Mad Trip Day 10: To Byron Bay

[galadriel1010]

I was sad to leave Angela and Andy's house :( It was so lovely to have a home, rather than a dorm room.

Before I left, we got Angela set up on LiveJournal and I showed her how to add friends and communities, and I also ended up doing a friending binge myself of people who'd escaped me on the last two occasions. If you're new from that binge, hi!

It was throwing it down, so Angela drove me into town and dropped me off by the hostel where I was due to catch the bus. It was about fifteen minutes late, but everyone got off at that spot for a changeover, so I got to meet Disco, my new bus driver for the three days to Sydney and Lefaym. He's very cool, and offers the opportunity for people to play their own music on the bus.

We went pretty much non-stop from Brisbane to Byron Bay, just stopping briefly in Surfer's Paradise to do a drop-off and pick-up and refill the bus. I was glad that it's not an overnight stop, because it looks like my idea of Hell (despite the Meter Maids).

Byron Bay is much more my kind of place, although it was full of Schoolies. When I come back to Australia, I'm going to spend six months living and working in Byron Bay. I was staying at the Nomads' hostel, so I got in there and dropped my stuff off and then went for a wander around town. I went to Woolworth's and bought stuff for sandwiches and poked my nose into a few other places, although most shops were shut. At seven I went to Cheeky Monkey's, where the Oz Experience trippers were to gather for dinner. I met a few of them, and a few Schoolies, outside the door whilst we waited to be let in, but they eventually let us in without our drivers – fortunately, as they never actually showed up.

Dinner was $10 steak, chips and salad, with a free drink. The steak was the best I've had in a pub since arriving in Australia – when I asked for rare, they gave me Rare, and it was very tender as well. The chips could have been better, and I don't really like salad anyway. We got free beer delivered to the table (I can't wait to get back to the UK and proper cider in most pubs. Mummy, can I have a bottle of Kopparberg for Christmas please?)

At nine I turned in, heading back to the hostel to fail at getting online and then went to bed with my alarm set for 4, so that I could get up to see the dawn from Australia's most Easterly point.

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