Day 12 to 13: Byron Bay

Byron Bay is the coolest town that I have seen so far in Australia. Everything including shops, restaurants, cafes, and bars are all on the same street, which leads to the beach. Cheeky Monkeys is a fantastic bar/restaurant, where I got a fat piece of porterhouse steak for 5 bucks with the hostel discount. Jugs of beer are 7 bucks before 9pm.

I surfed in the afternoon the day I arrived and headed over to this crazy town called Nimbin the next day on the oldest bus in Australia. The guy that drove the bus is the hippiest hippy and gave us an hour long lecture on how to become a hippy before we departed. The town Nimbin is pretty amazing itself with the strangest people selling stuff on the street.

The bus driver also took us to the house of this friend of his. The guy is total wacko from New York, hated America, and decided to smoke his life out here in Nimbin, Australia. He has the weirdest botanic garden overlooking this lake that is drying up. The house itself is also wild, a bit run down, but has got all sort of interesting stuff in it, including broken religious figurines and stuffed animals humping each other in dust and spider webs.

I really wish I could have stayed in Byron for longer but I already booked my Gold Coast accommodation before I arrived and have to leave on Friday. Hopefully I will be able to find something similar up north.

Pictures:

1) Stack outside of the house of the hippy from NY

2) Cleared up sky