Where Did March Go, Exactly?

It has been 9 days since our trip to the Gold Coast, and I am sorry to have not posted anything about it yet. I don't really have a sense of time passing here, because I don't really have anything to do all day but hang out on my computer so nothing really happens. Hanging out on the computer all day? Wouldnt that then, Sarah, be hours of time you could update your blog?
Yes. Yes it is.
Procrastinators unite tomorrow, and all that malarkey.

Anyway!

Gold Coast.
The Gold Coast is about 2 hours from Brisbane in total travel time. Half of that time is spent getting from our house to the train station at Roma Street then to the train by the Gold Coast - the other half of that time is a packed bus that goes through every little corner of the area and makes you sick.

Now, we had a good morning, everyone was on time, the bus was on time, we had to wait a good 15 minutes for the train in the morning, but it was alright once it got there. I made the mistake of choosing a seat that was backwards from the direction of travel, but I didn't get too sick.

(I'll say that at this point I was still on a scale of 1-100% - 16% scared of a tsunami -- see previous post)

So we get off at Nerang, and immediately there are tons of people. Tons of people who had been in the quiet cabin of the train with us, and then hordes and hordes of teenagers (or wankers, as Cal called them) (a name I found fitting upon one glance) (but a name that was not nearly horrible enough for them by the end)

The bus filled up very quickly, with everyone who needed to get on it. There was one group of teenage boys, who couldn't have been a day over 16, who were creating all kinds of ruckus on the platform, and then just the way we got on the bus, the only seats left for the hour journey happened to be right in front of them.
Now, imagine a packed bus, you in the second row from the back, going through all of these side streets, up and down hills, for an HOUR after being mildly motion-sick already....and then these shitheads are behind you and I quote: (and excuse me for getting explicit)

"I was at this party and this girl was there and I took her home and she was like AH! AH! (screaming fake orgasm noises) and then I kept switching positions and she kept screaming AH! AH!"
"No way bro?"
"Totally bro, she was so f*king hot dude, but like, I don't give a shit about her I just wanted to f*k her."

(And everyone around us - including me - were all thinking the same thing - which was 100% true - he's never touched a girl in his entire life the little prick)

"I totally just farted."
"Oh dude! Why?"
"I farted, in my shorts, I think I shit myself!"
"Did you shit yourself?"
"I shit myself! There are dingleberries in my shorts! Pieces of shit in my shorts!"

(Once I saw they were behind us, I thought to myself, at some point on this bus ride one or all of them are going to fart. I just know it.)

"What's Bruce Lee's favorite drink? WAH-TAH!"
"WAH-TAH! AHAHAHAHA"
"WAH-TAH! WAH-TAH!" "WAH-TAH"
"Where does he eat?"
"HUNGIE-JACKUH!"
"HUNGIE-JACKUH? HUNGIE -JACKUH!"   (saying Hungry Jack's wrong to be racist - so clever)
*repeat Hungie-Jackuh at least 50 more times between the 5 of them*

"Hey - hey Shaniqua!"
"Shaniqua!"
"Hey Shaniqua! Shaniqua!"
(a black girl was standing near the door, so they decided it would be funny to heckle her.)
"Shaniqua! Where you goin Shaniqua? Come back here and sit with me!"
*about 10 minutes of this*

So that was the bus ride. And that wasn't even all of it, just what I can remember. Suffice it to say they were racist, loud, obnoxious, stupid, explicit, c-words. And every poor person on the bus was stuck listening to them for an hour (or more, because they were also on the train - we were just blessed to have not been in the same cabin.)
You know, I never thought I knew what a wanker was until I met these boys. The four of us agreed that we want those boys to look back on their lives and hate themselves. Realize that they're toolboxes and just hate themselves for it. I bet they never change either.

That began our day, so its a good thing I'm not one of those people who writes off the day due to a bad morning. I was still optimistic. Prob because I love the beach.

We stopped at Woolworths to get picnic stuff for a lunch on the beach, and then made our way to Surfer's Paradise. I'd say the Gold Coast is similar to the Jersey Shore in terms of geography, but it has way more canal systems and suburbs and stuff. It still has the long coastline that is just straight up beach for miles with hotels right on the edge. No boardwalk, but plenty of amusement parks around for another bus ride.
Here are some photos!

there was quite a bit of sand erosion, making it really interesting getting up and down off the beach. Going down was like a free fall, but coming up was worse because the sand was burning hot and it slowed down quite a bit. We were very close to the water, not as close as I've ever been, but it was perfect. The waves were big enough to keep things interesting. We were in front of the non-swimming zone, but we could still go out like waist deep without getting in trouble. It took a while for me to work up the courage to go to the swimming area.

Cal and the Emilys made a sand castle, which had a nice moat system because of the waves, but once the moat was optimized, no waves came close to it (of course).

Emily and Cal and I went over to the swimming area and I chickened out going up to my head because I wanted to still be able to touch, because if you get pushed under once and you cant launch yourself back up, you cant time your head to pop up before the next wave comes down (I've almost drowned in wave pools, I understand these things lol) I watched Emily get dragged under three times, I lost track of Cal for a minute, so I was just jumping over waves so they wouldnt crash on my head but basically keeping an eye on them. They didn't need me to be doing that, but I couldn't help it.

The forecast for the day was 90 degrees (and in the sun, mannnn it felt like it  - the pavement and the sand was white hot) and 0% chance of rain.

But we had an Upton with us (Emily.) So it rained.

so thats Emily looking incredulous at the approaching storm. It was really more of a super cell, because as it approached, before the rain started it was ridiculously windy. We had to pack up pretty much blindly, and then make our way up the burning hot sand to the burning hot pavement blindly, because the wind was catching the sand and it was blowing into eyes, ears, up noses, hair lines, every bit of skin. It was very very uncomfortable. Then it started raining. Then it stopped and got windy again, so we walked back to where the shops were and got slurpees and waited for it to pass.

We walked around for a bit, just to find something else to do since our time on the beach was cut short, and then decided there was nothing else we wanted to do so why not just go home. So we decided to get a bus to a different train station, hoping to avoid any other teenage hooligans who go through Nerang. So it was a good 30 minute find-the-bus-stop and then a whole hour on this other bus. An hour on a bus is longer than a normal hour. I did a 16 hour plane trip and I was more impatient during this bus ride than I was on the plane. That's how bad.

We got to the train station and it was a 30 minute wait for the train back to Brisbane (then a 15 minute wait for the bus back to our house from Roma Street train station). So all in all, we spent more time getting to the Gold Coast than we spent actually at the Gold Coast. But I still think that the hours on the beach were worth what it took to get there and back. If we go again, for sanity I might just have to stay the night somewhere and be there two days. I dont think I can do the commute twice in a day again. Brutal.