Blog : Byron bay

Now you have to forgive me as i am writing this blog a little later than intended and therefore some if my memory is a little hazy, due in part to time!

So we arrived in Byron bay around mid morning ish time i think. Byron has been a place ive dreamt about going to for a very long time, ever since i read a series of books that touched me and influenced my feelings towards modern medicine...Byron is meant to be one of those places that you can come for natural healing. It has a very spiritual, alternative, organic and hippie reputation, which everyone that knows me will know is right up my street! My inner flower power child was busting to get out the second we pulled up at the greyhound station! Driving through the town i saw lots of incredible looking eaterys promoting vegan produce, super foods and antioxidants and there was no mc Donald's in sight - beautiful! From the bus window we also saw a handful of the cliche tie dye shops and what have you although i was struck by the relative "commercialisation" of the Byron high street, with as many chain clothes stores as there was independent cafes and a ratio of probably 10:1 normal looking people versus what i would classify as proper hippies - the dreads, braids, paisley print pants, earthy colours, piercings, hairy armpits yada yada!

We were staying in a hostel called the Arts factory lodge which loads of people had recommended to us... It used to be a hippy commune set around the lake, a mile out of town say, but has been converted into a hostel and tented community for travellers... We had chosen to stay in a dorm room, which was simple enough but there was also options to stay in lake side cabins (that sort of looked like garden sheds with double beds inside) or tipies and tents under tarpaulin sheets in the campground. It seemed the hardcore hippies mainly lived in the camp ground and they had a pretty tight knit community with many spaces having sofas and permanently set up bbqs outside their tent plot! The lakeside cabins looked like they had the backpackers in that had left it too late to book dorm rooms! It was an absolutely stunning setting though, the big hostel with its various different accommodation types sprawling all round a little lake, with activities for anyone to take part in like yoga, reiki healing, volunteering in the herb garden, African drumming lessons etc! Safe to say that we hadn't been anywhere like the arts factory before!

So arriving at the hostel, on the magic mini bus where they have incense sticks burning aplenty we couldn't check in until mid afternoon so happily we all chucked our stuff into lockers and walked the 3/4 of a mile or so back into town to pick up some lunch and have a little explore. We came across a gorgeous grocery store come cafe and kate and i had a bite to eat... I had a really wholesome potato and roasted veg frittata thing which was in the shape of a cupcake, very cute and some dried fruit... I loved it!! We then had a wander up and down the high street, poking our noses into all the little independent bead shops and krista came to meet us and fill us in on who else we knew in the town and what happens after dark... We mooched for a while and then went back to check in and have a little nap before going for a few drinks at some other friends hostel... I was a complete granny and had a real glass of nice red wine, generously offered to me by a Swedish or german - not sure - bloke and then had to slip out and home as the others went to a club called Cheeky Monkeys... I just wasn't feeling it and wanted to be fresh for the next day of exploring!

The next day, christmas eve, we had a little cereal and headed back into town to meet krista and got an update on all the nights gossip... And we all had half an hour apart to do out secret santa gift buying. I had Al and had already brought a pretty nice little necklace in the sales, from Brisbane before even knowing who i had... But then we discussed buying something novel to wear and the necklace had used up my budget so i had a bit of a panic and took it back and went with comedy item - neon, clip in hair extensions as well as a little nail varnish and some cheapo fake eyelashes, hoping that would be a better prez! It turned out not to be but more on that later...! We also went off in search of Santa hats as we figured it might help us feel a little more Christmassy... So far none of us were feeling that festive, probably because of the sunshine and not being around family and asked to peel a million sprouts or carry chairs downstairs to the dinning room! And maybe also because wed been flying through so many places we hadnt get had chance to catch our breaths and settle in the place we were celebrating xmas... So thats what we made Christmas Eve all about... Feeling festive! We found Santa hats and reindeer headbands in a kiddies toy shop and we headed down to the beach in all our christmas wares! There was millions of other santa Claus' on the beach and we went swimming in our hats which was hilarious!! Some lads asked to borrow the hats too at one point to send a photo back home! I felt much more festive, if a bit hot on the beach in such sunshine and a wooly santas hat!!

In the afternoon we traipsed round the shops to pick up all the but we needed for our Christmas Day lunch, but not before i gobbled down the most amazing falafel pitta... To die for it was and better than the canary wharf falafel stand (hard standard to beat!) although double the price!! We went christmas food shopping to the Bottleo first to pick up some cheap fizz and then into Aldi for any last minute bargins... We got a big box of salad, some grapes and other fruit and OJ so we coul have Buck's Fizz for brekky. Then to the pie shop and we brought two quiche halves... One spinach and one asparagus an i treated myself to a lamington (a traditional Australian cake thing, its a sponge covered on desiccated coconut and bloody gooood :) Next on to woollies the supermarket for everything else... We stocked up on fruit and yoghurt to have a lovely breakfast with, other salady bits, cheese, crackers, stuffed peppers from the deli counter, popcorn, paper plates, glasses and everything... We were not doing christmas by half! We wanted to have a bbq but as there was probably close to 200 people just in our hostel, let alone the five others and all the backpacker camper and parked everywhere, we figured the Q for the one Bbq on the whole of the main beach might be rather long... It turned out to be four hours at the peak of the day!! And lastly it was back to the bottle shop to buy goon and cider so we could drink and be merry all day on Christmas Day!

It was a bit if a struggle to carry everything, especially with the massive crate of cider that we had just brought, so we 'borrowed' a trolly from woollies and piled all our stuff into it, to walk it all home! Much easier than carrying it all- i actually don't think wed have been able to :/ and we parked our trolly in the carpark, in the hope that it would get knicked and we could do the same journey in reverse to the beach the following day with all our stuff!!

It was a nightmare trying to fit all of our stuff into the kitchen fridges... Hostel kitchens are skanky at the best of times but the fridges are the worst... Packed to over flowing with mouldy food and soaking esky bags everywhere so in the end we had to split up all our bags and slot them into little spaces as obviously everyone had had the same idea as us and stocked up on food the day before!!

That evenin the hostel threw a big Christmas Eve banquet which we managed to smuggle krista in for... They had laid tables with crackers and bowls if sweets and bottle of wine and a free glass of champers when you arrived and everyone was dressed really festively! We were squished onta table where we could barely move but it was so much fun and the food was delishious...al and i had the vegetarian quiche with loads of different salads, pastas, coleslaw and potatoes and krista, bles sheer had brought us all a little box of Lindt chocs as an early present so we scoffed very melted choco balls for pudding! There was a couple of live bands that were playing and santa came to visit us which was hilarious as the poor trussed up bloke was sweating sooo much in the costume and throwing profanities out left and right!! There was also a raffle, which i won a free tshirt in!! And kate 30 mins of free wifi, score!! We then headed out to cheeky monkeys, a bar/club in town where we had a free entry wristband and a free drink card! It was hilarious as the cheesy choones were being pumped out and the free drink was like a slush puppy and the whole place has like metal picnic benches screwed to the floor that everyone stands and dances on and its the most sweaty place ever!! But everyone was dancing in their Santa hats and having a great time!! There was a christmas countdown and everything and a cheesy carol, i cant remember which one, the depressing irish/new York one maybe, was played and EVERYONE sung along!

On christmas morning i woke up to one of Kate's socks at the end of my bed, stuffed with chocolate coins as a little stocking, which was the cutest thing ever and we all had a little celebratory bundle! We made fruit and yoghurt breakfast which was delishious and popped open our cheapo champers and nearly took out Alex's eye in the process! It was
ridiculously powerful, but tasted nice enough with a bit of OJ. We packed up all our food and were a little bit miffed to find someone had stolen out salad and there were a few other people in the kitchen who said they couldn't things either so that was a bit annoying but some of our friends from another hostel had all $50 of their bbq meat stolen so we thought at least it was only a $3 salad!

Getting dressed on xmas day i usually love because i an the biggest christmas jumper fan ever, last year i endured a whole day of super scratchy nylon so that i would look the part in a vintage gold crinkly top that i had brought and so this year it was rather surreal choosing which bikini i wanted to wear on Christmas Day!! I chose my leopard print one and popped some hippy sunglasses and a flower headband on to channel the Byron bay christmas spirit!

Down to the beach we headed with our loaded trolly, which although was still in the carpark, had been clipped to another one, so i lost my dollar but i figured it had been well spent! We wheeled to the beach and met krista and some of our other friends from the east coast and had a little sunbathe... As we got on to main beach though everyone was saying theyd just been evacuated from the sea because a great white shark had been spotted... The helicopter was out and the lifeguards on jet skis circling, trying to see if it was safe... When we got there, people were tentatively just testing the water again and we all dashed in, revelling in the novelty of swimming in a baking sea on Christmas Day!! There was thousands of other people on the beach and as many locals as there were backpacker which i found kinda strange as i hadnt really thought about what a family chrimbo would involve of you actually loved here! The other very strange thing i noticed when we were pushing our christmas food and booze through the town was the huge number of shops, cafes and restaurants open on xmas day!! Literally millions of them, and people overflowing out of all of them! The ice cream shop had a Q out of the door!!

We sat on a picnic table at the beach and spread out all of our food and enjoyed a different but very delishious christmas lunch! Slightly sandy quiche with dry coldslaw as wed forgotten mayo so were slathering on sweet chilli sauce instead, with melted cheese, crackers, grapes and sweet and salted popcorn... It wasnt mums roast dinner but it hit the spot :) we spent the afternoon chilling in the shade with friends and a Coldplay album and every one was really mellow and relaxed! I was amazed at how many shops and restaurants were still open so late in the afternoon and i figured one little ice cream wouldn't hurt, seeing as they were open!

After a cheeky falafel kebab dinner we wandered a little drunkenly perhaps back to the hostel and got changed, we popped some warmer clothes on, as the wind down by the beach was chilly in the evening and we came back down to the beach to sit and have a drink and chat with everyone! It was absolutely packed out! People were sat everywhere! We made a little circle which kept getting bigger and bigger with more people and suddenly we had a bit of a jamming session going on with some boy and a ukele and another with an African drum and people were playing beats on their goon boxes and someone was singing a little tune... It was so cool as we must have all looked so eclectic and backpackery with all the denim and tie die and flowy skirts and headbands we had going on!!

We got up late the next day and intended to head down to the beach to sweat out our hangovers but it was pissing it down so we grabbed a little food to go... We had a wander round the shops as well, as many of them had their Boxing Day sales, although we didn't did everything as the sales were the same as England - i am sure shops buy s*** stuff to put on the sale, especially when theres like forty trousers exactly the same in every size! We went out again on Boxing Day night, to cheeky monkeys again, but not before a serious nap session!! And lots of are games in a cafe by kristas hostel to keep out of the rain!!

On our last day in Byron we had a nice lie in after some late nights and phone calls home at silly o' clock! We met up with krista and had a little mooch over to the yesterday cafe and then the girls went and had a massive breakfast... It was pretty much lunch time when we were finished so we went and sat by the beach to top up our tans before new year! I had a hairdressers appt in the afternoon and it was so nice to sit in the air conned room and read magazines and have my hair played with, i nearly fell asleep! I felt all pampered when i came out... It was expensive but not comparatively so to sydney hairdressers and a lovely lovely xmas present from m and d - thank you!!

Our last evening was a bit random as we had ha to check out of the hostel that morning but our overnight bus to sydney wasn't until midnight (and it was late!) so we went back to our hostel and snuck in and had showers and sat and chilled in the common room playing cards... We had planned to go for a drink but with all of our backpacks we couldn't be bothered and krista came up to see us and we had a nice chill :) We got the minibus back into town as we couldn't carry all of our s*** and to the bus station we went...

We thought it would be as simple as that and we all said emotional goodbyes to krista and promised to see each other again even though neither sets of plans currently over lap :( but the bus was late and theres nothing worse than an overnight bus being late when your desperately trying to keep yourself awake so your sleepy enough for the bus! It was an hour and a half late in the end but our wait was eased by a really cool backpacker magician that sprang out of no-where with a little show... He wasn't very good really, you could see him fumbling over coins and bit and pieces up his sleeve but it kept us amused and we have him a couple of coins! The bus came in the end although everyone ha given up as was napping so it was the worst bus journey in the world as i was in and out of sleeping the whole time! But on to sydney...