Gold Coast

Wow Gold Coast!! What an AMAZING place! It lives up to its name! The beach is just miles and miles of beautiful white sand with gorgeous clear blue water. But I am getting ahead of myself..

Gold Coast was the only place I didn't have a local contact to back me up! My brain thought hm this could be a bit intimidating, but honestly being an unknown person in a big city all on your own is such a thrill. I don't know how to explain it, just raw freedom.

I was lucky to meet some friends right away from the hostel I was staying at! Grace is from England and had Surfers pretty much sussed so she showed around me and another friend I met Denise who is from Germany.

(photo bombed) ;)

 It was so fun exploring surfers with girls from such different backgrounds! Just little things like searching for hair bobbles (hair ties) haha was a good laugh. Denise and I were both somewhat newbies at traveling alone and it was great to have a buddy:) (PS those hats were like $600 dollars-fluffy things always are..)

 Denise and I took a nice long walk down the beach to explore another shopping center we heard about, but it wasn't about the shopping center, just walking down Gold Coast is amazing!! It was so picturesque! I kept looking around and telling Denise "I just can't believe I'm here!" I felt like I walked into a post card.

 Part of me thought, maybeee you shouldn't touch it, but after we passed the third one my curiosity got the better of me! It was cool, felt like hardened hair gel and after a bit of convincing I got Denise to hold it too.

Didn't take me long to recognize that Sufers Paradise was not just a paradise for surfers, ooooh no my friends. This is the Las Vegas of Australia.

 A friend got in contact with me and found some YSA that lived in the area that I could stay with! I was broke from some technical difficulties with my pin number and oh so grateful for a place to crash!

But before I left, I couldn't turn down the opportunity to try something new..

It was kind of a funny scenario, I was alone at the markets and they had a booth where the wildlife center brought animals you could hold. Usually this is the thing that you want to do but pretend you don't and so your friends talk you into and so you do it. Well I didn't have a friend persuade me into it so I just had to be brave and go for it, it was so cool I loved it! This was the second shot they took- the first time the guy said "Uh, lets take another one, you just look scared." hahahah

I LOVED making friends everywhere I went! I met so many new people and honestly learned something from each of them. It is bitter sweet though because then you have to say goodbye after just a short time! But the people I met are what made my trip, and I love making friends from around the world. Now I have another friend to hook up with next time I'm in Germany ;)

 An amazing family took me in, and this photo is horrible but it was so cool because their house had an amazing view of the Surfers Paradise coast line, I don't know why, but I just loved that I was just down there, and now I am up here..- Hard to explain but it was so awesome staying with the Blair family. They are amazing people!