Surfers Paradise

The hostel and my room in Surfers Paradise weren't of the highest quality, but the perk of the place was the fact that they organized the "Big Night Out."  It was fun to gather with backpackers from seven other hostels across town and enjoy the scene of a few of the nightclubs in the center of the city.  It was really busy, but I think part of that was due to the fact that there was a big marathon running the next day, so there were many spectators and extra people around.

I went out with the two girls that I met from London and we eventually met up and stayed with two other guys who were traveling together.  The hostel gave us each a cowboy hat and a glow stick (color coded to your hostel) and so we donned those with pride as we entered the clubs.  There was lots of dancing and one of the clubs even had a live band, which was fun.  The two girls from London drank like fish and it didn't take them long to "start having a good time."

In the last club I got separated from the group.  A random guy came up to me and asked to buy me a drink.  At that point it was late, so I said no thank you and he got upset and said that out of common courtesy I should let him get me something because it took him a long time to work up the courage to come over to me.  The sob story got to me but I didn't let him buy me anything...I just got water.  He wanted to talk and so I said fine, but that was a bad decision because I got distracted and missed the cue to head back to the hostel.  So when I went out to look for familiar faces there were none and I had to get back on my own.  The guy told me not to worry, that I could just stay over at his place.  Um, no.  It took some convincing to get him to let me take the lead and I was adamant that I get back to my room.  He asked me why I needed to get back there and besides the fact that I just wanted to (which wasn't a good enough reason for him) I said that I had a bus to Brisbane to catch the next day (which was true, but I said early in the morning, which wasn't exactly truthful).  Unfortunately for me this reasoning didn't work out either because lucky enough, this guy was also from Brisbane and he was driving back the next morning and said that he could just take me.  Obviously he wasn't getting the picture but finally we arrived at my hostel and I started saying thanks/goodbye.  After an awkward silence he had the nerve to say, "So there's no chance I can come inside with you?"  Uhhh, no.  I said that there were other people in the room who were sleeping and he replied that it didn't matter.  Eventually I was able to turn around and walk away, but not without leaving the dude disappointed.  Oh well.