East Coasting it!

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Well I have finally started my journey up the famous East coast of Australia! I flew into Sydney on Sunday and had a 12 hour bus ride up to Byron Bay on Tuesday.

But I'll tell you a little bit about my experience through the outback first. It was so great and I had a lot of fun. I did a 2 day/1 night tour up to Alice Springs and we stayed overnight in Coober Pedy where a lot of the people live underground because of the extremely hot weather they have there. It's a very cool little town and is big in Opal mining. Our accommodation wasn't so much underground as it was more built into the side of a hill, but it was much the same idea. I met some people from that tour that were also on my 3 day Rock tour through the outback where we slept outside in the bush, went days without showering, ate kangaroo tail and visited the beautiful Kings Canyon, Kata Tjuta and Ayers Rock. It was a very dirty, stinky, and enjoyable trip. The weather was great as well. It was very dry, which is quite a change from the humid coast, so I enjoyed a couple "normal" hair days (if you can call my hair normal!) Alice Springs is a very little town with very little to do, so me and a few others from the tour hit up the Alice Springs Reptile Center. It had the usual snakes, lizards and a salt water croc, but the fun part was when we were able to hold all the creatures. Well, you'll just have to check out the pictures once I get them posted.

So now I am in Byron Bay! The weather has been okay considering they had two and a half weeks of rain before I got here. It's been a mix of sun, cloud and rain. It's a very popular place, and once you're here, you know why. It's a nice little town with beautiful beaches, awesome surfing and great shopping. It was about 2 weeks ago though where a boy was attacked and killed by a shark off the main beach here, so it definately makes me think twice about surfing. But I'll give it a go at Rainbow Beach; I kind of have to since I already paid for it! I went on a day tour to Nimbin, which is a short distance from Byron Bay and is known as the marijuana capital of Australia. It's a tiny little hippie town, where you can buy the stuff everywhere and in any form. So I purchased some stickers and three pieces of "chocolate." Hey, you can't go there and not experience the lifestyle, right?!?

So now I am on my last night in Byron Bay and leave tomorrow to Surfer's Paradise, where the weather forecast is sunny and hot-I hope so, I need to work on my tan! I had a good night last night with the girls in my dorm and tonight we're going to check out Raggae night at the Beach Hotel. Should be a good time. I'll try to post some pictures soon. Bye for now.

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Photos

My swag
This was my accommodation for the 2 nights. It kept me very warm!

Robert, John, Me and Markus
The Asians said we were boring and made us pose like this.

Nimbin
What a cool little hippie town!

Byron Bay
Beautiful beach.

Dancin' the night away!
We hit up Cheeky Monkey's where the dance floor is on picnic tables. Classy.