Australia - We have landed

On Boxing Day we landed in Gold Coast. We knew nothing of this place before we arrived. Only that it is close to Brisbane and closest airport to Cairns, as initially we intended to go diving first. But, we changed our minds in the meantime (and yes, that does happen a lot these days). After a lot of diving in Asia, we figured that it will be better to do a bit of sightseeing (especially the cities!!!)  and do diving towards the end of our stay in Ozz. So, no plans were made and we figured we’ll get the place to overnight when we get there.

First surprise is that we almost got fined for having 2 apples! They were supposed to be snack on the plain, but we forgot about them along the way. This has happened before, but usually we just had to leave the fruit at the airport. Talking of fines was a new thing. At the time we just thought the guy on the airport had a bad day that improved when he allowed us to go. Little did we know…

Second surprise was that we could not find accommodation in Gold Coast. Seems this is The Place all people go for Christmas in Australia! So, we cut our losses and decided to spend the night on the airport. Not a big deal, done it lots of times… Until we were chucked out at 11 pm – this airport closes for the night!!! Now, this was a major surprise. On one side no accommodation, on the other airport closes for the night (usually this happens only in sh**holes and God forsaken places in our experience, and we have profound one on both earlier mentioned). But there it was, we spend the night outside…

And then there was the third surprise. It was cold! And not a little bit chilly, but properly cold – temperature dropped below 20 Celsius (for our Irish readers, we are now officially wimps…). We somehow made it thru the night wrapped up in sarongs (thank God Nives went a bit crazy on Bali) and went to Brisbane early next morning.

This would be next surprise. It is a nice city, with lovely skyline and really nice river running through it. But it was empty! Except for the rush hour in the main shopping area, it was empty… no pulse… We tried to find a nice place for the dinner, but the fullest place was Irish pub (no surprises there!) and that one was almost empty. We figured it was the holidays…

So, our first impressions of Australia? Not very good, we are afraid. But there is enough time for improvement!

We hired a car in Brisbane (good deal there – brand new car for a good price!) and headed off south. First stop – Gold Coast. We had to see what was the whole fuss about! And actually, we liked it. It was a really nice beach with lovely sand (no shade thou!) and new, really tall high-rise buildings in the background. Like combo of Dubai and Costa Brava… sort off… It was different to what you usually see, but not a place to stay for long time in our opinion (especially if not into surfing). Few hours was enough and we headed south again. Idea is to go to Sydney for New Year’s Eve and see few places on the way.