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Published: March 4th 2008
Well hello to you all and apologies for the long delay with my blogs but i have been a very busy girl as you are about to read about. Ill start from back at Christmas when i headed to Byron Bay!
So as you read from my last blog it was time for me to depart my much beloved Melbourne and head up the East Coast to meet up with my cousin Laura and some Welsh girls from my West Coast tour for xmas. I was very sad to be leaving Melbourne but also very excited about seeing a new place and meeting up with my girlies! So i headed to the airport and flew to Ballina, the nearest airport to Byron Bay. It wasnt the nicest flight i have ever had, to keep it short it was extremely bumpy, so much that the air stewards were only allowed to stand up for 10mins during the whole flight! I am a ok flyer and so to keep calm just put on my ipod and let some cheesey pop distract me! Once at Ballina airport i hopped on a mini-bus and got driven to Byron Bay where i was dropped right at
the door of my new hostel called 'The Arts Factory'. It was known to be one of the nicest in Byron and very hippy so i was excited to see it! Laura came and met me-she had my dinner all made for me-what a legend! After dinner and checking in to my room we chilled out before getting ready to go and meet my Welshies at the pub-So excited!!!! We had a brilliant night, my girls are a laugh n a half, especially seeing as Freya is as deaf as me and so most of the conversation consisted of 'what?' followed by laughter! We went to a pub called 'Cheeky Monkeys' where they liked to have competitions to win prizes, i wouldnt have minded winning some prizes but unfortuanately it involved either being extremely wet and showing all or being quite naked, neither i fancied and im sure no one else fancied seeing me like that either! So we stayed clean and dry with all our clothes on and just had some drinkies instead! A fab nite!
The following few days after that were quite the same, chilling out during the day either in the hostel reading in the book
room or down at the beach with the Welshies (who's names by the way are Freya, Kate and Kaleigh). In the afternoons it rained some days so we would chill out by going to the cinema or going over and sitting with the Welshies in their apartment as they had tv-woohoo! It was all good, at night we would either be at the Welshies too or at the pub, a very nice chilled out few days in the run up to xmas, all good!
One day however we left Byron Bay and went to a Place called 'Nimbin' which is a very erm 'happy' place, known for very 'happy' people who are like hippys! So we booked a day trip there with 'Happy Coaches' who was owned by Fred-the funniest driver and tour guide ever! We stopped along the was to a Sunday Market which was awesome! There were loads of stalls selling colourful clothing, jewellery, food and basically anything you could want! We strolled around that for a hour or so before hopping back on the bus to head to the town of Nimbin. The drive was somewhat scary since Fred liked to scare the living day lights out
of everyone by driving a little to close to the edge of the road which had the biggest drop ever down in to god knows where! He made this up to us however by telling the most hilarious jokes and keeping us laughing the whole way! (also taking the mickey out of the Scottish and Irish, infact thinking about it he took the mickey out of everyone including the Aussies!) Once in Nimbin we strolled about all the shops and the big main street-it was a very colourful sight! Hippy land it certainly was! With everyone wearing hippy clothes, with all the colours you could imagine on them, men with huge big beards, vans decorated madly and certain things being sold in certain areas away from the Police! It was great! Me and Laura had a great laugh looking at everything and meeting the locals! A day we would never forget, awesome!!!
On xmas eve me and Laura headed to the beach and met up with the girls before strolling the shops to try and get each other a wee pressie. We then headed back to The Arts Factory to chill out b4 getting ready for our xmas eve night
oot! We headed over to the Welshies once ready and had some drinkies with them before heading to Cheeky Monkeys once again. We all got given light up santa hats for free and since they dont have a dance floor you simply dance on the tables and chairs so up we went and we never came back down until going home time-it was a superb night filled with dancing, laughing, and having a damn well good time! Everyone was in good spirits and at the strike of 12 we all jumped about dancing and hugging each other, a night not to be forgotten! Unsure what time we went home we fell in to bed after a rare old night! Merry Christmas to all!
On Christmas day we woke quite early-this was possibly due to the fact i had to make a run to the loo to be sick but we wont mention that haha! The whole day was extremely lazy-got up, had food, went back to bed kinda thing-a very different christmas from at home. Eventually once feeling a lot better and able to face up to standing again we headed in our showers to get ready for our xmas
afternoon and night with my Welshies again. We both exchanged our pressies and i got a lovely necklace, perfume and fererro rocher-woohoo! It wouldnt have been xmas without them, Brenda would be very happy with Laura for getting me them haha! As we were doing our hair etc in the room we heard the fire alarm going off, someones burnt their toast we said but nope it turned out to be something else. I should have mentioned earlier that in the rooms there are signs to say do not use aerosols etc in the rooms but erm since i had thought nah it wont set off the fire alarm i used mines and so ten minutes later i had 4 firemen in my room asking why i set off the alarms-oops! Seeing as i denied everything they let us go, stopped the alarm and wished us a Merry Christmas-phew! We had been their first call out of the day so werent too mad lol! Thank goodness! So after spraying our perfumes outside the room we were ready to go and make some xmas dinner with the Welshies! Off we went, and i must say we had a awesome xmas dinner!
Alcohol!
She drinks like a fish hahaNot exactly traditional but it was yummy! We had fish, garlic potatoes and lots of veg followed by some fruit cake (which we lit with sparklers-so cool!!) and choco's-yum! After that it was time to call the parentals and wish them a happy day! After that it was simply a case of having a few vino's and chillin in the girls apartment as Australia's pubs dont open xmas night so we had a great night just chillin, talking and having a laugh! Fantastic day, although i missed home it was the best it could have been, thanks to Laura and my Welshies, it wont be forgotten! x
I also received some post whilst at The Arts Factory which was amazing! Imagine getting post woohoo!! (Something you actually miss believe it or not!!!) I got some fab cards from some family and some friends, it was brilliant! To those who sent me them thank you so much, you made my xmas! And to those who never-i expect 2 cards next year haha!!! 😊
The following couple of days were again chillin out and relaxing in our wee cinema at the hostel where they had the most fab couches-you basically were lying
in a bed like couch in front of the wide screen and chilled, you took your pillows with u-awesome! We also went to the beach and hung out with the others. Unfortunaley on the 28th we departed Byron Bay and i had to say bye to my girls, we plan to meet up either on a visit to Wales or them coming to Scotland-cant wait! So it was bye to byron Bay and the girls and hello to Sydney-our next destination for New Year-bring it on!!!
On the 29th December we arrived in Sydney at 6.30am, we were not picking up keys to the apartment we had rented until 11.30 so we headed to Mc D's it was open 24hours! We put our luggage in some lockers at the train station and headed to find Mickey D's! Once there we chilled out-literally-it was freezing, and waited and waited and waited until finally we met up with the girls we were spending New Years with-Emma (my friend from my West coast tour and Melbourne) Sam (the girl who took over from my job in Wickepin who Laura spent some time with) and Cat (Sams friend from home)! We all got
the keys to our apartment in Glebe (a area 10mins from centre of Sydney) and headed off to it! It was awesome!!!!! Seriously, we had 2 bedrooms with ensuite, a huge living room with big tv, dvd player, cd player, 3 balconies (one from living room, and other 2 from each bedroom) barbecue, gorgeous kitchen, bathroom, etc etc-it was lush!!! Since me and Laura had had nothing but hostels for a few months we were in heaven! We spent basically all the time we could in the apartment over the next few days-it was brilliant! The times we did leave it was to go for a stroll or to the shops! The day we did leave eventually was new years eve and this was to head to McMahons point to wait for midnight! We were so excited and couldnt wait for the clock to strike 12 and celebrate New Year in Sydney!!!! We got all organised with our sandwiches, snacks, drinks etc and headed off on the ferry to McMahons Point for a amazing view that you would not believe of the Harbour Bridge and Opera house! It was magnificent! We lazed on the grass along with goodness knows how
many other thousands of travellers and Aussies for the whole day watching the boats cruise along and people celebrate early with friends and family-it was magic! We had got a great spot, right by the water edge in front of all the action! We spent the day lying on our big picnic mat, eating, drinking, talking, reading, meeting up with some of Emma's friends, and waxing Sams leg with a free wax strip from a magazine Laura had been reading-hilarious! At 9 o'clock there was a kids firework display which was awesome, then at 12 the big ones came and oh my god it was so fantastic! Everyone was jumping about with their champagne glasses and bottles grabbing anyone and everyone to celebrate not only the fact it was 2008 but the fact they were in Sydney for it-we all hugged, kissed and jumped about with each other as we watched the fireworks burst high above showing all the amazing colours glittering and lighting up the whole sky! Me and Laura of course then had to celebrate Scottish style so yes, we got on our sparkly hats and sang 'Oh Flower of Scotland' and 'Old Lang Syne' for the whole
of McMahons point! (Not that you could really hear us due to all the shouting haha) but we felt we did our bit haha! After that i was shocked at how quick the place cleared, literally 30minutes after the fireworks stopped it was bare, so we packed up (well ditched everything really since all the bottles were empty and the sandwiches had been munched). We headed for erm....home!!! I was shocked but it seemed that everyone was heading home, to be honest i was quite happy to do so as knackered! We had been up and out since the bright hours of the morning that we were all done in, its a hard life drinking and chilling out for over 12 hours! Plus all the pubs were so busy in the centre that no one else was allowed in so home we went which took quite a while due to the thousands all trying to get on the available buses and trains, but eventually we got there and arrived home at about 1.30ish! A fab New Year! Very different from home since i was outside which would be brutal at home in the cold, and i was with people i
had not known that long apart from Laura (obviously) so it was a little strange but you know what, it couldnt have been better-i was in Sydney baby and it was awesome!
Hope you all had a great one too! Ill get my next blog on soon! x
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