Sooo my third weekend in Australia was almost accidentally spent in Sydney instead of the Gold Coast (think - Australia's answer to a spring break hot spot).
So..my third weekend began with the SGM Awards (see previous post). After probably downing about 2 bottles of champagne and dancing our butts off until 2am, my roommate Jamie and I took our cute little black dresses and very tired heels home for a little bit of rest before meeting the rest of the girls for a 7am flight to the Gold Coast. Well....instead of waking up at 5am (go figure..haha..hmm - in retro, not the best planning i have done), Jamie and I instead woke up at 6am to Ally calling from the lobby where we were supposed to be meeting everyone to head to the airport. Eek! We jumped out of bed, threw random clothes into our bags and literally jumped into a cab (and in front of! haha) all in the span of about 5 minutes. Yup, we barely had anything we needed but we still made those flights!!
Once we got to the Gold Coast, being the six classy ladies that we are, we hopped into our Avis white Tourago (aka...minivan haha) and Ally skillfully drove on the wrong side of the road for an hour...all the way to Byron Bay. Byron Bay is this super super cute/laid back surfer town an hour north of Surfer's Paradise. Its also now the top of my list for places to retire to....and is at the top of yours too...trust me! The beach is pristine and stretches for miles as the clear blue waves broke gently all along the shore.
We pulled in around 10am and spent a couple of hours exploring all the cute souvenir and surf shops that lined the town. Once it hit noon, we hit the only cafe on the beach and had a seafood extravaganza outside on the open air porch. Well actually, more like everyone else had seafood - being still a little roughed up from the night before, i opted for a HUGE delicios bowl of mashed potatoes with olive oil and rock sea salt and (of course!) a salad. Delicious!
Once we finished stuffing our faces, we hit the beach and took a nice loooong stroll out to the absolute eastern-most point of Australia. Thats right - you can't get any more East than that..haha...We found a really cool lookout point and watched the kayakers below as they got closer and closer to the surfers near the shore. Definitely need to try surfing at one point.
Once we finished walking as East as we could, we then headed back into town...picking our way over the beach that was now littered with people on a gorgeous 80 degree day. (Incidentally, we were the only ones in jeans...can you spot the tourists? yup, its us..haha) We did a little more shopping then headed to Surfer's Paradise to find our hotel - the nicest Holiday Inn I have ever seen! (Jin, it would have brought a tear to your eye..finally a Holiday Inn as good as a Hilton! haha) We walked into the super posh lobby, got our rooms keys and then played room key roulette to see who would be bunking with whom. Turned out to be the tall girls and the short girls hahaha...
We relaxed a little (and of course, had a couple of bottles of wine while getting ready) then decided to hit up the dirty spring break town first hand! We had dinner at Melbas - less than a five minute walk from our hotel. Melba's is a totally lively and fun restaurant that slowly becomes a club... Since we had to wait a little while for a table, we hit up the bar and got a fishbowl to share! A leisurely dinner (with lots more drinking) and then we were ready to hit up the dance floor! While fun, it was definitely a crazy mix! There was glass all over the floor from all the drunks dropping their drinks (ps - first time i have seen anything other than a pristine floor since I have been in Australia) and the clothing and hair - WHOA. People must just get drunk and chop each others hair into the awesome rock star mullets they have - otherwise, there are some very twisted hairdressers out there! To top it all off, people slam into you instead of passing you like normal. Def brought out the fighter in me and my girl from Philly - Erica...we started dropping some bows! haha...However, in spite of those few negatives, anytime you get 6 lovely ladies together with some good music, you are still going to have an awesome time! We danced the night away until about 2:30 then headed home for bed (with a pizza pit stop on the way!)
On Sunday, I woke up suuuuuuper bright and early at 8am. Ugh..gross - the only thing my poor body wanted was sleep! Since I was already wide awake tho, I decided to get up and get ready. My fellow short stuffs (Erica and Holly) got up pretty soon after I did so we wandered around and had some breakfast. By the time we got back, it was already noon - time to meet the other girls, check out, pack up the minivan (aka White Lightning!) and do some exploring. We spent an hour wandering from Surfers Paradise to Broad Beach where we had a delicious pizza and salad brunch. Incidentally, I think we were also the only people in the restaurant not drinking..haha...Australia - I like your style. We then walked the beach back and realized we still had a few hours to kill before our flight so we got some gelato and then went bowling! Yay! Sylvia ended up being the hustler of the group - she bowled a strike or a spare almost every frame!!!! Once we handed back our rental shoes and socks (I know - totally gross) we then leisurely walked back to the car, went to the airport and then hopped on our flights home!! Too bad the weekends go so fast!!
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1 comment:
you're so cute Tania, hope you are having a great time there!!
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