This past week was lecture recess for us at JCU. That means we got a whole week off. Thank goodness, I was getting exhausted from the two weeks of class since our last break.
We work way too hard
A group of us decided to head to Brisbane and then take off for the Gold Coast. This group consisted of Bear, Meredith, Jorge, Steph, and myself.
We left Friday after class to catch our plane. Friday was a rough day. Bear and I decided to go out Thursday night with a few of our other friends and things got a little hectic. Let’s just say we didn’t feel well on Friday. Since this is Bear and I trying to do a planned trip, you know chaos ensued.
No judgement.
Our friend Jorge had booked a taxi to take us to the airport. The taxi was late because apparently they had no bookings for Jorge. Great start already! The taxi company apologized and sent over a car right away. Thank goodness! We made it to the airport and on the plane with little trouble after that. Mind you, I said “little,” that means there was still trouble. Obviously.
I’m sure I’ve stated this before, but I hate flying. I really hate it. I don’t like heights and every time the plane bumps, my life flashes before my eyes. This plane ride did not help my fear at all. There was scary turbulence for a solid 5 minutes. It was enough turbulence to have the captain come on the announcements and tell the crew to sit down and buckle up. I frantically tried to remember every prayer I was ever taught in Catholic school. I got halfway through an Our Father and it suddenly turned into Hail Mary and I ended humming the tune of a Britney Spears song. Better to die with a happy tune in my head. When the turbulence ended, I was shaking. I almost kissed the ground when we landed. It was only a 2-hour flight, but it felt so much longer. This was the first time we almost, probably, could have died.
My thoughts on the plane. Brit gets it.
Jorge’s friend from high school, Liz, offered to let us stay in her apartment just outside of the University of Queensland’s campus for two nights. What a doll! The problem was that our flight was a little behind schedule and we missed the last train. Just our luck! So here we are, a group of American tourists looking like lost puppies in a place none of us have ever been.
A nice, loud, and hardly understandable Chinese man came up to us and I think he said, “No more trains, come with me.” That’s not sketchy or anything, so we followed out of desperation. He took us to an unmarked white van that was set up on the inside like any typical maxi taxi. There was a Chinese woman and her daughter trailing along with us so we kind of felt a little safer. It was still a very scary ride since we didn’t know this man or where we were going. This was the second time we almost, probably, could have died.
We all buckled in and texted our friends where we were in case we should die. It’s like we’re going out of our way to follow every stereotypical horror movie plot. Oh well. The man was very nice…I think. I couldn’t really understand a thing he was saying. The woman who was with us said she’d known him for 10 years and he always picks her up from the airport. Seems legit. He took us right up to the side of Liz’s apartment and only charged us $10 each. That was a lot cheaper than taking the train and a bus from the train. Everything happens for a reason!
The first night in Brisbane was….an interesting one. Liz is one of 6 roommates. All of them agreed to let us stay. But as you may or may not know (if you’re under 21, lie and say you don’t know) alcohol can turn you into a completely different person. For instance, I turn into Karen Smith from Mean Girls after a few drinks. AKA, I’m an idiot. One of Liz’s roommates becomes angry under the influence.
We heard said roommate screaming from outside about not wanting strangers in her apartment and that we were disrespecting her. She was very drunk, very loud and very angry. She was also scaring the crap out of us. Liz ran up to tell us to pretend we’re sleeping until the roommate got to her proper room. We all held our breath as the sobbing roommate walked by us. This was the third time we almost, probably, could have died. It was all a drunken misunderstanding, we were told she’s a sweetheart sober. Still an experience.
We finally went to sleep after an exhausting day. Well, we tried to sleep. The rest of Liz’s roommates rolled back in around 3am and decided we shouldn’t be sleeping during our first night in Brisbane! I totally agree, we shouldn’t have been, but we kind of had a rough day. They kept us up for about a half hour while we all pretended to sleep through it. Looking back, they were quite funny. We were just too tired and ain’t nobody got time for that. It was an experience.
We woke up later than planned the next day due to the night’s unexpected twists and turns. We went to go to the train station so we could go to Steve Irwin’s zoo! How exciting!! Problem was, it was raining. It never stopped raining. Oh and the train station that was walking distance from Liz’s was closed. We would have had to take a bus to another train station and then the train to the zoo 2 hours away. The zoo closes at 4 and with the long travel, we wouldn’t have made it.
We were so disappointed. How incredible would that have been?! Oh well, that’s our luck. Instead Jorge, Bear, and Steph decided to tour the city of Brisbane in the rain. Meredith and I weren’t feeling that so we decided to stay in the mall where the train station was located. We got a pedicure and went shopping for dinner supplies. We bought pasta, sauce, cheese, and bread. Since we were trying to stick with an Italian theme, we bought two bottles of wine to go along with it. We like to keep things classy from time to time.
The next day we traveled from Brisbane to the Gold Coast on an hour train ride. Luck was finally on our side seeing that we got to the Gold Coast and into our hostel with no problems! Yay! We had a room to ourselves with a bathroom. Thank heavens we just had to share a bathroom between the 5 of us!
Yay room to ourselves!
We settled in and then took a tour around Surfer’s Paradise. Everyone said it reminded them of Miami. I’ve never been, so I’m going to take their word for it. It was very Miami.
Pool at our hostel
View outside our room
We wandered around, grabbed some dinner and stopped to watch some street performers. They were actually quite entertaining. Some guy was riding around on an incredibly tall unicycle and began juggling knives. He put on a good show. We didn’t have much to do for the rest of the night and we were exhausted so we settled into bed.
So much skill
We woke up early the next day to go to Movie World! Movie World is one of the theme parks located near the Gold Coast. This particular theme park was Hollywood/Warner Brothers themed. That means the DC Superheroes were wandering around along with the Looney Tunes and Scooby Doo. I definitely didn’t hate it. I have an extreme love for all things childish.
We took a bus and got there a few minutes after opening. We had bought our tickets the night before at a lower price from a very sketchy gift shop owner. We were relieved to find out the tickets were legit and after a brief wait in line, we were on the Green Lantern rollercoaster! Woohoo! I love rollercoasters. I may be afraid of heights and flying and all of that, but something about being strapped in safely to a seat and zipping around tracks doesn’t bother me at all. Go figure.
Hello world of wonder and fun
Batmobile!
It was a beautiful day and we got to go on every ride! We also saw some characters walking around. I saw Scooby and Shaggy and immediately forced Bear to pose in a picture with them. For some reason, no one in my group wanted to hug all the characters like I did. Clearly they’re missing out. I got super excited whenever I saw any cartoon character or superhero. Unfortunately, I only got a picture with Scooby because none of my friends had the patience to wait in line with children like I did.
I freakin’ love Scooby Doo!
Shaggy ruined the illusion of his character when he began speaking to me in an Australian accent asking if he “detected a hint of an American accent.” C’mon Shaggy! Get your act together! I thought you were legit! It was funny though. Being at JCU, everyone is used to hearing American accents since there’s a ton of us. It’s always a pleasant surprise when someone is impressed by our exotic accents. Of course, not everyone loves us Americans. We walked by a group of people later that day and we heard one of them say, “Eww, from America!” COOL! Movie World wouldn’t exist if it was for America! Learn some respect. Geeze.
Shops and characters
There wasn’t that many rides, but they were all enjoyable. My favorites were the Superman Escape rollercoaster and the Scooby Doo Spooky Coaster. The Superman one shot you out, “Fast, Superman fast.” It was awesome and such an adrenaline rush! The Scooby ride was set up really cool. The line inside was decorated like the Scooby Doo live action movie. The ride may have been for a younger crowd, but we all still screamed. We definitely didn’t expect to suddenly go down backwards down a drop! I loved it. I went on both those rides twice.
Such a thrill!
I don’t know if I went on Scooby again because I found it that fun, or because I fell in love with the ride attendant. His name was Liam. Liam, if you ever see this, I’m totally available. I like long walks on the beach, margaritas, and any movie starring Robert Downey Jr. I’ll never forget our 2-second convo of how you went to New York for a day or the way you checked if my seat belt was on properly. It was a magical moment. Come to Philadelphia.
We could go to Love Park and be adorable.
Anyway, we stayed at the park until close. We got to see the parade with all the characters and check out some of the shops. It was such a fun day! I loved it. It’s no Disney World, but I’ll take it.
Bugs, Daffy, and Tweety!
Can I have that car, Sylvester?
My men
The Joker
Justice League
Bugs and Catwoman
Na na na na na Batman!
The toons dancing to some 1D
That night we wandered around the shops set up on along the beach and watched more street performers. This night featured a guy who could put his entire body through a toilet seat and juggle knives and a baby doll. Oh, while he was balancing on a ladder. Pretty solid. He also gave the job of holding the knives to the cutest child in the world. Why not give a small child large knives? Welcome to Australia.
“That’s not a knife. This is a knife.”
This is their ice skating. It’s plastic…
Jorge and I found a koala tiger. I care for that.
We went back to the room with some Subway and boxed wine and watched some Aussie TV. We got really into this show, My Kitchen Rules, and found a sudden, passionate hate for the one team. We really, really hate them. And now we’re addicted to the show. Great.
We hate you, “babe”
The next morning, Jorge and Steph hopped on a plane to Melbourne and Bear, Meredith, and I had a beach day before heading to our plane back to Townsville. It was a beautiful day and we all fell asleep under the sun. We made it to our plane with no issues and made it back safe!
Perfection
Paradise!
Goodbye beautful beach!
Despite all the mishaps, I still had a great time on this trip. Of course, I’m completely broke now, but it’s totally okay. We got to visit some awesome places in Australia and got to do things we never expected we would do. I never would have thought I’d spend a day at a theme park in Australia! This first half of lecture recess was an experience, but the second half was beyond spectacular….
Oh yeah, we also went to this awesome pancake place and I almost cried at its deliciousness
P.S. I desperately miss my cat.
Love you so much Tink!
I want to cuddle you to death.
You’re perfect.
I’m single.
I don’t understand why.
A Broad Abroad 