I got back in yesterday morning after my trip to the Gold Coast (north of Sydney).
After leaving early Thursday morning by way of plane, I got in about an hour and a half later at Gold Coast Airport. From there, I caught a bus with another friend from baseball that I was traveling with to Surfer's Paradise. After walking around the city and hanging out on the beach, I stayed the night in a hostel with my room having 4 people housed in 2 bunk beds. My friend who I went with on the trip was housed in the same room with me along with an Australian and a Brazilian.
The room situation worked out real well as the Australian (Matt) was headed up to Brisbane in Friday (about an hour or so north) in his van but would be leaving from there to drive to Byron Bay which was south of where the hotel was by about an hour. He offered to give me a ride after he finished up to head to Byron Bay and surf which allowed me time to check out Surfer's Paradise more the following day before leaving for Byron Bay.
In the morning I went with Ryan (Amherst baseball player from the US) to catch a ride on a jetboat which not only offered excitement speeding around with over 600 horsepower on the water, but also gave us the chance to see wildlife and some man made islands which are not accessible otherwise to the public. During the boat excursion, we were able to see not only the city from the water, but also the Sovereign Islands which are home to the most expensive plots of real estate in the state of Queensland. One building cost over $20 million to build and was equipped with a titanium roof owned by a German doctor who designs prosthetic limbs out of titanium.
The wildlife included a range of colorful exotic birds and pelicans as well as a wallaby. I pointed out the wallaby after seeing it, and we were able to pull right up to the beach to get up close. The area is also home to dolphins with the older ones often seen herding fish towards land for their young to teach them how to hunt.
The Q1 Building in Gold Coast (tallest building in the southern hemisphere)
Surfer's Paradise
After the boat tour I walked around Philip Park which offered great views.
Seafood place I grabbed lunch (prawns are their shrimp)
(Southport Yacht Club)
After checking out the park, I got seafood from this shack right on the water and had some calamari and fish of the day from New Zealand before meeting up with my roomate from the hostel who I caught a ride with down to Byron Bay.
Once arriving at Byron Bay, it is clear the town has a much different smaller town "surfer" culture than city that is called Surfers Paradise. Reminded me of Iceland compared to Greenland with the name being a misnomer.
I was able to take pictures after arriving later in the day in Byron Bay and check out the town itself which had a small town beach feel to it. I spent the night at another hostel in a 4 bunk room. At the hostel, I met two Irish guys who were very entertaining especially when the bar/restaurant area of the hostel started up their karaoke night.
The next day (Saturday) I got up at 7 with Matt who drove me down from Surfer's Paradise and went over to catch some waves at the beach. I got to try my hand at surfing and wander around the area. I caught a bus later that day to Coolongatta (where the airport is) and scoped out their beach and grabbed dinner as I had a flight the next morning departing at 6:10 am. At the hostel where I stayed my final night, I befriended a guy from Ghana who was teaching himself some accounting and was looking into opportunities to pursue an MBA. After talking and passing along some resources to him for reference, my baseball friend Ryan arrived at the hostel as he had come down to Byron Bay a day after me. We both were booked for the same flight out and rose nice and early for the flight back.
Later Sunday, the night was capped off with the weekly "Orphan's Dinner" held at a family's house who has been essentially like host parents for me and I enjoyed some salmon, prawns (shrimp), and a mixture of some lebanese salad amongst other things as it was a birthday celebration for Deb (who has pretty much been a host mom). I brought over some cake and chocolate hazlenut cookie rods to share.
Now back to class....
