A string of hotels along the Gold Coast, like Miami Beach.
On the way to Surfer's Paradise, we stopped for a bushwalk through the forest.
Clare.
Clare swings from a vine.
An aeriel shot of Surfer's Paradise.
(photo from the Internet)
The beach.
(photo by Stu)
One of the guys in my room looked just like Keifer Sutherland.
Neil, Kenny, and Steve ready for action. Walking home later that night, Neil, still in drag, got mugged.
(photo by Kenny)
| From: Jeff Nyveen To: my friends and family Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2000 20:19:51 -0400 Subject: Moving Right Along The day before we got to Nundle, one of the local sheep shearers (not Mickey) had a heart attack and died in the middle of a demonstration for Oz Experience. Last night, we had a BBQ and a party at the house. It was wild. Graham taught us a fun drinking game that uses playing cards, and in two hours Steve was dancing around the house completely naked. I have pictures. For a while I was putting the moves on Kari, but the girl has the personality of a crowbar. Anat turned out to be a really cool girl. She's an athiestic, non-Kosher Israeli who hates other Israeilis and loves U2 and good science fiction. She also makes good pancakes. We got along real well. This morning, we said goodbye to Carol and Kari and left our house in Byron Bay. I got back on the Oz Experience bus with Kenny, Steve, and Neil this morning and arrived in Surfer's Paradise this afternoon. I was expecting a tiny town since you won't find Surfer's Paradise on most maps of Australia, but this place is like a small city. It's a lot like Miami Beach, without the old people and the Cubans. High-rise apartment buildings, motels, malls, beaches. Just listen to track 8 on U2's Pop album. Then listen to tracks 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 10 cuz they are cool. After arriving, I stopped at one of the malls and bought some cushioned Nike reef sandals. My synthetic cork-soled flip flops were not conducive to the long walks that accompany an Oz Experience tour of Australia's east coast. Then we went to get lunch at a beachside cafe and proceeded to have one of the most disgusting meals ever. The place, if you're coming to Surfer's Paradise and would like to avoid it, was called the Blue Sky Cafe. My steak sandwich was rubbery and unchewable, Steve's chicken parmesan was uncooked and had ham and egg on top, and Neil's lasagna was cremated beyond recognition. All my roomies this time are from England. With all these Brits, I'm learning how to distinguish which part of England they are from just by listening to their accents. The guy sleeping on the bunk above me looks like Keifer Sutherland. Tonight we went to a club called Cocktails & Dreams and had a great time. The bars and clubs here are open until about 5am, which is nice. Everything in Byron Bay shut down at midnight. At the club, I talked a lot with Lori, who's from Toronto and looks a lot like Jennifer Aniston. We finally made it back home at around 4am. Neil thought it would be funny to go to the club in a dress and with make-up on. On the way home he got almost his ass kicked by gay-bashers. I'm here in Surfer's Paradise for 2 more days, then back on the bus and off to Brisbane. More Australian oddities: -Since phones are so hard to come by and Telstra charges up the ass wherever there *are* phones, most of the locals carry around mobile phones. Telstra also charges up the ass for that. People making and receiving mobile calls are both charged something like 80 cents a minute.No Regrets. Jeff |
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