Byron bay

In the morning after our stake-out in Clybucca we arrived in Byron Bay. This is again a very frequented city. Lots and lots of backpackers, tourists and others come here. It was alternative and popular years ago and stayed popular (thanks to the beaches and nature around). So now it has changed into a rather hip city with expensive artsy shops, lots going on and a wide variety of people coming here. At least so I heard ;-)

But yeah, the many shops beg for people to browse, though I don't really care about that sort of thing. I rather enjoyed strolling on the beach or walking to the lighthouse. Silja and I had at first booked a place to stay, where she had been years ago, but it was kind of weird and everything had hidden costs (wifi, luggage storage and so on) and when the girl at the reception was really weird and unfriendly we decided to change hostel after a night. We ended up in a more party place (with it's own bar etc), but it was fine. At first!

Life hack 726: No oven and you want a pizza? No problem with this kind of sandwich grill!

After a while I realized the back doors to the rooms can't be locked from the outside, so most people tend to leave them unlocked (to have easy access) and the bathroom windows don't really close. And then there was this notice saying what to do when there's a armed robbery. You don't just hang that there, when it hasn't happened D:

At least there was a security guy at the entrance gate and the rooms had lockers (though many didn't lock it properly! ^^' ), but the back fence wasn't really that big of a barrier, so I was kind of concerned for the security. Probably just annoyed that after we had changed hostel it was again not what I had hoped for. Wifi was much better though and they had free dinner offers, which was nice. We got to know a few people on karaoke night and more or less hung out with them the next few evenings.

But before that we had a day to fill and decided to go to the lighthouse, which is a nice walk through some national park-ish area and along the way we met an australian couple. They are from Perth and were for a short holiday around Byron bay. We walked and talked till we finally arrived at the lighthouse. There they had some lunch and Silja and I headed back to the new hostel to check in properly and have our cheaper lunch.

Beaches like these are all over and around Byron bay!

See the eagle? Was a big one!

Or this big lizard sunbathing, looked similar like the one hanging out in our hostel (you can see that in my latest update post)

View of the ocean from australias most eastern point! (Silja has the fotos with the 2 of us infront of the sign)

Wild australian turkey near the most eastern point of Australia!

The nice lighthouse up at the cape of Byron bay!

The lighthouse from afar!

I wonder where everyone was going to and from...?

Sunday there was a big market going on in Byron, so Silja and I went there and she ended up buying some stuff and even ordered a handmade leather cade for her laptop! The guy was so kind to deliver it as well, because he had to make it. He agreed to do it in a day, because we were leaving on tuesday morning... But he did it and Silja no has a pretty leather case!

The market itself was huge! Many different stalls and shops were there. Leather wares, ceramic, candles, woodwork, clothes, iron stuff, coin carvings, spoon bending and more of each. Of course there were food lanes and corners too. It was pretty busy, but not too crowded, just because the area was so big! With so many different stalls and little lanes there was plenty to see and to admire!

For monday we had booked a tour to the nearby hippy/ pothead village of Nimbin, Byron is supposedly similar relaxed and so on, though I found it to be past all that and has already turned into a "posh" hipster and yeah just expensive exclusive place. Nimbin had just celebrated a mardi grad festival (not like the one in Sydney though) and so many people were there for that. We walked around, checked some stores, but the ride there took longer than I thought and so we were there for only a few hours and had to return quite soon. Looking back I could have brought my guitalele and played with tunes with all the people hanging around the courtyards and plazas there. Many were just relaxing on benches, enjoying their smokes and some had guitars and were playing music. There were many of those groups. But it wasn't too bad, because the weather sucked. It was almost raining all the time and when we were on our way back it started pouring!

Hippie community Nimbin recieving a delivery - a bit ironic

Nimbin is an indigeneous name and is important to many aborigenes, these rocks are important in their mythology and believes, the name is ??

So luckily we were in a bus and not on the streets. The next morning we were already heading on north to our last destination together: Brisbane!