Thursday 24th January (Byron Bay)

After a long 12 hour bus journey from Sydney to Byron Bay (with heavy showers on and off thoughout the journey) it was good to finally get here. We were dropped off at the bus stop and we were then picked up by the Main Beach bus and taken to the hostel.

Jack, the guy that picked us up from the bus stop, showed us around the hostel. At first glance it already looked better than our last hostel in Sydney.. It had a pool, outside BBQ area, big cinema room, big kitchen and seating area and free wifi, not to forget the friendly staff! I like it!! :)

We checked in, had a little wait and then we collected our key (dorm 8 - which was outside). We headed outside and got to our dorm. It was a dorm of 16 and half of the people weren't in there and the other half were still asleep. It was very dark and smelt weird.. Great!! Just as we were about to make our beds, the lady from reception came and rescued us. She told us 3 girls had juct checked out of a 6 bed dorm and that we could have that one if we wanted. Obviously we said yes! We headed back inside to our new 6 bed dorm (14).

We got to our new dorm and were met by a nice American girl (Lizzie) we spoke to her for a little while, but tried to keep quiet as there was a guy asleep on the top bunk of Al's bed. Later, we got speaking to him (Thomas) as well. He was from Switzerland. They both seemed really nice and we were glad to have some friendly company.

Thomas was a little random, but made us laugh, especially when he told us he was a huggy-digger - don't ask!! He also made up a weird 'sci-fi film' after finding out our names. I apparently played the part of a 7 year old girl that saved the world from the aliens. Alice played the 15 year old girl, who made tea for her boyfriend, which of course was Thomas. Chel was at first the mum, but later gained the part of a cheerleader.. Yeah, weird right? We played along with it and laughed a lot. He was chatty and friendly, so we didn't mind.

We later found out that Thomas was 30! (WTF? We all thought that he was in his early 20's). He told us that he had been involved in a car accident some years back, and then we started to understand him and why he acted the way he did. He was high spirited though and i admired the fact that he had come travelling by himself. At times he would talk about his life previous the accident and say that his life before was like Brad Pitt (front man in a band and the girls loved him) and now he is more like Jim Carey (girls just find him funny). Poor Thomas!

There wasn't that much to do in Byron. We had a little stroll around the shops, supermarket and beach. I could see the light house in the distance and desperatly wanted to visit it at some point over the next few days. After having a further look around, we headed back to the hostel and got ourselves an early night. We were so tired from the lack of sleep on the bus the night before.

Friday 25th January

As it was sunny again, this morning, we decided to head straight to the beach. :) I went straight into the sea and as i was walking in I felt a painful stinging across my right knee. I thought that it was the salt water irritating my leg, however I was a bit more concerned when it really started to sting and the pain shot across my knee to the back of my leg. The pain was really bad, so i pulled my leg up to see what was going on and I saw something stuck to my leg!! I freaked out, as i do, thinking that it was some kind of seaweed or something on me. I hit it off my leg and quickly made my way out of the sea.

I walked up the beach and told Chel and Al what had happened and when i looked down at my leg i noticed that it had started to come up all red and lumpy (similar to nettle stings). I headed over to the first aid and there they told me that i had been stung by a Blue Bottle Jellyfish. Ouch! They told me that it should go down after half an hour or so and gave me a bag of ice to put onto it.

Trust me to get stung by a Jellyfish! Typical!

We carried on sunbathing for a little while after (I was still holding the ice to my leg, trying to stop the pain). A girl came along the beach promoting Cheeky Monkey's (a local pub/resturant) and we all got a wrist band for a $5 meal and free entry. We decided that we would go there for food tonight. We watched some surfers and after a while the sky turned cloudy. It looked like a storm was coming. Uh oh. We packed up and decided that we would go to see the light house tomorrow, as we didnt fancy getting stuck in the storm.

On the way back to the hostel, it did start to pour down. Chel and I stopped to buy a drink and saw Thomas (from our dorm) filming himself, sat outside a cafe, in the rain. It was so funny, we couldn't stop laughing!

We got to the hostel and chilled in our room. Thomas came back just after us and was talking about the weather. Everyday he would tell us that he was meant to get up early and get his washng done and do a sky dive. But by the time he woke up, (late afternoon) he would always miss out on the sun, therefore get nothing done. He was chatting away to us and then all of a sudden, randomly said about his sandwich and left the room. He walked back in with a sandwich that he had bought but left outside. We couldn't stop laughing!

The rain continued to pour down all afternoon/evening. So we ended up chilling in the cinema room. Jack, that worked at the hostel, came around with wrist bands for Cheeky Monkeys, which had the same freebies as our other wristbands but with free jugs of drinks and free bus there and back as well. Bargin!

We caught the bus at 7pm and it was a short drive to Cheeky Monkeys. We got in, ordered our food and picked up our free frozen cocktail on entry. It was good!! :) We sat at the Main Beach table and waited for our food. We ate and afterwards, they played a spin the wheel game. The guy chose Alice to spin the wheel and luckily she landed on free dessert. Winner! During the game, jugs of cider were brought to the table and also some champers. The guys we got talking to from Canada, started to spray the champers everywhere and we all got soaked. It didn't smell too fresh either. Yuck! We enjoyed our free jugs of cider and champers and then left to go and see what was happening on the streets of Byron.

Saturday 26th January - Australia Day

It rained all through the night and was still pouring down when we woke up. We couldn't do alot with the weather like this, which also meant that we wouldn't get to go to the light house. Gutting :(

We did brave it, and went out to buy some goon (boxed wine). Everyone had told us that we needed to buy some, as it was so cheap and it gets you really drunk. And being Australia day we thought we'd try it.

The rest of the day we spent chilling in the hostel. A guy called Chris had checked in and was now also in our dorm. He was from Brisbane and seemed a lot older than all of us. Al got chatting to him about tennis and general chit chat about Oz and travelling and he seemed alright. A couple of guys that worked in our hostel were going from dorm to dorm asking if people were up for $5 all you could drink sangria that night, so Chel, Al and I decided to participate, as did Chris and Thomas.

That night we joined everyone from the hostel downstairs and started drinking our goon. We got chatting to people that we had already spoken to and also to new people that we hadn't. The sangria arrived about half 8 and we all ended up having to use bowls to drink it, as all of the cups were being used. It was funny. Chel got Thomas downing his drink as she kept singing the drinking song. It was too funny as Thomas didn't finish his drink, even after 3 goes. We all had a really good night, talking to different people and celebrating Australia Day with them in Byron. The weather didn't effect people's spirits, that's for sure! :)