After my last entry, Steph and I continued down the east coast. After leaving Airlie,we took a 16-hour bus ride to Noosa, a posh beach town just north of Brisbane. We only stayed for a night, so all we really had time for was to walk around town and take a stroll along the beach. We also indulged just slightly by staying at the Flashpackers Hostel; it's still at hostel, but is beautifully designed with an inviting lounge area and a giant kitchen. After two nights on a boat with no showers and one night sleeping on a Greyhound, we were very willing to sacrifice the 28 dollar price tag, not to mention throwing in eight bucks for all-you-can-eat pizza night. In town, we once again braved the shops - Steph and I tell ourselves that we shouldn't shop because we're both on strict budgets, but we know we're going to do it anyway, so we instead we make bad jokes about our shopping habits to laugh it off and ease the tension of our bank accounts.
The next day was Steph's birthday, and unfortunately, it started with an early morning three hour busride to Brisbane. We had originally planned to rush to the koala sanctuary, so that Steph could hug a koala for her b-day, but once we found out that our hostel offered a special tour leaving the next morning, we decided to hold off. Instead, we opted to do what we do best: shopping. Once we checked into our twenty bed dorm (ridiculous...), we took off to the downtown core, rushed into the nearest Starbucks, and then shopped til we dropped... And until all the stores closed, so we really had no choice but to stop. Steph had looked up what was going on in town that night, and discovered a venue with some interesting DJs, so after power naps, we headed for a night out. Even though it wasn't my usual thing, the DJs were admittedly pretty good, but we had definitely entered the hipster zone. After realising the set ended fairly early, we decided to club hop and make up for a lack of nights out. We checked out mainstream ones, and even delved into a salsa night (which ended quickly after Steph ran into herself in one of the bathroom mirrors...very trippy). All in all, despite the lack of koalas, I think - or at least I hope - Steph had a satisfying birthday.
The following morning it was finally time to check out some koalas. After a stop at a viewpoint to see the entire city of Brisbane, we arrived at the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary - located in the adorable suburb of Fig Tree Pocket. We didn't really know what to expect other than the koala hugs and photos, but the whole sanctuary was actually quite serene and seemed to host a lovely habitat for all kinds of animals. Steph and I started with the koala show - where I decided to pet one instead of doing the cuddle - and then Steph went for her koala experience. At the end of the day, it really was just posing for a photo. Steph was basically told to stand like a tree while the koala rested on her; not so much a cuddle as a statue. At the very least, we got some cute photos. We then discovered that there was an area where you could feed kangaroos, so we bought some food, and wandered around the field, interacting with dozens of kangaroos. I didn't realise quite how domesticated kangaroos could be, it was almost like going to a petting zoo at home and feeding the goats, except the kangaroos didn't try to eat everything on you. It was without a doubt one of those surreal moments where you think how the hell did I end up hand feeding kangaroos in Australia.
That night, we kept up with our speed pace and took a bus to Byron Bay where we had planned to stay for a few days. Our first day, we dove right in and went for a surfing lesson; after all, you can't come to Australia and not surf. Needless to say, Steph and I both sucked, and only managed to actually stand a couple times, but it was great fun and we both spent the afternoon in hysterical fits of laughter over how disastrous each attempt was. That night, Steph had arranged to meet up with her cousin who she hadn't seen since she was two years old - even before Steph and I had met! After meeting Juniper and her fiance, Adam, and hitting it off, we ended up having dinner and drinks and chatting for hours. They offered for us to come stay with them, but since we'd already paid for the hostel, we declined. Things changed drastically, however, when we discovered that someone in the hostel had stolen our English muffins (a true travesty), and we immediately contacted Juniper to take them up on their offer.
Before moving over, we relaxed at the beach for a day - braving the chilly weather - and did a tour to Nimbin. Nimbin is known as the drug capital of Australia. While drugs are extremely illegal in this country, the police have turned a blind eye to Nimbin, and allowed this hippie community to flourish into a marijuana mecca. Soon after we boarded our hippie school bus, the tour guide explained to us that, while all activities of the day were more or less illegal, he didn't give a shit, so we could pretty much do as we pleased. First, we made a rest stop along the way, where he encouraged us to load up on alcoholic beverages for the busride - again, very illegal in this country. Next, we headed straight to Nimbin, where he told us the best places and prices for weed. Steph and I already knew about this, and while Steph doesn't engage with that sort of thing, I decided to follow my 'you only live once' mentality and purchase a weed cookie. It was sort of humorous really, since I've never bought drugs of any kind of my life, and don't know the first thing of how to go about it. Luckily, it's not too hard in Nimbin, as all kind of hippie characters are constantly offering you weed as you walk down the main street. I opted to purchase only one cookie, as I've never been a big stoner, and just wanted to try it out the once. After about an hour, it started to hit me, and I just got extremely tired. To Steph, I think I just looked like I was in a daze. Either way, it was an experience. Our driver then took us to a park where he cooked up a BBQ lunch ( I'm sure you can imagine that a bus full of stoned backpackers are probably all dying for food by this point). After a brief stop at a national park viewpoint, we headed back to Byron, at which point thankfully, my one cookie wore off.
We moved into Juniper and Adam's place that night. The two started their own granola company, and live just outside of Byron Bay, in a loft space they created in their warehouse. While some may think it doesn't sound ideal, they've created an amazingly trendy space that features a lot of Juniper's ecclectic style and ceramics. They made us an amazing home cooked dinner, and I finally got to buy Steph a birthday cake that we were all able to celebrate together. In the morning, after trying out some seriously good granola, Steph and I utilized our day to do some seriously productive... shopping. We checked out every shop possible in Byron, including the Salvation Army, and went back to enjoy homemade pizzas and wine with Juniper and Adam before catching our overnight bus to Sydney.
Originally, we had hoped to couchsurf in Sydney - an organization that connects travelers with people that have a spare bed or couch in locations all around the world - but after a failed attempt to find a host, we picked the cheapest hostel we could find. Minus the fact that we had to find our own way there carrying all our luggage and groceries (which has grown monumentally due to the shopping), the hostel wasn't actually that bad, it even featured free wifi, a rare find in this country. Being on an increasingly strict budget, Steph and I had marked down all the free art galleries in the city, and decided to take on those first. We only managed to get to one on our first day, but also saw the botanical gardens and the library (sounds dull, but they were showing some photography, so I couldn't resist). With bad weather, we were running out of indoor activities, but after a quick Google search, I found that there was a Lindt Cafe nearby, and there's nothing better than chocolate on a crappy day. Chocolate waffles, two hot chocolates, and several Lindt chocolates later, we were stuffed, and headed back to the hostel.
We had planned to visit the Blue Mountains the next day, and agreed it was better to do it ourselves, rather than book a tour. We started our morning with a two-hour train ride through the Blue Mountains to the town of Katoomba. As soon as we arrived, it was clear that we had picked the wrong day. Not only was it pouring with rain, but the fog had rolled in and you couldn't see a thing. Steph and I decided to make the most of a bad situation, and buy the hop-on-hop-off bus tickets anyway. After buying a wool hat, bundling up, and chatting up our bus driver, we managed to do a short walk by some waterfalls, check out chocolate factory, walk down to the edge of the Three Sisters - where because of the fog we could only actually see one sister (three rock points famous in the Blue Mountains), check out umpteen gift shops, and do a short walk through the Leura Cascades and Leura village. After a reasonably full day, we felt we'd given it all we had, and - both soaked - loaded onto the train back to Sydney.
On our last day in the city, we planned to do some of the more typical tourist activities, but first I had planned for us to meet up with Mel. If you can vaguely recall, Mel is an Aussie I met in Vietnam. I'd spent several days with her there, and was more than happy to see her again while on the road. After a disastrous train ride getting slightly lost along the way, we met her in the suburb of Newtown, a more artsy/hipster neighbourhood. We caught up over coffee and lunch before Steph and I had to head off and squeeze in our day. We headed straight to the harbour where we took cheesy tourist photo after photo of the Sydney Opera House, and then headed to the Contemporary Art Gallery, where funny enough they were featuring a Vancouver artist that I studied in university. We wandered through parks and into King's Cross before deciding to head back down to the harbour to catch the beginning of Vivid - a lights festival in Sydney where they bring in light technicians from around the world to project light shows on all the buildings. We were so thankful that we managed to see it even for a bit; it's not often that you see all kinds of crazy lighting graphics being projected on the Sydney Opera House. We rushed back just on time to catch our Greyhound to Melbourne, whch is where I now find myself.
Melbourne is our last stop in Australia, and my last destination to explore on my trip (I'm not counting my stopover in Bangkok of course, as I've already been there twice). I briefly went through every place I've been to on this trip in my head the other day, and it was quite a long list. While so much at this point seems like a blur, somehow I've managed to cram so much into five months, while also really getting to experience certain people and places. I go home in one week, and like I've mentioned in previous posts probably, I'm not really sure how I feel about it at this point. I guess it's mostly because I know that my life at home is what it is, and will always be there, but there is so much of the world I want to see and experience, and I truly do enjoy constantly seeing new things and meeting new people in all kinds of unexpected ways. Anyway, I think I only have one blog post left after this, so I'll leave it until then to really sum up the trip. Seven days to go!
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