Okay, so I have kind of messed up my chronological order posting for The Gold Coast. I actually visited twice. Once with Hollie on the way to Brisbane, and once after, but I felt you needed the full story - so let's go back in time.

Our first experience was not great. I didn't really have must knowledge of The Gold Coast prior to our trip. Turns out it's actually a city - not a region. So that was my mind blown already.

We stayed in a complex called The Pines in Elanora which is to the south of The Gold Coast. It was actually a really nice hotel (okay probably more of an apartment). We had views overlooking a lake and we were right next to a shopping mall. There was a pool and a Jacuzzi, a games room and a bar - not that we used any of those facilities - I was too busy taking advantage of the laundry room because I know how to live. The only downside was that there was no Wi-Fi - which is a little annoying when you are so far from home.

We were only in the area for 1 day, so we decided to head to Surfers Paradise - mainly because that's the only place we had heard of, and because it seemed to be the ultimate tourist destination. Our problem was that the weather still hadn't improved. The sky was overcast and the rain was intermittent. Surfers Paradise is built for the sun. In the dull weather, the place just appeared tired and tacky, and we weren't really sure what to do with ourselves. It was too cold for the beach, and too cloudy for the Sky Point Observation Tower. We took a stroll along the beach, and then around the shopping centre and we were none the wiser. We even asked the waiter when we had lunch - what do you do at Surfers Paradise?! And even he couldn't give us an answer. It looked like there were lots of options if we wanted a wild night getting drunk. You couldn't walk anywhere without a club promoter asking 'where are you going tonight' - bed. obviously.

There was also a lot of construction going on - everywhere you looked. This was prep for the Commonwealth Games (they've actually finished now I'm writing this). It was kind of ruining the scenic-ness (is that a word?) of the place. 

In the end, I messaged a friend who lives locally and asked her what we should do - I had tried to avoid this as I was going to stay with her the following week, and didn't want to steal her ideas. But she gave us a list of places we could go, so we set off to place number 1 - Mt Tambourine.

We set off on another little road trip, and before long we had reached signs warning us of steep roads. Being a super nervous passenger who also isn't very keen on heights, I was very uncomfortable about this and didn't really want to go any further - but Hollie was fine so I went along with it. As we grew nearer to the top we suddenly came across a traffic jam - yes, on a mountain. The problem was that the hill was so steep, so when the cars had stopped, they were unable to start again and suddenly we had joined this queue. The cars were all sliding and skidding and I was not built for this kind of stress. I handled this situation by removing myself from the vehicle and having a panic attack in a nearby bush. Hollie on the other hand had it all under control, calmly reversed the vehicle, turned around and waited for me to hop back in so we could just return to the bottom of the hill. In hindsight, I probably could have handled it better. But also that wouldn't have been a funny story to tell.

So that was the end of that adventure.

Our next attempt at fun was to visit Currumbin. A nice beach further south on the coast. It was a lovely place, but again the weather was preventing us from really doing anything. We drove until we reached Snapper Rocks - that was pretty cool, and pretty pictures were achievable even in the rain.

After that, we had kind of given up. The Gold Coast had been a disappointment. We hadn't been won over. 

Fast forward 5 days and it was time for me to head back. I'd just left Hollie at the coach station in Brisbane, and I was off to meet Shelby, a friend from Camp America who I did some travelling in the USA with.

She picked me up from Surfers Paradise, and I could already see an improvement because the sun was out. We headed closer to her home and stopped for sushi on the way. A first for me as I've never really understood the sushi concept. I let Shelby order for me though, and I actually really enjoyed it!

We had a pretty chill afternoon (admittedly I can't for the life of me remember what we even did when I arrived). But the most exciting part of this day was that my driving license had arrived!! It was finally back in my possession and I no longer needed to worry there was someone in the world stealing my identity!

Moving on to day 2 and we headed to Broadbeach in the morning for brunch at Shelby's highly recommended favourite cafe, Elk, and I had to give it to her, it was potentially one of the best breakfast/brunches I have had - and the coffee was great too. 

We made a quick ice cream stop in the Pacific Fair Shopping Centre - which is a pretty incredible mall. It has all the shops you could need - including Sephora, and it a very modern layout. There are lots of cool seating areas and plenty of food and entertainment options. I had a really yummy raspberry and white chocolate gelato from Lello Lello, which is a great gelato kiosk on the lower level of the mall. And then found myself a much needed new suitcase.

In the evening when we had returned, we took a trip to Surfers Paradise for drinks. We had a stroll around, as being nighttime, it was like being in a totally different place. We eventually picked a bar to sit in, and I was very impressed by the crazy cocktail menu. Unfortunately Shelby wouldn't let me buy the princess cocktail that came with a tiara, and told me she would leave me on my own if I wore it in public (rude.) so I had to settle for the candy floss cocktail - I forgot until that moment how sickening candy floss is, but it was super cool to look at, and occasionally something it kept exploding and scaring the life out of me.

We spent a majority of the evening watching a very unenthusiastic 'hostess' trying to draw men into the strip club opposite. Strangely fascinating.

The following day we had decided to have a beach day. This is where I always go wrong when I hang out with Shelby. Some of you may remember the 2014 horrific sunburn of LA. Well, this was the 2018 horrific sunburn of the Gold Coast. When will I realise that my pale ginger-like skin will not be able to keep up with Shelby's Australian glow? But anyway, it was actually a lovely day. We took lilo's and spent a lot of the morning floating in the water (slowly burning away layers of my skin). It was very relaxing. 

When I finally realised it was probably time for me to remove myself from the UV rays (lol, bit late Megan), we head to Burleigh Heads for lunch. We picked up some chips - with chicken salt - still don't know what it is, but it tastes nice. We headed to Burleigh Heads Hill to sit and eat lunch. The place was stunning, we had amazing views looking over the sea and you could see the city skyline. The weather was amazing and I was loving every moment. My opinion of The Gold Coast had completely changed. Hollie and I had clearly got to the wrong spots and were unlucky with the weather. But with Shelby showing me the nice places, it was quickly becoming one of my favourite places. 

In the evening we headed back to Broadbeach to get some dinner, by this point my sunburn was starting to appear, so I was starting to feel a little uncomfortable (it was still mild at this point). We took a stroll around the area to pick a place to eat. It was a lovely suburb with a great selection of restaurants and bars, lit up with twinkly lights everywhere. We eventually picked an Italian restaurant and I had my final Australian pizza, which was a little emotional. 

On my final morning, we headed back to the shopping centre as Shelby had some stuff to do. I had planned to a morning of window shopping and exploring the mall, however, I now looked like a lobster so the only place I was going was an air-conditioned room to watch some Netflix. Not only was I in a lot of pain, I also looked ridiculous. 

On a plus note, it eventually turned to a tan, and I have a nice bikini line that 2 months later will still not go away.

At lunchtime, it was time to say goodbye and jump on a train to Brisbane airport. Of course, someone had to sit next to me so my sunburnt legs were squashed up against my backpack the whole way. This was going to be a long trip to New Zealand...

It was time to say farewell to our camper-van which was partly sad, but we were now heading for luxury so I also couldn't care less. Of course as soon as we arrived in Brisbane the storms started. Which was fine, I can deal with the rain. I'm from England after all - in fact it was quite refreshing.

We hopped on a bus to the city and even got a free journey - I think the driver felt sorry for us because we looked like drowned rats, but whatever works eh?

So we get to the CBD, and start our 'short 17 minute walk' as Hollie described it. It wasn't. I had a 23kg suitcase with wonky wheels, and the hill was big. There was a point that my face was so wet and I wasn't sure if it was rain, sweat or tears (oh look, I'm being really dramatic again!).  Halfway up the hill and after kicking the case screeching with anger, a lady pulled up her car, jumps out and asks me if I'm having trouble getting up the hill. This time there was definitely tears rolling down my cheeks and when I told her 'yes, yes actually I was having trouble getting up that hill' with a very feel-sorry-for-me-and-offer-me-a-lift-because-I-love-getting-in-the-car-with-strangers face, you'll never guess what she did next...

She said 'oh dear', got back in her car, and drove off.

Excellent.

We did get there eventually. Obviously. And of course when we got to the hotel they informed us of the 'really handy' free bus that goes from the CBD to the top of the hill. I wanted to throw myself back down the hill.

It pretty much didn't stop raining the whole time we were in Brisbane. Which wasn't highly convenient as we had paid for a hotel with a roof top pool for a week of relaxation and recovery. The highlight of this though, was that I purchased my rain poncho. Unfortunately I didn't actually get to wear it whilst in Brisbane - but I can confirm it did come in handy in my future.

So instead we went out to explore, and I'm so glad we did, because even with the rain, Brisbane turned out to be my favourite of the Australian cities we visited. It was a little smaller than Sydney and Melbourne, but I preferred that. There were big shopping centres in the centre, and great river, and lots of artwork and pretty sights. We did initially struggle a little bit to find places to eat in the CBD that weren't fast food - but that was definitely because we didn't know the right places to look. I'm sure if we had been with a local there would have been loads of places. Whilst in Brisbane we did have our first Australian Nandos though, and FYI they do paella!

We stayed at the Hotel Chancellor, which was amazing. We had a balcony overlooking the city from the top of the hill, and at night the view was incredible. As mentioned previously, there was a free bus that took us straight into the city. It otherwise was about a 10-15 min walk. There was also a gym and pool on the roof - also with amazing views, and the staff were very friendly and helpful. They gave us a map and told us the areas that we should visit, and offered to sort out any tickets we may require.

On our first day, we headed straight to Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary (easily accessible by bus - journey time is about 45 mins), but it was still raining and when we arrived (at about 10am) we were told that they had sold out of koala photo opportunities for that day, so we decided to abort mission and come back on another occasion. We jumped back on the bus and headed back to the CBD. We got off at Brisbane museum and took a walk along South Bank. This is where you will find the Brisbane sign - an obvious major photo spot. At first, I was disappointed to see that the sign is actually fenced off, but then I realised this is way better as it stops people climbing on it and ruining photos (#amsterdamproblems).

As there was a break in the rain, we decided to take a ride on the Brisbane Wheel, as there was no queue. Of course, by the time we got on, the rain started again, but at least we were nice and dry in our little pod. The wheel was actually pretty fun - it has some great views of Brisbane, and you get a commentary recording playing for half the journey giving you information about the area and what you are looking at. There is an opportunity to buy a photo book souvenir, but it is $40 so we decided against that one.

After a spot of lunch, we headed to the botanic gardens to explore. Another beautiful place and well worth a walk. The rain had stopped, but it was incredibly humid! We did a big loop through the gardens, and ended up back at the other end of South Bank - this is when we discovered that there was a lot more to South Bank than we had realised. If we had kept walking past the wheel, we would have found the large selection of restaurants/bars and huge public swimming pools. We headed back the next day and had lunch at really nice Mexican along the front. Major eyes bigger than belly moment though. It was delicious though. Brisbane also has free Wi-Fi throughout - weirdly mine only worked when in Southbank.

We spent our Sunday afternoon fighting the rain and attempting to have a swim. It pretty much consisted of us getting in the pool, bracing the rain for about 5 minutes and then running back indoors. We would sit on the bed for 10 mins, spot a bit of blue sky and repeat all steps again. It would have been totally more bearable if the swimming pool wasn't on the roof of the 12th floor - a little breezy!! Unfortunately, there was no hope of an Australian tan for Hollie to go home with.

The next day we were on a mission to get our koala photos. We got up super early and were on the first bus running to Lone Pine. We were actually so early that we had to sit outside for an hour because they weren't open. It was worth every minute. As soon as we entered the park, we went straight to buy our tickets. The woman in the shop told us not to queue yet because they don't start taking photos until 10am - she advised us to go to the kangaroos whilst we waited as it would be really quiet. And she was so right! We had the whole kangaroo area to ourselves for about half an hour. 30 whole minutes of kangaroo selfies - we were in heaven and had so much fun. After we cleaned all the kangaroo slobber off our hands we headed to the koalas and got in the queue. It was all very quick. You only get to hold the koala for about 20 seconds so the photos were limited - the ticket does include a photo taken by a photographer. But we had finally achieved our number 1 goal for Australia - even if we were cutting it fine leaving it the day before Hollie went home.

That afternoon, we went back to the CBD and took a ride on the free river ferry - yes, completely free, and it was such a long trip, I was really impressed. There were options available for tourist river cruises, however with this option available it seems mad to pay (unless you want a tour guide I suppose). The sun had even decided to make a reappearance, and we spent about 2 hours cruising along the river. I even started to get a bit too hot! (Don't worry, it rained again when we went back for a swim). There are lots of stops on the journey, so if you have plenty of time, you can explore more areas of Brisbane. We decided to just go all the way around and sightsee from the boat. There were a few seats upstairs that were outside - it was very relaxing, but sun cream is a must!

On our final day, we took one last stroll through the city centre, and had a browse around the shops. There was plenty to do in Brisbane, and still lots of things that we didn't have time for. Out of the cities we went to, I would pick Brisbane to live in - even with all the rain!

As the time came to go to the coach station, it was time for me and my suitcase to tackle the hill again. I decided it was not necessary to get a taxi, because obviously it would be way easier going down hill. That was all good and well until 2 out of 4 of my suitcase wheels fell off.

So that was a longer walk than expected.

At the station, Hollie and I had our final McDonalds ice cream - we basically had one a day whilst travelling, and then said goodbye at the coach station. I was on my way to the Gold Coast and Hollie was heading back to England. We had spent a whole month together 24/7, so of course our goodbye was a very Megan style 'see ya - safe flight'.

I'm such a delight.

But it's okay because I wrote a cute Facebook post to say bye that didn't involve me sobbing.