Jan 2007

Hey

Spent my 1 and only day in brisbane taking in the sights (didnt take me long!). I walked down to Southbank which is an area by the river with loads of market stalls and a man made beach. Was a nice walk there, through the botanical gardens, and i got the ferry back along the brisbane river. I went for a wander around fortitude valley (The night before i had met some people including someone from brisbane, so we all went out to some bars there)and bumped into my friend Jo, who i met in Surfers Paradise. She was staying at the same hostel as me, so we just chilled out together in the hostel bar at night, before goignt o china town at around 11pm for a late dinner.

I got up really early the next day to catch my bus to Noosa. Noosa is a gorgeous wee town, set amongst a national park. My hostel is about a 10 minute walk to the beach and park, which is not too bad, and the hostel itself is basic but has a good atmosphere. Noosa is quite an upmarket place...loads of nice restaurants along the seafront and very upmarket shops. I had a wander around teh main street (Hastings St) yesterday afternoon, before coming back to the hostel. Last night there was a mexican night at the hostel - $7 for a big slap-up mexican feast which is pretty good going (around 3 pounds) - and i had a few drinks with some of my room mates before getting an early night.

Today i went for a walk through the national park which was absolutely beautiful but its sooo hot today so it was hard work!
Going to go to the beach this afternoon, and I think i'll hit the Australia Zoo tomorrow for some croc shows!

Hope everyone is well at home
Love Danielle xxx

Hey everyone!

So, I've left Surfers Paradise and am now in Brisbane. I really didnt like surfers p. that much, but there was a nice beach so i managed to spend most of my time there. I stayed in the 2nd night there, as i was so tired and desperately needed to catch up on sleep. Last night was another good night though - met a few people, and one of them happened to be a chef, so he cooked us up a massive BBQ which tased amazing. Then we headed out to a few bars which was fun. Hopefully i;m going to be meeting up with one of the girls, when i get to Noosa.

I got the bus to brisbane this morning. The city is very like Glasgow...seems like a nice place to live but there is not that much to do/see. I only have today and tomorro here and that is plenty! I went for a walk around the city and chinatown and I'm probably just going to spend some time at the hostel tonight. The hostel is massive!-its got a restaurant, bar, 5 floors of rooms - feels like a hotel (even has air con which is a huge luxury!). Its really clean, but seems to be a bit clinical...i prefer the more homely, small hostels as they are better for meeting people. Anyway, i met a girl in Surfers called Jo (from Wales)and she is joining me in brisbane for my second night and possibly up the coast for a bit.

Anyway, thats all the news for now

xxx

Hey

Final night in byron bay was another good one! Started off by having dinner with everyone around the courtyard and then there was a power cut in our hostel arount 8pm...so we decided to head straight out to the club for a marathon night. Was planning to go to cocomangas but their power was also off, so we headed back to cheeky monkeys for another night of dancing on tables, and i didnt get back to the hostel untill 4am. I had to get up really early to pack and check out of byron as i was leaving for surfers. I spend the day just chilling with the people from the night before (Karen, Dave, Luke, Dean and Ben) before leaving to catch my bus at 4pm. It was only a 2 hour journey to Surfers Paradise in Queensland. On arrival i was a little dissapointed. I'd left the most beautiful little town, with friendly people where everyone knows everyone, for a much bigger town with high rise buildings, that is overcrowded and full of traffic.

My hostel is not as nice as Aquarius in byron, but it serves its purpose and the staff are really friendly. I tried to make an effort with the other folk in the hostel last night by going on a major pub crawl with them, but by midnight i was so exhausted from all teh pervious nights of partying that i called it a night and jumped in a taxi home.

Today i'm going to wander around the town and then hit the beach. Its sucha strange town - really tacky buildings surrounded by gucci and prada shops - all a bit strange.

Anyway, will have more news soon

xxxx

Hey

I think last night was one of the best nights that i have ever had. I met a really nice group of english lads at dinner last night and after chatting to them and others that i had met the previous night, it seemed apparant that everyone was heading to a club called Cheeky Monkeys that night. After dinner, a few drinks, and a hostel 'pub' quiz (which we surprisinly did not bad in!) we(me, karen, Dave, Luke, Dean, Ben and some more than i cant remember their names) headed to Monkeys.

It is probably the strangest club i have been in - there is no dance floor, but instead, there is a whole room with large steel picnic tables and everyone dances on the tables. Had such a good time with all my new friends and one of them is going to email me pics of the night so i can post them on here at some point.

Anyway, managed to make our way back to the hostel around 4:30am, and was awake this morning at 8. Was so exhausted i decided to give the trip to Nimbin a miss, and instead a bunch of us took a walk to the Byron Bay Lighthouse which is at the most easterly point of australia. Its about a 2.5 hour walk in total, so was a great cure for the hangovers that we all had.

Having a lazy day today and think we're going to head out to another club tonight - Cocomangas - which should be another awesome night.

xxx

Hey!

So i left Sydney on Saturday and was really glad to get out of the city. Spent my last day with my american friend Nicole, and we went up the Sydney sky tower for some great views and then we just chilled in Hyde Park before making our way back to bondi.

I got the night bus up to Byron Bay, and it took 14 hours!! It left Sydney at 7pm and the bus driver decided that he was going to stop the bus every 3 hours and make us all get off so he could clean it - i was really annoyed as it meant i couldnt really sleep. Also, the bus was full and my chair was broken, so it was an uncomfortable night anyway! The majority of people were heading up to Byron, and most people had not booked any accomodation (unlike me, who booked it weeks ago!) and were spending the journey phoning round hostels to find out that the whole of byron bay was fully booked and there was not a bed anywhere! So, that meant that a huge group of people had to get off at the stop before Byron to find some accomodation there - nightmare for them!

Anyway, we got into Byron at 9am on Sunday morning, and some guy from the hostel came and picked up me and another girl, Karen, from the bus stop which was nice (sick of carrying my backpack already!). The hostel is called Aquarius, and it is 100 times nicer than my hostel in sydney. Its all open air, with dorm rooms surrounding a courtyard. There is a swimming pool (luxury in hostels, believe me!), bar, travel agents, and every night they organise a meal that costs 8 dollars (3.50 pounds) and everyone sits down together to eat. Its so relaxing here.

Spent the day with Karen (girl from the bus) and we just went to the beach and sunbathed, went out for lunch, and then sat around the pool for a while. I met some really nice people..a guy from the Netherlands and 2 Swedish people. Last nite (sunday nite) i went out to the Byron Hotel with these people which was cool.

This morning i had booked a surf lesson. I though i'd pick it up really quickly, but seriously, i was the only person in our group of 10 people that couldnt stand up on the board! Its really not as easy as it looks....

I actually got up twice for a split second before completely wiping out. Its hard work and trying to drag a surfboard out to sea around 50 times really wears you out! Anyway, the surfing was for 3 hours and when they asked me if i wanted to book myself in for another lesson tomorro, i said thanks, but no thanks! It was a lot of fun, but too difficult!

Came back to the hostel and just chilled out by the pool and had a wander around byron bay. Its such a lovely little town, with loads of cafes and boutiques. (i've been good and so far i have only bought one dress the entire trip!)

Think tonight a group of us are going to Cheeky Monkeys which is a club which has big steel tables that you dance on cause there is no dance floor - sounds interesting!

At the moment i'm in a travel agents (you get free interenet here - its great!) and i've just booked myself onto trips for Fraser Island and for sailing the Whitsunday Islands.

Tomorrow i'm going on a tour to a place called Nimbin, which is a hippy village where they take a load of drugs and stuff. nut its apparantly a good sight to see!

Thanks for all the emails peeps!

Speak soon
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx