Nimbin, Surfers and Brisbane

2nd June

Part of our package from Wanderers Travel was a day trip to Nimbin - what is that? We were picked up by The Happy Coach Co and the first stop was a nearby national park to view a waterfall. Unfortunately this was all we could see as most of the park was closed off due to the recent floods.
We drove on for another 40 minutes while keeping an eye out for koalas in the trees, until we arrived at the village of Nimbin. It seems like a minature version of Amsterdam in that weed is freely available and everyone is permanently high. We ordered lunch in a cafe from a woman who looked like she'd been smoking it for 40 years - we didnt get what we ordered but it was nice enough! Fred looked quite at home with his dreadlocks but warned us not to buy any drugs as its actually totally illegal.
Checked out the Nimbin museum (loads of hippy quotes and reasons why marajuana should be legalised) and I bought myself a new bracelet, as the one I bought from the Thailand hilltribes had got lost :-( The main stret is only a couple of blocks long so an hour or two was plenty of time to see everything (and get offered drugs several times).
On the way back we passed a town called Lismore, which is commonly known as Lesmore due to the high population of lesbians there. Markers showing the height of a previous flood could be seen AT THE TOP of telegraph poles, so it clearly has problems in bad weather - the school is actually built on stilts. According to Fred, the best thing would be for Lismore to stay submerged! Not a fan then.
Final stop was a viewpoint from where we could see the whole of Byron Bay. We were dropped back in town so we could visit the beach one last time - it was covered in dogs playing football together!
At 8.45pm we got on the Greyhound and shortly after 10pm arrived in Surfers Paradise. While checking in we were told that everyone was about to go out clubbing and would we like to join them? We decided to go for it and so had 5 minutes to throw our bags in the dorm and drink a couple of beers. As we were still dressed in casual gear we werent really in a clubbing mood, but then we met some guys from Kool Katz and hung out with them!

Our dorm for the night had 22 beds in it and looked like an army barracks - bit depressing! We went to bed fully clothed that night as there were just too many people around to get undressed (and only 1 toilet and shower!)


3rd June

Lenny's birthday! First things first though... Got up at 6am (fully dressed), grabbed our untouched backpacks and promptly left Backpackers In Paradise in search of Cheers, the hostel recommended to us by our mates at the club last night. They were pretty empty in contrast so we got a 4-bed dorm to ourselves! While walking back from the shower block in my towel, I was asked by the boys in the room next door if I wanted to go to a theme park with them that day. We said sure, found ourselves walking into town with them shortly afterwards. These guys were on a proper lads holiday (read: pretty mental) and had already had quite a few beers by 11am, so were wearing their pyjamas through town - we drew some stares!

The boys haggled with an unfortunate ticket agent who was probably quite glad to see the back of us when they were done asking her for free tickets. By this time though the theme park's shuttle buses were no longer running, so we took the tickets back for a refund and then Lenny and I went off to do our own thing.

For his birthday, we went to see State Of Play at the cinema, followed by Lenny consuming Steak, wine, cheesecake ice-cream with chocolate freckles, and a Starbucks (which was ruined by him getting overenthusiastic with the cinnamon and vanilla shakers)!


4th June

Checked out of Cheers and went to Tribal Travel in town, where we spent $655 each booking the remainder of our trip. Sounds like a lot but it now means everything is paid for except for our food (and on our diet of Subways that shouldnt cost too much). Felt rich after taking this money out of the bank so we could pay, especially as Lenny had been given $100 bills - didnt know they existed!

Spent the afternoon in a little arcade full of reto games like House Of The Dead and Time Crisis. Lenny spotted a girl from his block in Loughborough Uni (though we dont know her name) and we met a couple of people from our surf lessons on the Greyhound, also heading to Brisbane. We must have met more people in Byron than we realised.

Our hostel in Brisbane was the Prince Consort (strange name) in an area called Fortitude Valley. Again we're in a 22-share dorm but this time the toilets are the opposite end of the building - past the reception, lounge, kitchen, and outdoor area! Never mind, we're getting the hang of this now - just spend no time in your room and it doesnt matter lol.

Went out with the intention of finding the cheapest meal we could and I'd say we succeeded - found somewhere serving $4 (massive) bowls of pasta! Good thing about having so many competing restaurants in city centres :-)


5th June

Only one full day in Brisbane, so we wandered into the city centre, seeing numerous churches on the way and being given a history lesson by a random old guy (who said he liked my broad accent - eh?) The Museum of Brisbane had 2 main exhibits - one about Silky Oak (boring) and one featuring art by Queenslanders (much more interesting, if sometimes strange). Took the lift up the clock tower, this was nowhere near the height of the KL Tower or Sydney Tower but the view was alright, and the lift attendant seemed to think he was Elvis.

As the weather was perking up now we visited the city gardens, which actually include an artifical beach and pool where we stopped to sunbathe. As usual, there were loads of seagulls around but for once they were all silent as they were busy having an en masse bath in the pool! Of course, good weather doesnt last and when it clouded over we crossed the river to the university grounds and more gardens, where a eco-friendly green fest was being held. They were selling all kinds of tat and there were plenty of hippies dancing on their own, as well as lots of food stalls - mmmm.

Blew the budget at dinner by going to a bar selling cheap Cosmopolitans and Coronasm followed by a mexican (nachos, enchiladas and a litre of Sangria). Turns out a litre of Sangria is quite a lot so afterwards we were in the mood for going out. The bar below our hostel had a live band playing who sounded pretty good, but we werent allowed in as we were wearing flip-flops. We found an open side door and went in anyway - funnily enough, no-one cared about footwear once we were at the bar buying drinks!

Went back to the dorm when we were tired and snuggled up on my bunk for a bit... till I was woken up by a camera flash. Apparently we looked cute enough that a random girl wanted to photograph us! Backpackers are a funny lot.

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