Byron Bay

Best place ever!! I was just there Friday-Monday. We took a 2 hour bus on Friday afternoon, and got there around sunset. We walked along the beach up to a lookout point on the rocks and took tons of pictures - see Facebook. It was absolutely gorgeous. After that we got some din din (kebabs) and gelato, then I hung around in the town with my friend Mackenzie and we listened to some street performers. Then we hung out in the hostel (which was really nice) for a while and I hit the bed early because I was exhausted, and we signed up for a bus tour for Saturday and I wanted to be well-rested.

Saturday - Grasshopper bus tour to Nimbim. I was really hesistant about it because I wanted to spend the day on the beach at Byron, but I'm so glad I went! Nimbin is about an hour and a half away, so they take you there, hang out for an hour and a half, drive to a BBQ area by some nice lakes and where you can do a nature walk, then drive to waterfalls where you can jump off the rocks (I didn't!). All the driving time was beautiful - we drove through farms and forests and pastures the whole way. It was really fun and amazing...one of the best trips yet. On Sunday we just spent the day laying out on the beach and doing a little shopping around Byron - the beach was amazing and totally different from Surfer's Paradise, where I went at the beginning of the semester. Surfer's is all high rises and really commercialized, and Byron is very low-key hippie town. It kind of felt like a beach town in Maine...except bigger, and in Australia.

So now I am back, and have 4 papers and a presentation to do over the next 2-3 weeks. And I'm going to the Whitsundays next weekend, so obviously no time to do work then. So, it's time to buckle down (and not spend time blogging...woops).