Byron bay

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My first day in Byron Bay has been so good! I arrived last night about 9 after a 4 and a half hour coach journey which felt so short compared to the other trips I've done so far. When I got to the hostel I was showed to my room which is a little apartment that I share with 6 other people. At first I was worried that I'd booked the wrong thing and was going to pay a fortune but I found out later on that its only $1 more a night and we have a living room/kitchen area, a bathroom and a balcony- how cool! I went down to the outdoor common area for a bit and got talking to people so just sat chatting with them all evening because I didn't feel like going out.
This morning my roommates checked out so couldn't do anything with them. I sat at reception for a bit and saw one of the girls from last night so we decided to meet in an hour and go to the beach. I went for a walk to see the town and found a Peterpans shop which is the big tourist place in Australia. I've been stressing the last few days about where I'm going and how much it's all going to cost so I went in to have a look at prices etc. The girl was so helpful she basically made me a three week plan of all the things I want to do and sorted all my accommodation and transport as well as my Fraser Island and Whitsundays tours. It was such a good itinerary and I was so impressed with the price so I went ahead and booked it all. I am so happy and excited now!!
I met back up with the girl from reception, Cora, and we went down to the beach because the weather is finally nice again thankfully. We led on the beach for a bit and went in the sea. When we were in the sea I got talking to another girl who was travelling with an Aussie at the moment but was soon going to be on her own so wanted to make friends so we got talking about travelling alone and where we're going next and she seemed so nice so we exchanged numbers and agreed to meet up this evening. I never thought I would make friends in the sea haha! Me and Cora went to get lunch then because I needed a break from the sun. Once we'd cooled down and drank plenty of water we went back to the beach. I went back in the sea and bumped into two girls that I had been talking to on the greyhound bus going from Sydney to Coffs Harbour which was so strange. Although Australia is such a big place all the backpackers go to the same places so I definitely think I'm going to keep seeing the same people in places which is cool.
Once I'd showered and cooled down I met up with Cora, Felicity (from the beach) and her friend Vicky. We had a few drinks at the hostel first and then went over to the bar across the road called Cheeky Monkeys because we had vouchers for dinner. Once we had dinner we played drinking jenga for a little bit but two of the girls weren't drinking so it didn't really work. One of the staff came over to our table and told us that their was a traffic light party going on this evening so we went to get our faces painted and grab some glow sticks. We hung around by the bar for a bit and then I saw a bunch of people from my last hostel all playing pool. I went over to see them and it was like a massive Aussitel reunion which was so cool. I said I'd be seeing familiar faces everywhere and I was definitely right! Instead of a dance floor area it has tables to dance on instead which was so funny and the music was actually really good, I loved it in there! The girls I had dinner with left quite early so I stayed with the group of Aussitel people for a while because it was really fun in there. It got so busy though that it was boiling and we had to keep going outside to cool down.

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