Hailey Goes To Oz: Surfers Paradise

We disembarked the Greyhound bus in Surfers Paradise: an hour north of Byron Bay. Once we figured out where our hostel was we walked/limped there and checked in. As soon as we got our luggage in our room we set out to find a doctor who would look at my foot. The doctor at Surfer's Health informed me that there was a possibility that it could be fractured and that I should get an X-Ray in the morning if it was still hurting.

Our ride from Byron to Surfers Paradise

Our hostel

Unpacking in our dorm room

After the doctor visit we decided to do some window shopping (with multiple "rest periods") and then have a late lunch at the Hard Rock Cafe. We did a bit more exploring after lunch and then called it an early night. I liked Surfers Paradise, but it was much more commercialized/developed than any other coastal area of Australia I'd seen. It almost felt like we were in Florida. Lots of high-rises which we hadn't seen much of up until this point.

Surfers Paradise

The next day my foot was feeling quite a bit better so I decided to skip the X-Ray. We made our way to Pancakes in Paradise and had all you can eat pancakes and then walked to the beach and laid in the sun for a little while. The sand in Surfers Paradise is the powdery kind that brushes off of you really easily so I loved it!

Pancakes in Paradise

After laying down for a while we walked down a little boardwalk area along the beach. My foot was hurting so Rob pushed me around in a shopping cart for a little while.

We eventually came upon Adrenaline Park: a theme park area with extreme/crazy rides. After a bit of begging I convinced Rob to go on the Vomitron with me. It was this ridiculous ride that went waaaay up in the air and the seats spun around. We got free t-shirts afterwords which was cool, but Rob felt sick for the next few hours which was not cool.

Adrenaline Park after riding the Vomitron

After the Vomitron we walked the streets a bit more and found a souvenier shop with an Australian Outback scene set up in the back to take pictures in front of:

After walking around some more we went to "Woolies" (Woolworths) and bought some groceries for dinner. We cooked spaghetti in the hostel that night for dinner. Our hostel was hosting a sort of "party night" where we got free entry into a bar called Bedroom. Rob and I joined the group and marched down the streets with about 20 other backpackers to the bar. We stayed there for awhile and then went exporing on our own and found an Irish Pub called Avenue. We didn't stay out for too long and couldn't do much dancing because of my foot, but we had a good time seeing the night life scene in Surfers.

The next morning we did a load of laundry at the hostel and had breakfast there. We then picked up our rental car and checked out of the hostel and drove to the Carramatta Markets just outside of the city. This was similar to Paddy's Market in Sydney with about 500 stalls selling cheap souveniers, clothing, sunglasses, etc. We both bought a pair of sunglasses. The weather was beautiful so it was nice to walk around the outdoor market.

After that we drove to Mermaid Beach and had a good ol' American lunch at Hooters.