Saturday July 24, 2010

Today was a very long but amazing day to say the least. We started off our morning by packing up our stuff from the hostel and grabbing a cup of coffee all before 8:50 because that’s when a van was coming to pick us up to go take surfing lessons. Upon arrival at the surf shop, we got into our wet suits, grabbed a board and headed to the beach. Only about 6 people from our group took the lesson, but the ones who didn’t take it seriously missed out. It was absolutely incredible and so much fun! I can’t believe I never discovered this sport before now! I managed to catch and ride some waves by myself fairly quickly, however, I also nose dived 3 times, which is not the most fun to say the least. The water was absolutely gorgeous and the temperature wasn’t too bad, especially with a wet suit. The wet suits were particularly helpful in the morning because it was “raining” (misting), but midway through the lesson it cleared up and was just another beautiful day in paradise. Overall it was an incredible experience, I only wish it lasted longer than 2 hours. Once we finished surfing our group got back together, grabbed some food at a food court and then we split off from there to do the various different activities that we wanted to do. I chose to go with Julia and visit the Noosa National Park. It was gorgeous to say the least (pictures on Facebook or will be soon). The wildlife here is so much different from CT (as it should be). It’s honestly indescribable and the best way for me to show what it was like is from my pictures. Sadly, we didn’t see any koalas in the trees, but the sightings are rare so I wasn’t too surprised. Also, it wasn’t until after we got back from our hike that we saw the sign listing the different sightings that people have had. That probably would have been helpful to look at ahead of time, but oh well. I have to admit though, the fact that it’s even possible to see koalas in the wild is unbelievable to me. After this Julia and I went back into town to grab some sushi and smoothies before we all headed home. The ride home went fairly smoothly. We had a little confusion as far as transfers on the train are concerned, which ended up involving Zach and I running and jumping onto the train as the doors were closing, but don’t worry mom and dad, we made it home just fine. We ended up getting back home around 8:30, at which point we settled back in, got changed and went out for a girl’s night out for Dani’s birthday. We started our night by going to the Regatta, which was dead, so we just got one drink there then left. That led us to the RE, another bar, which we stayed at for a little while before moving on to Down Under Bar, which we stayed at for the rest of the night. At Down Under it was Ladies Night so all the drink prices were reduced…awesome! All in all it was an incredible day followed by an amazing night. That’s all for now, but I’ll update again soon. Thanks for reading!

Britt