floor unit, cool Mr A., but we got an impression he wanted a single female rather than the two of us. What kind of a man is that? :D

Back home, homeless.. Subway sanger and lamington (square of sponge cake covered in chocolate icing and coconut) for dinner on the way.. Back to Nerang, back to Brisbane. Tomorrow is a new day ;)