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Published: October 31st 2007
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I ended up having a great evening in Surfers Paradise as I had anticipated. Jenny B and I met up at the Wednesday night markets... there were many neat things that I would have liked to purchase but most items were either breakable, too large, or simply put, impossible to lug around and bring home in one piece. Jenny and I went out for Sushi - my first time having sushi during my trip which seems odd since I go out for sushi fairly regularly back home. To be honest, I hardly ever go out to eat, I almost always cook my meals at the hostels. Anyways, it was so good to see Jenny and to have a good chat with someone from home. As we were walking to the restaurant, we passed one of her classmates on the city streets - a guy that I had done ERT at WLU with - small world! We also passed another one of her classmates who happens to be an actress on the show Trailer Park Boys - Lucy... pretty cool. After sushi we went back to my hostel for some pre-club hopping punch. Unfortunately Jenny had a big day ahead and wasn't
able to come out and hit up the nightlife with me but we had a great visit nonetheless. It's a shame that I didn't plan to stay longer in Surfers.... That night I did the famous Surfers Paradise 'Big Night Out Club Crawl' wherein we hit up 4 nightclubs, it was a lot of fun! I met a bunch of nice Canadian guys and we all danced the night away.
The next day I headed to Byron Bay which was only a short bus ride away. Byron Bay is a great little spot and it seems that anyone and everyone who has the chance to visit this place can't rave enough about how wonderful it is. After spending 3 days and 2 nights in Byron, I can now understand why everyone is so infatuated with Byron. Let me tell you a little bit about what Byron has to offer: heaps of great surfing beaches; city streets which yes, are a bit touristy, but has many very nice clothing and everything under the sun shops; hopping nightlife scene, lighthouse which houses the brightest light in Australia, awesome coastal hike up to the lighthouse, great vibe.... and the list goes on.
Byron Bay coast
scenery I saw from the Lighthouse hike I took a surf lesson for the first time in Byron and it was a great lesson as there were only four of us with 1 instructor which I think is a decent ratio. He was a great teacher and coached us and pushed/guided us into each wave unlike some lessons I've heard of when the instructors explain how to surf, do a demo, then go chill out on the beach the entire time. Our instructor Sunny stayed in the water the whole time with us. Learning to surf is no easy task. I was able to stand up many times but that's probably only because when you are learning to surf they give you beginner boards which make it easier to get up. The hard part about surfing is getting yourself and your surf board out into the sea... that's the workout part - man was I exhausted!! Every few seconds there was a huge wave that came crashing into me and pushed me backwards. At times I felt like I wasn't getting anywhere... I'd swim a bit, then get pushed back to where I started. The force of those waves and the pull of the current is
just, wow.... something I'm not at all used to. I compare it to learning to snowboard. Yes it's difficult to stand up on the snowboard when you're learning but at least there's a bloody chairlift to take you back to the top of the hill... with surfing, there's no chair lift and you need to get yourself and your equipment back to the top of the hill yourself - that's my take on it anyways. I can see how once you're stronger and more skilled with lots of practice how surfing would be a great hobby. The beach that our instructor took us to for our lesson happened to be where the recent shark attack was, great. The woman was out kayaking when she was attacked but she only had to get a few stitches as she smartly smacked the shark with her kayak paddle and he swam away... still though, scary stuff! We weren't out deep though so I wasn't worried about sharks in the slightest.
Other things that I did in Byron was the lighthouse trek - I'm sure you've all noticed from reading my blog that I love doing hikes and would for sure not visit
Byron w/o doing the trek up to this monumental structure. I saw a humpback whale fin out in the sea while I was hiking up. Byron is famous for being one of the best mainland whale watching spots... no need to pay for whale watching tours here! I went out on the town Friday night with Beccy and Jenny - again, love reuniting with these lovely ladies!! On my last day in Byron I took a short bus ride to the town of Brunswick Heads which had been highly recommended to me by an Aussie bloke that I had met. I was disappointed to say the least. There wasn't a whole lot to see in the town, it was super tiny which would have been fine except that every store, cafe, resto closed at 4pm and my bus didn't come until 5pm so I literally sat at the side of the road from 4pm onwards talking on my cell phone waiting for the bus, what fun. I also had a moment of panic when I thought that there were no more buses back to Byron - someone had wrongly told me this right before my bus actually did arrive, phew
Byron Bay
Most Easterly point of oz as the sign states and thanks for freaking me out Mr!! The beach at Brunswick Heads was beautiful (but aren't they all) but I've seriously never seen or been attached by more sand flees in my entire life. My body is covered in bites, it's actually disgusting lol... or was anyways, the bites have now gone away mainly. I was only on the beach walking around for maybe 30 minutes... I can't fathom how people were able to suntan at that beach, craziness. Saturday night I took the night bus from Byron to Sydney. I sat next to a lovely Aussie woman and we had a great chat and showed each other pictures of our dogs, lol. The bus left Byron at 8pm and arrived in Sydney around 9:30am the next morning. Night buses are great as you do your travel during the evening and don't have to pay for a hostel but I'm not sure if it's worth the neck pain the next day due to trying to sleep comfortably on a bus.
So I arrived in Sydney Sunday am and headed straight for Robin's lovely place in Cronulla (a suburb of Sydney). My cousin Robin and her adorable son Callum and husband Neil are in Africa and have graciously let me use their home in their absence which is greatly appreciated!!! I'm been staying here since Sunday and will probably go stay with my friend Lisa come the weekend for the rest of my time in Sydney. It's been such a treat having the use of her home and being able to have some piece and quiet and a comfortable bed vs. crappy bunk beds that I'd become accustomed to sleeping in at hostels. Well, I best be off... it's 10:30 in the am and I'm going to have a shower and then take the metro into the city to meet up with some more contiki friends and Beccy... she's in Sydney now too.
Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! They don't really celebrate it here and I didn't do anything at all for it last night... just stayed in and watched movies.
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