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Lighthouse
We made it to the top.Byron Bay weekend met our expectations to what we were told Byron Bay would be. We were told is a hippie, party, surfing and toursity town. Despite the over-toursity and expensive shops, I really enjoyed my time in Byron. April, Kelly and Kelsey enjoyed it as well. We were all happy to be out of Lismore and experince what Australia is about...and experience what we came here for: adventure, travel and memories that last.
Fun fact: Byron Bay is the Eastern most part of Australia.
Our weekend started on Saturday morning when we boarded the bus for Byron. It's only about an hour away and the bus ride went quick. Our bus ride might have gone quick because our bus driver was going a few kilometers over the speed limit up a bumpy, rocky, twisty road. I like to describe it as a good introduction to our adventerous weekend. It was also raining on our ride there, but there was a point where April mistook the rain for the bus driver washing his windsheild. I think jet lags still getting the best of her.
We got to Byron Bay at checked into a hostel. Being American tourists and
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Twisted Sista just wanting to get a room booked asap, drop of stuff and go, we booked the first hostel we found that had a lock to the door. We looked back a few hours later and realized we could have gotten a better deal and looked more. This was good to know for next weekend however, because we will book ahead. We paid of total of 120$ for a dorm sized room with two bunk beds. Ignoring the price we paid for the hostel, I love the hostel experience. Hostels are a fun environment with people from all over the world. It's full of young (mostly backpackers...like my bff who's backpacking Europe now) adults who are traveling in small groups or alone. It's super laid back, and makes you step out of your comfort zone to meet people you wouldn't meet otherwise. If you love culture and unique experiences, OR need to step out of your comfort zone...a hostel might be the place for you.
We droped our stuff in the hostel and than proceeded to take the hike to the light house at the top of Byron Bay. We were told it was about an hour ride trip there
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they were all over :) and back to walk on foot. Whomever told us that must have known we were toursits and wanted to joke with us because it was much more than an hour. I was happy to have the hike however! It was a great workout up the stairs to the top. When we got to the top we had the most gorgeous view of Byron Bay. It wasn't too sunny of a day, but we had the luck of seeing a rainbow at the top of our climb. I think the rainbow was a sign that we were stong, pulled through our first week of teaching, and acomplished our hike to the top of Byron 😊 We were able to find a quicker way back down which cut our hike back down in half. It was an adventerous walk back down because we ended up walking on a highway through what looked like a rainforest.
The afternoon was spent roaming around the Byron touristy over priced shops. It was good fun; I wasn't too impressed with the shops but soaking in the culture of everyone and everything around was a neat experience. I would also say soaking in the sun, but
that'd be a lie!
The quote of this blog was inspired by a sign I saw this weekend in a cute coffee shop called "Twisted Sista." Byron Bay has a hand full of fun inspirational quotes outside of their shops and being the quote lover I am, I couldn't help but love this little quirk to the town.
We were happy to get back to the hostel, freshen up for the night and than proceed out to "Cheecky Monkeys." It's a bar located on the main street of Byron Bay, full of people from all over the world just partying and having a good time! We met a hand full of people from all around. It's a fun environment and it's to neat because everyone speaks English yet there's so many differences. The best way to learn is to talk and ask questions! We continued to mark our territory as American girls when "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus came on and the four of us jumped with joy on the tables and started dancing. At the bars in Australia it's acceptable to dance on the tables. They don't really have much of a dance floor, rather
dance tables! A very fun night we had. We were also able to make it all the way untill Midnight. I can almost kiss jet leg bye bye.
We were also able to sleep in today untill 9 AM. This is great improvement from my regular 6-7 AM wake up! The day today started off by going to a farmers market/what I would call a hippie festival. I was loving every minute of it. It also helped that I had my "tall black" in hand. (A tall black is a coffee. I've had a hard time gettin used to the Australian lingo, and now I need to learn a whole new coffee lingo?! Rough. It makes me miss Caribou that much more. Who's brigning Caribou to the airport for me in July?) It was raining pretty hard by this time but I was loving all of the free food samples and culture of the marke that the rain didn't phase me. Earlier I had read in the newspaper an advertisement "buy one get one free meal" at a reastaurant in Byron called Byron Brewrey. We thought we'd try this place out for lunch because the deal sounded good, but
Easterly
We still weren't all the way to the top yet. ofcourse, it's too good to be true. Turns out the deal was that you also had to spend 10 dollars on liquor to get a free meal. The ways they pull toursits in...yet it works : / It was still a good place to eat and I loved to reastaurnt's style. It was full of Buddha statues, and also had a movie theatre AND a full spa connected to the place. A strange combination.
Did I mention we also waited 30 minutes outside of the reastraunt because it didn't open untill noon, and we got there at 1130. It's a good thing we had Kelly for entertainment, as she was throwing sticks at what we thought was a fake lizard on the roof. (Later we found out it was a real lizard.)
After lunch we walked back to town and roamed the shops some more, and than, with lots of wishing and hopeing, the sun came out for the afternoon! It was nearly the first real sunlight since we landed in Australia. We went to the beach and soaked up some sun for the afternoon. Another rainbow came out...another positive sign that the second week of teaching can
Buddha Eating
This is where we ate lunch..I would re-name it Buddha Brewery only get better than the first!
Our bus left Byron at 5 PM, we got picked up by mum, went to dinner, and now I'm back at my temporary home in Goonellabah, Australia. I'm ready to start the second week of teaching, and I'm going into it with 100% more effort and positivety than I put in it last week. The other three girls also feel the same, that our teaching here is differnt than it would be back home. My philosophy: Take what you have and make the most of it. I think all of us are starting to get adjusted, happy the first week is over and ready to take on the rest.
Well, this is long enough, and I just remembered there's one Tim Tam left in our packed snacks from this weekend, so I'm going to go snag that before Kelly finds it.
Miss you all heaps (More Aussie lingo..."heaps" means "a lot")
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Helen Schoenfeld
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Hi Sarah
What a fabulous time you are having. You will certainly have memories to cherish when you are back in the states. Love, G & G