06.07.10

Our last day in Brisbane was yesterday. After we woke up, we packed up and headed back down town for my photo shoot. The shoot took most of the day, so right after, around 5:30, we headed for the train station and made our way to the Gold Coast. It was about a 40 minute train ride, which isnt too bad.
We will be staying with our 2nd couch surfing host. Her name is Carlie and she lives with her sister and two other roomies. She invited us to stay with her for the entire 5 days we would be in the area, and she seemed really cool, so we are excited to say the least. We called her to let her know we were close, and turns out that there were 3 other couch surfers staying the same night. In lue of waiting for us, they decided to make a night of it and drink up. Having known this, we were even more excited to kick back and let our backpacks rest for a few days.
Once we got to the Gold Coast, we had to find our way to the bus stop and onto our first bus transfer. Mind you, there are no clear directions on what bus to get on, what will take you where, etc etc. You cant even try and predict which way the bus will go, because often times, they go in funky weird circles, so when you think youre headed in the right direction, turns out you just looped 45 minutes out of your way. It was no different at this bus station.
We read the plaques that said what bus to get on, at the exact time it should arrive, where we need to get off, and tried to figure out what direction we needed to head. We did manage to make it to our first bus stop for a bus transfer. We accidentally got off one exit too early, so we walked to the next one. One our way, we crossed the river and saw a manna-ray cruising around the boat loading area. On top of that, we also some weird chicken-duck thing and a few fish jumping for insects. We were awfully excited to have been making our way down to this sea-crest city, so seeing these ocean dwellers made it even better. It was dark out, and on the brink of getting late, but we were, surprisingly, in good moods still!
Still unsure of our proper bus route; as an insurance policy, we asked the bus driver! Now come on, if you ask the dang DRIVER if you are headed in the right direction, wouldnt you think that is all you needed to know? Well, turns out this bus driver was as loopy as the circles he drove in! Not only were we 8 minutes away from our final destination when we got on the bus, but the bus driver was going in the wrong direction, we just didnt know it yet!
The Gold Coast is a long, stretched out city. At the top is Paradise Point; thats where we needed to be. Then you go through the city to Surfers Paradise, Mermaid Beach, Paradise Fair, Burleigh Head to Tweeds Head and then down to Coolangatta. The bus route is just a huge circle from top to bottom. You will get to your destination, no matter what direction you go in, its just that one way will always be out of the way. Plus, they charge you per zone you travel through, and its not cheap if you end up going the long way.
Even though we asked the bus driver, and he said 'Yes, I will be going to that city', we still managed to go in the lonnnnngggggg direction. All the way down to Burleigh Heads to be exact. But you wont believe what happens next.
Its now 10pm and John and I are the only two people on the bus. Its now officially late and we seem to be one of the last few people even driving on the roads. We text Carlie again to let her know we were semi-lost on the bus, but her and her mates were getting tired anyways so it was no biggie.
Out of no-where, the bus driver stops. Just pulls up to the side of a road and tells us we need to get off. He said we got on the wrong bus, that we should have gotten on the bus across the road instead. He said he had to take a lunch break, for us to wait at the bus station across the road, and that he would be back for us in 40 minutes!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME!!
So there John and I are, no clue where we are, and cant even begin to grab a sense of direction because its so dark outside. We let Carlie know, and this time she just said that she would be off to bed, but to call when we got there so she could let us in. Great, we missed the party!
At 12:30, we finally made it to her place. Except, shes not answering. Not sure exactly if the house was divided into apartments, and not so sure what door to go to, we opted from knocking, even though we did see lights on. We waited about 30 minutes, and then decided to pitch a tent right there in her front yard instead. We were tired, frustrated, freezing and felt slightly uneasy about sleeping in the front yard since we didnt even exactly know if we got the right house. Oh well!
She woke us with a sympathetic phone call in the morning. She quickly showed us around, introduced us to the German/French surfers and took off for work. We were both very tired still; having less then a good nights sleep. We sat around for a while, trying to settle inbetween the other 3 surfers, and then decided to walk around to see what we had available to us for the next few days.
She lives smack dab, right in the middle of Paradise Point. Cute little town that seems to be apart of some weird island-peninsula-archipelago unit. On the end of her street is the water. Not quite sure if it is a bay or the river, but is very calm, quite beautiful and had a personal beach, and small park.
Just across the way from the beach is a smaller center, market place. A small food works and some cafés, and even some little boutique stores.
The islands on the other side of the water are lined with luxury apartments and hotels. It was like the secret place that people come to get away, from their get-away homes.
We ran up to the local Coles market, and grabbed groceries for the week. We spent $25.00 dollars, so I am anxious to see how far that will go.
We spent the rest of the evening getting to know everyone in the house. Anja, is German. Her boyfriend, Yann and his friend Greg, are French. These three were the other couch surfers. Hurley was the amazingly loveable dog, and Tina, the other dog, was only there for the night. Carlie, her sister Nicole, Dennis and Matty were the actual occupants of the house.
We hung out, I spent some time working on my school final and then we went to bed on a very comfortable air mattress! The things you begin to appreciate once you start sleeping on the ground. I love it!