After leaving Byron Bay,  we stopped at Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary where I was lucky enough to spend some quality time with a sweet gal named Pearl.  I loved this little snuggle bug and wished I could have spent more time with her.  She reminded me of a cat.  Furry, cuddling and apparently sleeping 19-21 hours per day. Basically she has the life-other than tourists waking her from her beauty sleep a couple of times a day.

We continued up the Gold Coast to Surfer’s Paradise.  This place is rooted in surfer history in similar fashion to California’s surfer culture.   I thought Byron Bay would be more like Surfer’s Paradise and vice versa. Surfer’s Paradise seemed like it would be this hippy, not very developed kind of place but instead it was a city filled with high-rise vacation homes and apartments.  I love when your expectations (for better or worse) are nothing like you first anticipated.

After leaving Surfer’s Paradise we finally arrived in Brisbane.  This city is quite familiar to me. Not because I had ever been there but because I have many friends who studied abroad here during college.  The first time I had heard of it was in college when a best friend of mine told me she was moving there for 6 months school.  I would Skype with her and hear all about the details of the city.  It was so great to be there years later after hearing all her stories.  I really loved the place.  Naturally, it has a very college feel to it.  It sits right on a river and there are free ferry rides that run back and forth all day and night.  We walked along the banks of the river, visiting the carousel, strolling through a man-made beach, and mingling with college students.  All in all, it’s a great town.