Wow, I am sorry to my loyal fans that it has been so long since I have updated this dirty ol site. I am now in Brisbane, about half way up the east coast of Oz and chilling it out after a wonderful dinner of hamburgers with my Danish friends Jacob and Fredrik and my American friend John from Santa Barbara. We dined and grilled by starlight and the help from the lights on all the buildings around. It's certainly nice to stay in a place with a little something extra like that though. Anyway Byron, what a trip that place is.
The Arts Factory is somewhat of a compound about a 5-7 minute walk from town and is completely self sufficient. They have, as stated before, everything from cafes and bars, to volleyball and ping pong. They have free didgeridoo lessons, yoga, massage, fire twirling, and anything else you can think of. I finally started to cook my own food so I had meals consisting primarily of peanut butter and of pasta. Delic.
The first night we got there the whole Oz Experience bus that I am on (53 kids that have been travelling together for 3 days) are asked/told to meet up at Cheeky Monkey. This is a kind of bar that would remind me of Classic City or any other bar of that type in Athens. The thing is is that nobody speaks English well. At least American English. So you start talking to someone and find yourself asking "what" every other second. Oh well you gotta get to know these Euros some how. So the first night at Cheeky is supposed to be like a big blow out with some free beers and lots of table dancing etc. Turns out I talk to the people that I had met on the bus and just hang out in the background because everyone doing the east coast of Australia is about 19-21. I forgot to read the instruction book I guess. Good night but the best part is going home and curling up in my sleeping bag in my tent with 2 strange Danes (Johannes and Bruno) who want to party it out and have been doing so for the past 4 months. These guys have money and don't care about spending it either. I guess Denmark is one of the richest countries in Europe and maybe the world.(?) Yeah so Joey gets home really late and is wasted and cant get up on his bunk and falls and has a develish laugh and I can't help but laugh my head off for a good 30 minutes before he passes out. This was quite scary in that I was sitting there talking to him one second and the next I can't wake him. The powers of alcohol I suppose. Over the next few days this scene would repeat several times but there is nothing like the first time for anything.
Next day is beach all day perfecting my body surfing, body boarding, and figuring out how and where to get a board. Sit on the beach all day and finally get good and tan. Good surfers here pulling Taj Burroughs (Burrows?) type moves. Skateboarding on the water, amazing. Very chill day with a stop for coffee and not much going on. This Byron is a very lazy town full of backpackers, free internet, and surf bums. The weather never really gets better, raining on and off each day and night, so I decide against camping and stay in the tent with my Danish friends. Please realize there are 2 sets of Danes that I hang out with, the ones that I lived with and the ones I'm hanging out with now. They are everywhere though and seem to be great people.
Sunday Jo and I ventured a trip to The Channon Markets and Nimbin. There are Sunday markets each week that move around the region and The Channon happened to be the site this week. It seemed to be just another artist fair with handmade stuff but we ran into a cool silvermaker and were talking about cave swimming, cliff diving, and killer Aussie creatures. The night before Jo and I encountered a smallish (about 2 inches across) in the tent. I wanted to catch him and throw him out because killing is just plain mean. However Forrest, our bus driver, told us to kill any Cane Toads we saw. His suggestion was golf club. Anyway I had to kill this spider but that pretty much freaked us out for the night. The next morning before the bus to Nimbin left we found another spider driven in by rain. This time he was about the size of my hand and was hairy. He was closer to the door so I caught him in the trash can and threw him out although I had no real evidence that this actually happened. Anyway, the silver guy told us that it was just a huntsman and wouldn't hurt a thing. The white tips, red backs, and funnel webs are the ones to watch out for. Anyway back on the bus heading to Nimbin with another crazy driver named Fred. We had stopped at a waterfall too but was none too impressive. However, I did learn that macadamia nuts came from Australia, not Hawaii. Interesting, Americans did it again. So we make it to Nimbin which is the ultimate hippy town with museums of their lifestyle and crazy out of their head hippies everywhere. We walk around for an hour hanging out with the crazies and then head home. The people were interesting to say the least.
Other things in Byron: Beach bar is cool, Cocomangas sucks. Cheekys isn't too cool but always funny if you are in a good mood. Irish are funny but hard to understand. Lighthouse walks should be made before night time. Sorting echidna spines is one of the hardest things to do in life. Walking to town 8 times a day to stay at a cool place is worth it. Fire twirlers use Poi's and Jo is pretty damn good, or at least much better than I. Tim Tam ice cream and white wine are great together as long as the wine doesn't cost more than $10 for 4 liters. Watching waves and surfers together is naturally addictive. All shower heads will hit my chest for the rest of my life. You can't tell where anyone is from by looking at them. $5 flip flops are a good investment. Cooking your own food is great and cheap and you get to chill with your friends. Don't be afraid to write what you feel. It's not always bad to be by yourself.
Forrest sayings: How ya going?, Cheers mates. I'm gonna give her one of these ones and one of those ones. Fraser, Fraser, Fraser. Sweet Jesus. And some Swiss saying that sounds like a mix between attention and seig heile. Real weird.
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