Byron Bay & Week 3

 Byron Bay was absolutely beautiful and the best weekend I've had so far. The common denominator to all my favorite days I've had so far abroad were when it was sunny and beautiful out. Byron Bay was no exception.

This was the bus that we took. We left early Friday morning and we first went to Nimbin, Australia's hippie capital. We were there for under two hours because although the shops and town were neat, it is very small and you don't actually need that much time there. The people live in their own world there and it was not a normal city. People were dressed from a different decade and definitely not people or things you see everyday!






This was the view we had the entire ride to Byron Bay. Gorgeous!

Byron Bay had such a relaxed feeling to it. A lot of the shops and restaurants were open windowed and had an open layout. I loved that. The top picture was a breakfast place we ate at two mornings. I ate the exact same thing both times. I just loved the ambiance and the food the first time, I wanted to replicate it the next day. Amazing. I didn't want to leave breakfast.














Then one day for lunch, as you can see in the photo, we ate at this place where there was a live musician playing. Again, I was so content just sitting there.    









 So on this trip we were signed up to go kayaking on Saturday at 12:30pm. Four of us got picked up and drove to the place. When we got there, it turned out that we were actually Sunday at 12:30pm. We were told to just walk down the beach and we could get to our hostel from there. Our hostel was right on the ocean so that was really neat to be able to walk out to.

Four of us were walking back and we were going to get lunch. Two of the other girls had their wallets so they said they were just going to go into the town and shop and then text us where they went to eat for us to meet them. My friend and I had nothing besides our key to the room so we were just going to run back to the hostel and then meet up with them. On our walk we were just chatting and walking. We weren't sure how far down the beach we had to go to get to the hostel entrance. We were trying to use this huge rock in the ocean as a reference point but we were really unsure. We figured that we would see the entrance from the beach to the hostel easily and that we didn't pass it yet because we would know. After awhile we thought we may have walked too far. But again, we drove to the kayaks so we figured walking back would take much longer. Finally, we are walking and there are naked people all around us. We were so shocked because we definitely knew we had gone too far at this point! Haha. We kept walking and found a man clothed and asked him if he knew where our hostel was... he didn't even know where Byron Bay was! So we started walking back down the beach and decided to go onto the land and maybe ask someone for directions. We came out into a little suburban looking area. We asked a man who was outside if he could give directions. He literally gave us 20 minutes of directions. I'm not joking. He could have condensed what he said to us into 2 minutes.



At the nude beach there was this stream of water that led into the ocean. It looked very pretty.








The funny thing about directions here is that it ALWAYS includes "when you get to the roundabout." There are so many here. But he told us to head to the round about and then turn left and then go about 200 meters and then half a kilometer.... its tough to get directions here! Where's the minutes and miles and blocks??

Anyway, we tried to follow his directions but ended up back on the beach walking back. When we finally got back to our hostel entrance... we realized how close we actually were to it from the kayak place. We walked over an hour too far and then had to walk that hour back! We saw our friends that were going to meet us for lunch. They shopped for 20 minutes, went to lunch, waited for us to order, ordered, ate, and came back to the hostel all in the time we were gone!

Even though it was very hot, we had nothing with us, and we were lost, it was an experience.. to say the least.

 Sunday morning we went to the Byron Bay market and just strolled around. It was sooo hot out but it was something new to do and I enjoyed it!
















On Sunday we got to go kayaking. We were told we would see dolphins but we really didn't. We saw turtles and dolphin fins in the distance but none right under us. They said if we come back we could get another free kayak ride.

But the ocean waves were intense to get over. We tipped twice. I also was a little sea sick from all the waves! But beside that, it was gorgeous. I absolutely love the color contrast of kayak boats and the ocean water.

At Byron Bay there is this lighthouse in the distance that is really common for people to hike up to. We were going to do it on Saturday afternoon but it started down pouring before we left. Then we were going to do it after kayaking on Sunday but we didn't have enough time. But we were talking about it infront of the kayak tour guides and one of them offered to give us a quick ride up to see the lighthouse. He took his big van with 10 of us in it and drove us to the top. It was absolutely amazing. We couldn't stay there too long because he wasn't suppose to take us up there in the first place. But I'm so glad I got to go up. I hope to go back to Byron Bay and be able to just observe from the top. There was a cafe up there too which I would want to eat at.




On Sunday night when we got back to campus it felt like we were gone for so long. I was so glad that we got away that weekend. It was the first "trip" I had since being in school. We were all so tired that night. A bunch of us got dinner on campus and then just went to bed early.

Monday morning was the Superbowl. I had class for an hour but after that I went to the bar on campus where they had it playing throughout and a lot of people were there to watch. I'm glad I got to watch it even in Australia! Though they didn't have any commercials... it was the same three reoccurring ESPN commercials.

On Monday afternoon my friend and I were going to go to the mall and get dinner there. We got there a little after 5pm and although you could go into the mall... nothing was open. Only the big department stores were open but nothing else. A lot of places in Australia open and close during normal business hours. It was weird walking through an empty shopping mall though.

A lot of my classes have one project or presentation that you can choose when you want to present or have it due by. I chose to have all of mine relatively early so I could just get them out of the way. So this week I was really trying to work ahead and figure out what I wanted to do for the projects.

I also was trying to work ahead because my friend and I booked flights to go to Melbourne this upcoming Wednesday-Sunday! I knew I wanted to go to Melbourne but I'm so much like my mother that just... booking a flight that was less than one week away was a huge decision! I am super excited though! So many of my weekends are filled with traveling that this was one of the few weekends that would work.

Aunt Lori and I also booked our flights to Sydney when she is here too! I am excited to have certain plans on visiting the two cities I for sure wanted to see.

On Thursday my friend and I don't have class so we decided to go to the beach even though it was slightly overcast. When we got to the beach though it was so windy and there was no one there! The sand was blowing around a ton too so it would have hurt to lay down on the sand. We went and got food at this vegetarian place that she really likes but I've never tried. It ended up actually being sooo good! I brought my own coke for the beach but it went well with the food... haha it was definitely a place that didn't sell soda because they were all about the organic, healthy food.








On a side note, I have slightly begun to eat things not one at a time. Progress mother, progress. I order chicken Parmesan a lot at the dining center for dinner and it comes with fries too. One day I was eating my fries before I ate the meat and I stopped and was shocked at myself for eating my fries before the main course! So then I stopped and went to the chicken and then after that back to the fries. Then today I got the chicken parm too ( I could eat it everyday) and you know what... I just wanted to eat the fries first... so that's what I did. It was a decision I had to make.

On Friday, ISA had a day planned to take us to the rock pools with free transportation and lunch. It was great! We jumped off the rocks into the water and just hiked around and spent the whole day there.







So I took this picture first when we walked into this area... and then again took another when we were leaving. I said to my friend, it's weird that when I took this picture when I first walked into the park I thought 'wow this looks amazing - the idea of it looks so cool.' But when I was leaving I wanted to take another picture... even though I knew they would look essentially the exact same I wanted to take another one. Because when leaving my thought process was completely different. It was, 'Wow, that was great. I just experienced THAT. I partook in the idea I had when I first walked in.' And the two different pictures of the exact same thing had such different meanings to me in my mind. My friend told me I should journal that... so here I am.

Today, Saturday, I got my hash browns and iced coffee breakfast. Then a few of us went to the beach. It was such a relaxing day.


A few random comments.
1. They talk so much about staying hydrated and drinking water... but for some reason there is never a water fountain to fill your water bottle up and employees and fast food restaurants find it really weird to give you tap water.
2. Australians don't really liter and are very against it. However, there is never a garbage around!! Literally, there is less than half the amount of garbage bins as there is in the states.



I miss my friends and family but I am also having a great time here. Being here I realize how great of family of friends I really do have at home! However, I know after being home for a little bit all I will want to do is come back to Australia.

I have been here for over a month! It feels like I just got here.. but at the same time I feel like I have been here for awhile. This whole experience is just crazy to think of how short it is in consideration of my whole life... and the fact that it will soon just be a memory of my past. It's been making me think a lot about where I want to live in the future and what I actually want to do as a career. The answers are both unknown.. but the questions are out there. Like, do I want to live in Wisconsin where 8/12 months are cold? Even though I absolutely love being warm? (I mean honestly I don't even use my air conditioning in my room because it makes me cold). And how important is location if you're not near your family and friends? If I live in Wisconsin I will have to travel a lot. If I live elsewhere, I will have to travel back home. Food for thought.