We managed to score a flight for $68 Australian Dollars- round trip. When we bought them it came to something like $45 American dollars. Tell me where in America you can get a flight to somewhere 8 hours away for $45 round trip. Anyways, our flight was at 6am Thursday morning which really sucked. Getting to the Newcastle Airport is really difficult, and pretty expensive. It almost easier catching a train to Sydney and just flying out of there. Luckily that morning Mark gave us a ride, so we didn't have to pay for a taxi or shuttle and we made it there on time. We got to Brisbane at around 7:40am, and hopped on a train to meet Jenna in the city. We met her, walked to the bus station, and took a bus to campus. Did I mention I'm becoming a professional at public transportation? We got to her dorm, met a few people, cleaned ourselves up and headed out to the mall to find Jenna a birthday dress. We spent about 6 hours there without even realizing it. We all had a great time catching up and shopping, and we managed to find Jenna the best dress ever to celebrate her 21st in!
After leaving the mall we had to catch a bus into the city to pick up our rental car for the next few days (we were going on an adventure for the weekend). We got there RIGHT before they closed and managed to snatch up a lovely cherry red Hyudai Getz. Unfortinately we only took one picture of it- but I will be SURE to add that. The car also happened to be manual and lucky me- I am the only one in the group who can drive a stick. Let me tell you something: me having not driven in 3 months + shifting with my left hand while being on the left side of the car + 5pm downtown traffic in Brisbane, a city I had only been in for a few hours and had NEVER driven in before + a car I had never driven before and did not get to practice on did NOT equal anything that looked remotely like driving. I may have completely destroyed the clutch in the first 25 minutes or so that we had the car, but I don't think they charged us for it.
So we drove back to Jennas campus and began getting ready for the big night after a delicious dinner at a Chinese food restaurant near Jennas campus. After a little pregaming, we headed to "the valley," where we would be spending the evening. In true 21st birthday girl form, Jenna was wasted. I stopped drinking shortly after getting to the bar because Chrissy was pretty drunk too and I figured at least one of us needed to be able to function. Plus we had to get up at like 9 am for our trip and I was kind of scared of getting randomly breathalized again and failing because I would still be drunk from the night before.
All in all, it was a pretty typical night out for one of my best friends 21st birthdays in a strange city with 2 people I knew and about 30 that I didn't. Jenna got cut off (rightly so) after a few hours in the first bar/club we went to, so we tried to go somewhere else. Jenna had given about 3 different people her stuff (including one person who went home early holding her ID) and had taken off her shoes, so needless to say we didn't get in anywhere and called it a night. We did get lucky in convincing the cab driver to give us a flat rate of 25 dollars when a cab to her campus is normally 60.
The next day, an hour behind schedule, we headed down to Nimbin and Byron Bay. Nimbin is by far the strangest place I have ever been in my entire life. It took 2 and a half hours to get there and for about half the drive we weren't even sure we were going in the right direction. The beginning was on a regular Motorway, but the second half took us through countryside, up and down mountains, around twists and turns sometimes so severe I was only going 25 KPH, and past people riding horses instead of driving cars. It was a great way to get ourselves in the Nimbin spirit.
Nimbin is one of those places I could describe for days, and you still wouldn't understand it unless you went there. Here is some of the wikipedia description of it, just so you can get an idea.
Nimbin had the highest unemployment rate in the Lismore Local Government Area in 2006, 18.1 percent[1].
Nimbin was a sleepy dairy town until 1973, when the Aquarius Festival, a large gathering of university students, practitioners of alternative lifestyles, 'hippies' and party people, was held in the town.[4] After the festival many participants and festival goers remained in Nimbin to form communes and other multiple occupancy communities. Since the Aquarius Festival, the region has attracted many writers, artists, musicians, actors, environmentalists and permaculture enthusiasts. The most prominent recreational substance of choice in Nimbin is cannabis. Writer Austin Pick described his initial impressions of the town this way: "It is as if a smoky avenue of Amsterdam has been placed in the middle of the mountains behind frontier-style building facades. ... Nimbin is a strange place indeed."In New South Wales, the cultivation, selling and possession of cannabis is illegal. In Nimbin all three activities are part of every day hippie culture. Nimbin has a high tolerance for cannabis plant (marijuana), with the open buying, selling and consumption of locally grown cannabis on the streets and laneways.
To rally for an end to the prohibition of cannabis in Australia, Nimbin holds its annual MardiGrass festival. On the first weekend with any part of it in May, thousands descend on Nimbin for cannabis oriented fun and frivolity. Activities include: a Prohibition Protest Rally and Parade with the Ganja Faeries, the Nimbin Cannabis Cup, the Hemp Olympix, which includes the Bong "Throw'n'Yell", Joint Rolling, and the Grower's Iron Person event, where runners must first carry a 20kg sack of fertiliser, then a bucket of water, and finally "the crop", as a tribute to the difficulties faced by growers in the hills, and to show that cannabis users can be fit and healthy. At night, entertainment ranges from the Harvest Ball and Picker's Ball, rave doof parties, to poetry and jazz in local cafes.[6]
There are a number of shops in Nimbin geared to the cannabis culture.
Wikipedia might say that cannibis is illegal in New South Wales, but I can tell you for a fact that it is most certainly not illegal in Nimbin. We were asked "you lookin for cookies?" "you guys need some marijuana today?" "you want some cake?" and any other reference to marijuana and pastries with marijuana baked into it that was for sale. Apparently since the police came in and placed cameras on the street to watch the town it has become more difficult to deal openly, but it obviously didn't take long for them to figure out the spots the cameras couldnt see. I really just don't think laws are enforced there because a cop could walk down that one tiny street and arrest probably 45 people in a matter of 5 minutes, so I just refuse to believe those cameras are even recording anything.
We got there, parked, and decided to walk down one side of the street, go in every single store, cross the street, walk down the other side, go in every single store, and call it a day. All of that took a matter of 2 and a half hours. I'm not kidding- every single store, both sides, the whole town: 2.5 hours. We also grabbed lunch in one of the 3 places to eat in "town" and sat outside where we were lucky enough to inhanle insane amounts of marijuana smoke (I hope you can sense the sarcasm in my writing). Just for the record, the food was awful. We assumed a town full of people who do nothing but smoke all the time would come up with some amazing food creations, but it turned out they're probably all just so high that anything tastes good because this food was terrible.
We also stopped into the Nimbin Museum to take a look around. Admission was "$2, if you have it. if not- go in anyways." We walked around for a while looking at a bunch of Aboriginal artifacts (they were really strangely proud of Aboriginal people here. it's the first place in Australia that I have seen anything like that). There was also a dark room painted in tons of dark paints that I am sure more than one person has seriously freaked out in while tripping on Acid or Mushrooms. Luckily, we were doing neither. There were also rooms with tons of law reform signs and pictures of Obama and the Mona Lisa smoking a blunt. I can't wait to add these pictures so you can see for yourself.
We left Nimbin with enough time to make it to Byron Bay where we were spending the night before the sun went down. I think Byron is the place Heather Crowder told me I had to visit before leaving Australia, so I made sure we made it there while we were so close. We got to the hostel, cleaned up for the night, and headed out for dinner. The town was really small (though not nearly as small as Nimbin) so we just wandered around until we found somewhere that looked good for dinner. Almost every place here is BYO, so we grabbed 2 cheap bottles of wine at the local liquor store and popped into a cute little Italian place. The service at dinner was horrible, but the food was delicious and the wine had us all feeling preeeeetty good by the end of the meal. Everyone was pretty tired, especially me since I was stuck driving all day, so we decided to just call it a night and head back to the hostel to hang out. Plus as far as we had heard Byron only has like 2 bars and nothing all that exciting seemed to be going on when we were walking back from dinner.
Of course, we got stuck with the only room in the hostel with a messed up keycard reader, so we were locked out of our room for 2 hours. The idiot at the front desk told us there was nothing he could do but move us to another room for the night. That was unacceptable for a number of reasons. After bitching and not leaving him alone, we FINALLY got him to call someone. He refused to call anyone for about an hour because he said all of his bosses would be "out." It just didnt make sense (he had obviously paid a visit to Nimbin earlier in the day) so after nagging him for a while longer he figured out a way to get us into our room. When we were checking out in the morning I asked to speak to the manager to let her know that the door was broken and that no one else should be staying there, and to let her know what an asshole the night manager was. She thanked us for letting her know because apparently she had been trying to get the guy fired and now had enough evidence to take it to her bosses. She also told us she would give us a little money back for our trouble. $120 dollars to split between the four of us. The room was $30 for the night person. We got a full refund for 2 hours of inconvenience. It was a pretty lovely surpirse.
After that we had a delicious breakfast and went to lay out on the beach for a few hours before heading back to Brisbane to return the car.
We got back to Brisbane, returned the car and got ready for another night out. We went to a club called The Exchange and had a blast. I'm not really big on clubs or really loud crowded places where I don't know anyone, but I had fun anyways. We only stayed for a few hours because we were all so tired.
Sunday we took the CityCat (a ferry that runs like a bus making stops up and down the river) down to SouthBank where there is a manmade beach and lagoon right next to the river that runs through the city. This place was one of the coolest places I have ever seen and I wish I could have spent more time there. It was mothers day, and there was a little outdoor market set up with tons of unique little stands selling everything from homemade soaps to handmade earrings, original clothes from designers, and everything in between. After walking around for a while we went to lay out on the "beach" for a few hours.
That night we decided not to go out because it was going to be my last time to Skype with Gio before he left, and really one of my last times to talk to him until August. We watched Taken (possibly the worst movie to watch as a 21 year old girl who wants to travel the world) then I said my "face-to-face" goodbye to Gio and we all went to bed.
In the morning I had to say my real, final goodbye to Gio which really sucked. Then I called my mom to wish her a happy mothers day (it was still Sunday in the states) and Chrissy and I headed on our treck to the Koala sanctuary, located just ouside of Brisbane. It was the worlds first and largest koala sanctuary and I have never seen so many koalas in my life! It was actually kind of sad seeing them all there after we had seen them in the wild. Apparently they're all happy and well taken care of though.
The reason we went there was because we got to hold koalas and take pictures with them, and there aren't a lot of places here you can do that. Yebbi, Chrissys Koala was really cute and cuddly for her picture. When it was my turn however, he turned into a demon. He refused to let me hold him and clawed me when I tried. The trainer said it was because it was lunch time and he's a little testy sometimes. Apparently he knows that if he acts like an asshole after taking one picture he will get put back and they'll bring another koala out. Finally, I got to hold my tiny little koala named Crumpet. She was adorable and cuddly which was a nice step up from the asshole I had just dealt with.
After we held our koalas and got our pictures we went into the kangeroo farm, where kangeroos run around free and they are so domesticated you can walk right up and pet them. That was also kind of sad. I have heard from a bunch of people how mean both koalas and kangeroos are, so its sad to think about how pathetic these guys lives must be. It was still really cool though.
After walking around there for a little while longer we headed back to Jennas dorm, finished packing and got ready to leave for the airport. We ended up being a little crunched for time... to say the least.
Our flight was at 7:40, so we figured we would leave Jennas by 6 and make it to the airport by 6:40 or 7 at the latest. Well, we missed our first bus and had to wait for the next one at 6:19. We got into the city and ran to the train station, bought our tickets, asked which platform we were supposed to go to, ran to catch the train, and made it on with enough time to still make it to the airport on time...
Except we were directed to the wrong platform and got on the wrong train. And didn't realize it for about 6 stops. When I started getting really nervous we asked someone if the train went to the airport. It didn't. We got off at the next stop and waited for the next train to take us back in the direction we just came from so we could catch the airport train.
Except the next train didn't come until 7:43. If case you don't remember, our flight was at 7:40. Obviously, we missed it. I called our airline and they said there were no more flights that night so we would have to wait until the morning. But we would still have to go to the airport to change and confirm the flight. We caught the train we needed and got off a few stops away to get on the Airport Line.
Except that when we got off there and asked which platform we needed to be on we were told the last Airport Train would was at 7:30. Our only option was to take a $60 cab to the airport (which I couldn't understand because it was supposed to be that much from the middle of the city too). We got on another train to get as close to the airport as possible and got off to catch a cab from there with the hopes that it would save us a little money. Miracle of all miracles, there was a liquor store RIGHT outside of the train station. We called for a cab and popped in there for a bottle (or 2) of wine. Something was going to have to take the edge off.
Luckily the cab was only 22 dollars from there. UNluckily, we had to pay $70 to change our flight to the next day, We paid more for the stupid flight change than we paid for the whole flight. We were also told that there were no hotels or motels that weren't at least a $60 cab ride. (I guess thats the tradeoff- no $68 flights in America, but if you miss your flight there is always a hotel either in or next door to the airport). There were obviously no trains running back to the city, and there was no way in hell I was paying to get anywhere. So what do you think we did? Yes, thats right, we slept in the airport. We actually made quite the night out of it. The airport bar was open for another few minutes so we grabbed 2 beers there and settled in for the night. After our beers we each popped open our wine and things got fun. There was a mini arcade there with a few candy machines Chrissy SWORE she could win off of (mind you, that would be our dinner) and I was really excited to play Sega racing. After spending 15 dollars and not winning a single peice of candy, plus 3 games of Sega racing and both bottles of wine, security told us we had to go back to the main floor until the morning. After a little drunk dial to my mom and then Caitlin, we passed out on the benches with t-shirts as blankets. Chrissy woke me up at about 5 am freaking out that we missed our flight and freezing since we stupidly slept by the doors, so we went back through security and up to our gate to sleep for a little while longer.
Finally, finally, finally, after almost a week of being gone we made it back to Newcastle. Luckily we didn't have any travel plans for the upcoming weekend (the one that just passed now) so we got to relax a little for once.
In case anyone is wondering, dealing with Gio being gone was really hard at first, but I'm fine now. Just taking it day by day. But this blog is about my amazing wild crazy fun in Australia and not a blog about my pathetic emotions like Emo people do, so thats the last you'll hear about it.
The last weekend was spent doing work and going out in Newcastle and just kind of getting to relax for once. We also got to hang out with 2 of our roomates which was really fun! I have a TON of work to do this week, and Jenna is coming to visit Wednesday so I'm going to be pretty busy. Thursday we have a wine tour in the Hunter Valley and Friday were heading to Sydney to show Jenna around. I'm pretty excited about it! I'll add my pictures from last weekend as soon as I can!
