161 hanlan street, apartment 703

finally found a place! not only is it somewhere to stay, but it's in a prime location and a really nice building. gym, pool, perfect view AND within our budget! although, we did have to settle for a studio rather than the two bedroom that we had intended on getting, but prices were high and places were going fast, so when we saw the view from this one, we took it immediately without looking at anything else.











we knew surfers paradise was going to be an awesome place to live, but google earth definitely did not do it justice. it doesn't seem like it with all the high rise apartments and city-like setup, but there are actually only 12000 people who live here. it's mostly tourists and people like us, who came here to work and travel. the beach is absolutely beautiful though. waves are big, the sand is white and the sun is hot. playing around in the waves is so much fun, but the current is super strong. so strong that the first day, i got carried way out of the swimming zone and the rescue boat had to come out and tell me to get back to where i'm supposed to be! it's a good workout though. i can't wait to surf. the city itself kind of reminds me of halifax because it seems bigger, but it's pretty small in reality. everything is central within a matter of blocks. there is a market-type street called cavill ave. which is packed with stores, restaurants and some bars. it's an easy city to get around, i'm loving it so far. i guess what the australians would say here is cheers!

shrimp on the barbie!

although hostels are hostels for a reason, i was really expecting something more than it actually was, especially according to the more-than-decent looking pictures online. it was mostly stressful just not being settled, so our first couple days were taken with apartment hunting. we first arrived at the backpackers in paradise hostel at about 8pm and the lady at reception informed us that seven different hostels around town were going on a pub crawl downtown surfers. that seemed like a good idea until she then told us that the bus was leaving at 8:30. we rushed to the liquor store only to find out that alcohol was way out of our budget. $25 for a mickey? i don't think so. we did end up going out anyways, but it wasn't as fun as it could have been since we didn't know anyone. we eventually met our friend dave from germany, and that made it a bit better, to have a group of three rather than two. for this first week, it's also schoolie week, which is when the high school kids are on break, so downtown from about 7pm on is absolutely insane. people everywhere!



so we toughed out the first couple nights despite our disappointing hostel because we knew we'd find a place of our own soon enough.

au revoir, canada!

now that i finally got an internet connection, i can upload some pictures and start this australia blog for all you people back in canada where it's freezing cold. here's the last picture from canada at the detroit airport. we look pretty happy to be leaving, even though i spilled butternut squash soup all over myself.




this picture is of los angeles from the plane. the actual flight wasn't too bad from la to sydney. we slept 12 out of 17 hours so it went by rather quickly. the worst part was when jason realized that his baggage had been left in la. so him arriving in australia with no clothes put a bit of a damper on the start of our trip. and to top that off, we missed our flight to brisbane and had to wait 6 hours at the airport. we could have gone out to see the city, but i was tired, angry and didn't want to carry my heavy bag (that broke twice during the travelling). finally after finally arriving in brisbane, we had to wait two hours for the bus to take us another hour to surfers paradise. travelling sucks.

crackers & cheese

because this week had been relatively warm out, i thought today would be a good day to get out and take some pictures with kelsey. turns out, today was freezing cold, so we only managed to get a few pictures. i don't know what those mallards are thinking paddling around in the water. and, going to the dock, we learned that the notorious ship playground had been torn down! that thing was a landmark, rip ship. no 00's plastic liability-free playground will compare to the ship. even though i never knew it was a ship until about last year.





jose's vegetable lasagna that kelsey ate in approximately 2.5 seconds and xocimilco's bean burritos & flaming cheese .. goooood two days!

it's 3am

before folding:




after folding:



now i have room to pretend that i'm going to work out:

we did the mash

the other day, my sister and i decided to carve pumpkins, which is less time consuming than i'd remembered. i also forgot that choosing the right pumpkin is an art in itself. and if you don't pay attention, you end up with a lopsided, scarred canvas for carving. i also suggest buying a pumpkin carving kit, rather than freehanding it!