Surfing in Unawatuna

The hostel we wanted to book, but then forgot, was fully booked. We were annoyed and booked another one.
Sometimes fate makes the right decision!!
We took a bus to Unawatuna, which we had to signal with our hands that we wanted to get on. Before we had both feet inside, it drove off at lightning speed.
We raced through the streets at what felt like 120 km/h. The conclusion of the first bus ride: an insane adventure where you have to hold on tight and better start on an empty stomach!

Arriving at our Unawatuna hostel, Jen, a beautiful English girl, was already waiting at the door for us. She showed us the house and asked if we wanted to join her outside. After we had brought our backpacks to the room, we did so and joined Jen, who was drinking traditional black tea in the garden with her boyfriend, Cartoon, and other backpackers from Canada, England, and Belgium. Everyone was instantly so friendly and interested in us, which made us feel comfortable right away. I mentioned that my phone had broken the day before, and Cartoon promptly offered to buy me a new phone the next day, as he could get a better price as a local. How nice is that?
Squeezed into a tuk-tuk, we all went to the beach in the afternoon, where they surfed every day. We relaxed on the sun loungers and watching them made us really want to try surfing the next day.
In the evening, we enjoyed the sunset and had beer in the garden. Later, we went to a beach party, but the music wasn't that great. Nevertheless, we had a fun evening together.

So the next day, we had our first surfing lesson. It was windy, and the waves were high. After practicing for less than two minutes on the beach and just briefly being shown how to stand on a surfboard, we headed into the waves. Even without a board, I would have thought twice about diving into that restless water.
But then we had a lot of fun and actually experienced some progress. After several attempts, we actually managed to ride a few small waves.
Surfing is really a lot of fun, and suddenly we completely understood the hype about it. ☺️
DJ, the surf teacher, seemed to like us. He promptly invited us to a private party at their surf shop that same evening. (Later we found out that they didn't really have a party :D)
The next day we went to Galle and admired the Galle Fort. We walked along the impressive fortress walls, and I read about the place from the travel guide. Back in Unawatuna, we rented two surfboards at our surf spot and plunged back into the water.
In the evening, we realized that we should have let the abrasions from the previous day heal first. Everything burned and hurt! 😂 We stayed there until sunset, drank lemonades, and tried to surf in between.
(DJ invited us to another party, but we couldn't trust him again today.)
In the evening, we went to a rooftop beach bar with the hostel flatmates, which was really nice.
On our last day in Unawatuna, we visited a Chinese pagoda and Jungle Beach. Jen explained to us a nice walk that we could take between the two places. We set off, through small paths, past many local houses, with little idea of where the path was going. When we were unsure if we were still on the right track, we walked back a long way to ask someone. The locals then told us that we had taken the right path, so we started the journey a second time. We had two more situations like this during the day.
Since we didn't trust the signs and thought we knew better, we eventually ended up at a wild sea breaking against huge rocks instead of Jungle Beach. We climbed along the rocks for a while, but Jungle Beach was nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless, it was a beautiful place, but we realized that we now had to hike all the way back up. We did this and finally, after trusting the signs, found the beach without any problems. A crazy first hike.

Back at the hostel, we said a heartfelt goodbye to Cartoon and Jen, who gave us many tips and recommendations before we left, and made our way to Mirissa.