After Korea, I worked for a month more or less in Gold Coast, Australia, for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Gold Coast is a coastal city in east Australia, close enough to the equator that it has tropical weather and with what is basically a huge continuous beach all along the coast. I went there at the end of "Summer"/beginning of "Autumn", which means it was hot and sunny and also rainy sometimes, but like in brutally intense and short showers.
What I mean is that after a cold long Korean winter, it was paradise. It was warm, calm, beautiful, and also very much occidental. It had it's peculiarities and it was not perfect, but it felt pretty much great.
We were staying in this area of tourist apartments, that had a nice pool and sun. The apartments were quite good and we were close to the tourist going out area, Surfer's Paradise (that's how the neighbourhood is called). This area was also next to the beach, although there were nicer beach sections further away.
Work-wise, we were busy and doing things, but because of the scope of the project and the previous work done for Pyeongchang, it was a lot less tense, the workload was smaller and we didn't have to do night shifts, just afternoon shifts. This means there was a lot of time to visit, enjoy the sun and relax before and after work.
The city has a region called Surfer's paradise because the whole region is ideal for surfing. There are very strong and big waves all across the coast, and inside the water the current is crazy strong. I swam several times in the sea and it was really funny, I always kept myself in areas where I touched the ground but it was fun to let waves crash against you and push you away, or notice how the current was also almost making you fall. The only thing is that the allowed swimming areas were very small, marked between two special flags. This was to avoid surfers hitting you and have a very clear supervised area, where you could be very safe. However it felt sometimes like a waste, to have so much beach unattended just for surfers.
This area might have sharks and other dangerous animals, and we were told not to swim at dawn nor on sunset, but the reality was that it was pretty safe and most people mentioned it had been decades since last time someone had been bitten. We still didn't swim outside the morning and early afternoon, but also because it was the period when the sun was bright and nice, of course. There were jellyfish and some people that I was with got stung by them, once right next to me, but I was lucky and escaped without touching one^^.
The area had also other curious animals, like ibis, big birds with big curvy beaks, or flying foxes at night (which were quite impressive since it's basically a very very big bat). We visited a local zoo (it's called wildlife sanctuary but it felt like a zoo, which can be pitiful), where you could see kangaroos and koalas (they're from this region) and other local animals. Koalas looked really cute of course, while kangaroos where actually in some open area just sunbathing and you could get close to them and even feed them. I did not see any giant spider, but I did have a green jumping spider in my kitchen for some time (it was brightly green and I checked what could it be. The bite is supposed to be painful like a bee sting but that was it, and this spider was just on my ceiling and not bothering, so I left it there)
One thing I enjoyed very much was the possibility, finally, to have fresh orange juices in bars and cafes, while being for example next to a beach area with sun and some fresh air. I did not drink this in a long time since in Korea fruits are scarce, expensive and not juicy, and then it was not that common to have a good natural juice.
I also tried some local things, like the famous vegemite (which is weird as hell and I'm not sure I like) and I had some burgers and good meat, plus I tried kangaroo sausages (and they were really tasty and apparently rather healthy). Around the city there were some public barbecues and you could cook food in there in a park or next to the beach, which was really really nice, and I ate barbecue a couple of times, even if I'm not that fond of it.
I met with friends and other people and went out or visited different places with them, like Coolangatta (an extremely beautiful and calm beach), Snapper Rocks (natural sea pools made by rocks, quite fun to notice the waves arriving in them), Burleigh Heads (another beautiful beach), Broadbeach and Mermaid Beach, some small natural park north of Surfer's Paradise and other such places. The city had newly-installed bikes that you could get an app to unblock them and use them, like Barcelona's bicing or the Itau bikes in Rio, but available to anyone for quite a low price, and we did several small trips around with them, which was quite a good way to see around and visit nearby places.
Another place that was impressive was the SkyPoint Observation Deck, the tallest building of the city that had a floor where you could check the views from up there and had an activity where you actually went outside with a security belt that tied you to the building. It was really beautiful and I was lucky to do it during a clear day, allowing for great sunny pictures and also letting me see extremely far away all around the building, checking the huge beach and seeing the waves and the currents underneath it, hypnotically moving far below.
We also went out, mostly around Surfer's Paradise. The area has a very British approach to bars and alcohol, and places were asking for an ID where it was clear what was your date of birth, sometimes only allowing it if you had your passport since others were not in english. The process was very uncomfortable and sometimes ridiculous, because even if you went out for a smoke and they saw you, they had to check again. Related to that, one night in particular got me really really angry: Good Friday, the Friday that is a holiday during Easter. That day, bars and restaurants were only serving alcohol if you were eating, by law, and places that did not serve food (like clubs) were directly closed until the end of the day, 12 at night. I found this to be ridiculous, to implement such a religious law for everybody instead of letting you do whatever you wanted. I knew Australia had problems regarding racism and immigration and that it was a very conservative place, but this stupid limitation forced upon everyone really pissed me off and was a big stain in my opinion of the place, which was rather good with no complaints until that point, even with the ID controls they were implementing.
Of course since it has British culture, it was normal to have dinner early, drink early and go out until rather early, so even when we went out we didn't stay until very late, and then several days we could visit things the next day or even go to work if we had an afternoon shift. There were a few exceptions to closing early though, and one of them was the Casino that we visited last day. Usually I would not go to a casino, but the locals insisted it was a known and common place to go out at night without worrying about closing times since it was always open. The day I visited I saw this was the case, but still felt a bit surreal and strange, to have like a "club" area next to betting and slot machine areas.
All in all, I really enjoyed the experience and loved the place, and it was quite a necessary relaxation after Korea's project. I didn't get to visit places a bit further away from there, like Byron bay or the great barrier reef, but I'm still very happy with the trip^^.
Gold Coast is a coastal city in east Australia, close enough to the equator that it has tropical weather and with what is basically a huge continuous beach all along the coast. I went there at the end of "Summer"/beginning of "Autumn", which means it was hot and sunny and also rainy sometimes, but like in brutally intense and short showers.
What I mean is that after a cold long Korean winter, it was paradise. It was warm, calm, beautiful, and also very much occidental. It had it's peculiarities and it was not perfect, but it felt pretty much great.
We were staying in this area of tourist apartments, that had a nice pool and sun. The apartments were quite good and we were close to the tourist going out area, Surfer's Paradise (that's how the neighbourhood is called). This area was also next to the beach, although there were nicer beach sections further away.
Work-wise, we were busy and doing things, but because of the scope of the project and the previous work done for Pyeongchang, it was a lot less tense, the workload was smaller and we didn't have to do night shifts, just afternoon shifts. This means there was a lot of time to visit, enjoy the sun and relax before and after work.
The city has a region called Surfer's paradise because the whole region is ideal for surfing. There are very strong and big waves all across the coast, and inside the water the current is crazy strong. I swam several times in the sea and it was really funny, I always kept myself in areas where I touched the ground but it was fun to let waves crash against you and push you away, or notice how the current was also almost making you fall. The only thing is that the allowed swimming areas were very small, marked between two special flags. This was to avoid surfers hitting you and have a very clear supervised area, where you could be very safe. However it felt sometimes like a waste, to have so much beach unattended just for surfers.
This area might have sharks and other dangerous animals, and we were told not to swim at dawn nor on sunset, but the reality was that it was pretty safe and most people mentioned it had been decades since last time someone had been bitten. We still didn't swim outside the morning and early afternoon, but also because it was the period when the sun was bright and nice, of course. There were jellyfish and some people that I was with got stung by them, once right next to me, but I was lucky and escaped without touching one^^.
The area had also other curious animals, like ibis, big birds with big curvy beaks, or flying foxes at night (which were quite impressive since it's basically a very very big bat). We visited a local zoo (it's called wildlife sanctuary but it felt like a zoo, which can be pitiful), where you could see kangaroos and koalas (they're from this region) and other local animals. Koalas looked really cute of course, while kangaroos where actually in some open area just sunbathing and you could get close to them and even feed them. I did not see any giant spider, but I did have a green jumping spider in my kitchen for some time (it was brightly green and I checked what could it be. The bite is supposed to be painful like a bee sting but that was it, and this spider was just on my ceiling and not bothering, so I left it there)
One thing I enjoyed very much was the possibility, finally, to have fresh orange juices in bars and cafes, while being for example next to a beach area with sun and some fresh air. I did not drink this in a long time since in Korea fruits are scarce, expensive and not juicy, and then it was not that common to have a good natural juice.
I also tried some local things, like the famous vegemite (which is weird as hell and I'm not sure I like) and I had some burgers and good meat, plus I tried kangaroo sausages (and they were really tasty and apparently rather healthy). Around the city there were some public barbecues and you could cook food in there in a park or next to the beach, which was really really nice, and I ate barbecue a couple of times, even if I'm not that fond of it.
I met with friends and other people and went out or visited different places with them, like Coolangatta (an extremely beautiful and calm beach), Snapper Rocks (natural sea pools made by rocks, quite fun to notice the waves arriving in them), Burleigh Heads (another beautiful beach), Broadbeach and Mermaid Beach, some small natural park north of Surfer's Paradise and other such places. The city had newly-installed bikes that you could get an app to unblock them and use them, like Barcelona's bicing or the Itau bikes in Rio, but available to anyone for quite a low price, and we did several small trips around with them, which was quite a good way to see around and visit nearby places.
Another place that was impressive was the SkyPoint Observation Deck, the tallest building of the city that had a floor where you could check the views from up there and had an activity where you actually went outside with a security belt that tied you to the building. It was really beautiful and I was lucky to do it during a clear day, allowing for great sunny pictures and also letting me see extremely far away all around the building, checking the huge beach and seeing the waves and the currents underneath it, hypnotically moving far below.
We also went out, mostly around Surfer's Paradise. The area has a very British approach to bars and alcohol, and places were asking for an ID where it was clear what was your date of birth, sometimes only allowing it if you had your passport since others were not in english. The process was very uncomfortable and sometimes ridiculous, because even if you went out for a smoke and they saw you, they had to check again. Related to that, one night in particular got me really really angry: Good Friday, the Friday that is a holiday during Easter. That day, bars and restaurants were only serving alcohol if you were eating, by law, and places that did not serve food (like clubs) were directly closed until the end of the day, 12 at night. I found this to be ridiculous, to implement such a religious law for everybody instead of letting you do whatever you wanted. I knew Australia had problems regarding racism and immigration and that it was a very conservative place, but this stupid limitation forced upon everyone really pissed me off and was a big stain in my opinion of the place, which was rather good with no complaints until that point, even with the ID controls they were implementing.
Of course since it has British culture, it was normal to have dinner early, drink early and go out until rather early, so even when we went out we didn't stay until very late, and then several days we could visit things the next day or even go to work if we had an afternoon shift. There were a few exceptions to closing early though, and one of them was the Casino that we visited last day. Usually I would not go to a casino, but the locals insisted it was a known and common place to go out at night without worrying about closing times since it was always open. The day I visited I saw this was the case, but still felt a bit surreal and strange, to have like a "club" area next to betting and slot machine areas.
All in all, I really enjoyed the experience and loved the place, and it was quite a necessary relaxation after Korea's project. I didn't get to visit places a bit further away from there, like Byron bay or the great barrier reef, but I'm still very happy with the trip^^.
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