I've been a brave girl and Sydney at last!!!
Trip Start
Nov 11, 2007
1
13
26
Trip End
Feb 11, 2007
Sydney,
Australia
Sunday, December 23, 2007
Well since I last posted we've basically chilled out loads. We stayed in Byron Bay until Thursday night and then moved on on an overnight bus - which was a treat I'll explain about further in this entry. The weather wasn't all that great during our 5 days in Byron Bay. Apart from that first day it generally rained quite a bit. But it was still warm so that was ok and when it was just cloudy, we all just went shopping. After a day chilling out and recovering from saturday night at Cheeky Monkeys, on sunday night we just chatted with everyone from our room including this really funny bloke from manchester called Tom and his mate also called Tom. Alex, a german lad was also a source of much amusement to us all and after the curfew at 11pm me and mel went down to the beach with those three, a german girl called alex as well and also Kirsten who was from Canada and was starting a little 'thing' with Alex (the bloke not the girl). Me and Tom had a big chat about our respective relationships. He was feeling exactly the same as I do about Jack, missing your other half so much it hurts. The way he talked about his girlfriend at home was so sweet, although it made me think he was definitely the soppier one of his relationship. We had a lot to talk about and I related a lot with what he was saying about how he felt. It was nice to chat to someone who felt the same. The night was topped off by seeing a shooting star fly across the sky which was so full of stars it basically made you stare and stare for ages. Sounds very deep but it made me realise how small I am in the world and how much more of it I want to see.
Monday was spent having another lie in - so nice after Surfer's and being woken up by builders - and the day was spent shopping in the rain. It rained on and off all day even into the evening when we were socialising. It's so much cheaper to buy drink in (GOON wooop) and drink it at your hostel so that's what we did. Me and Jolly shared a box of red wine and Melly got vodka. The rain forced us inside after a while so we sat around the big round tables in the kitchen playing drinking games and getting very drunk. The boys had us in stitches and I learnt a few new drinking games that I'll bring home with me! The night ended with us being kicked out of the kitchen at curfew so we headed (or should I say staggered?!?) into town to go to a club. "Not coming in" said the bouncers lol! We weren't dressed for a night out, flip flops on boys were a no no apparently. So we stupidly decided to carry the party on in our room which is apparently not allowed. Oooops we didn't get told off though and I vaguely remember getting into bed around 2ish and passing out with people still in the room I reckon.
Needless to say I woke up with a nasty hangover on tuesday and swore off red wine forever - that didn't happen. The day was a slow starter with a little christmas shopping for my secret santa person - jenna - and then we went to the cinema to see The Bee Movie! It's soooo good and I recommend everyone should go and see it! Had me laughing loads although that's not particularly hard!! Then we headed back for an early night but ended up chatting to all the alcoholics lol and heading down to the beach again for a wander. It started to rain though which forced us back to base and we fell into bed relatively early. On Wednesday I must have had my brave head on. Ok so I've been considering having a tattoo for ages and ages, so much so that I brought a drawing to Oz with me, but have never had the courage to do it. Loads of people at our hostel had recommended this place just over the road which also did piercings. Catherine and Jen wanted an ear piercing so the plan was for them to do that whilst I casually enquired about how much my design would cost and how long it would take. What I didn't expect the guy to say was that they could do it there and then - I went into panic mode and said I'd think about it, whilst he said he'd do the transfer for when I'd decided! The girls were waiting for ages to have their piercing as some girl who went in before them was freaking out so I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. So therefore I have a little tattoo on the inside of my left ankle that I designed that represents my trip and the four of us on it. I shall put a pic on facebook soon. It did hurt, I'd be lying if I said it didn't but it ws bearable and I'd definitely have another one if I chose to. After my bravery, Melly decided she could be brave too and had her design done! I was very prud of all of us and we went around showing everyone. There were some new americans in our room as we'd said goodbye to the 2 tom's, kirsten and alex and we decided to be friendly and challenge them to a drinking game that evening. Me and Catherine had another box of wine between us and we got down to some mroe serious drinking and game playing. We ended up quite drunk again but this time managed to get into a club and had a little dance in a place called Cocomanga's. When everyone decided to move on to Cheeky's, me and jen were sensible, went for food and headed back. We had a big chat back at the hostel, sorting out life, love and everything in our drunken ways. It was nice to chat with Jen as I know she misses Aaron, just like I'm missing Jack so we understand what each other is going through.
We had chosen to book an overnight bus from Byron to Newcastle, our next stop. This happened on Thursday night but before that we had a day trip planned. On thursday morning I woke up with a bit of a hangover but had to pack and check out before catching the grasshopper bus tour to Nimbin. Nimbin is generally famous for one thing and that is marajuana. Yep the police generally turn a blind eye to the weed and cookie selling that goes on there and the place is basically this little tiny street with a few shops and a museum about 1 hours drive out of Byron Bay. The day trip we went on took us to a waterfall first where we had to climb over rocks to get to it! Fantastic with a hangover that!! And I couldn't go in the water as I couldn't get my tattoo wet! Next stop was Nimbin where me and Jolly sampled the delights of the place with not much effect but more about that later. We browsed round the shops and the place is just full of hippies and people walking around shouting about their marajuana products! Made me laugh! You only need about an hour in the place as it's so small and that's when you walk slowly! The next part of our day trip was a BBQ at Rocky Creek Dam where I saw a snake argh!! Actually I felt quite calm and I was able to take a photo of it before walking quite fast back up the hill towards Mel and Jolly. I'd walked down to take a photo from the Dam wall across the water as you could wlak across the Dam. It was quite a view. We had burgers and sausage but were plagued by ants and flies and I ended the day with about 15 bites all on my legs which now itch like crazy. After being dropped back at our hostel I realised the effect our special Nimbin products had had on me and Catherine. We were both "monged out" according to Jen and we looked wrecked! I just sat on a sofa in our hostel as we were waiting for our night bus at 11pm. We just both kept breaking out in giggles at stupid things and it was highly amusing for jen and mel apparently. Felt pretty funny but it wore off after a while.
We headed to the bus stop, not really looking forward to our overnighter and feeling pretty tired after a few nights of partying. 11 came and went and no bus. Half an hour went past, then an hour then 2 and still no bus. We were beginning to think we'd be sleeping in the bus stop when a guy announced he had called greyhound and the bus that was supposed to pick us up had broken down and a replacement was on the way. It finally turned up about half hour after this and we all got on wearily. Luckliy I managed to sleep on anf off all the way to Newcastle, where just outside newcastle we were transferred onto another bus that would take us into the centre. We had booked into a hostel for one night that we knew wasn't in newcastle city centre, therefore when we got off the 2nd bus we had to find a third that would take us to Blacksmiths, the area our hostel was in. We did this with some trepidation as we didn't really know where we were going and the bus driver wasn't all that friendly and willing to give us directions. Luckily we drove past the road our hostel was on on the route and managed to jump off at the stop over the road from it so it all turned out well in the end. We spent a lovely night in a very quiet little place, with a real duvet and a proper mattress (it's the little things in life) and some yummy take away pizza, film and an early night.
On saturday morning we woke up in our cute little hostel on the outskirts of newcastle at - wait for it - 6AM!!! Lol! We were leaving on the 7:50am greyhound and needed to get back to the greyhound stop which is why the early rise was called for. We managed to get a bus into town and found the stop with no issued, we were picked up and hotfooted (or wheeled I suppose) down the highway to SYDNEY!! HOORAY! And that's where I am now! I'll fill you in later what we've done so far as it's not much as we've only been here since yesterday afternoon.
I hope everyone has an amazing christmas and new year, have lots of fun, drink, eat, be merry and remember me over here having another weird christmas, but hey I shouldn't complain ay?!?
Lots of festive loving,
Smiffy xxxxxxxxxxx
P.S. Mum, Dad and Nic I love u and have a fab christmas! Promise I'll be there next year xxx
P.P.S. Jack I miss you so much babe and I love you even more than that. Merry Christmas darling xxxxxx
