Byron Bay

 potential future home

I LOVED Byron Bay. And by loved I mean that I was house shopping within the first few hours that I was there because I think it would be an amazing place to live someday. The beach was not humongous, but not too small and has a really nice vibe. There was a lot of open space, but also some cool rocks to explore and it was great for running on (nice and flat). The town itself is pretty small and has a funky, hippy feel to it. Lots of cool people and cool shops in the main area, sprinkled with a couple of parks and a nice path for walking and running. We got free food one afternoon in one of the parks near our hostel. It was a BBQ sponsored by a church youth group. We were there during schoolies, which is when all the newly graduated high school seniors go out and party (because the drinking age is 18) and the church group had a tent set up on the beach for schoolies to come if they needed sober space and snacks. There were a couple of interesting performances and then the members of the church group walked around and mingled with all of the freeloaders that showed up for the food. We talked to a really nice girl from Delaware for a few minutes and then gracefully moved on. Sonya and I had a lot of fun looking in the shops; there was tons of funky jewelry and funny clothes.

            We stayed in Byron for 2 nights and one full day. Sonya and I spent part of that day lounging on the beach. It was perfect beach weather: warm but not too hot and the water felt nice, but Sonya wouldn’t go in because of the jellyfish. Can’t really blame her though, those suckers were everywhere. While we were getting our tan on, we saw a few other girls who had lived with us at Campus East, so we hung out with them for a while. We cruised around on our own in the afternoon, Sonya took a nap and I went for a run, and then met up with those girls again later that night. One of them had a friend from home living in Byron Bay so we all ended up at his house (after getting only slightly lost). The friend was doing a different study abroad program that was specific to Environmental Studies majors. He was living in a house of about 10 Americans who were all in the same program. Instead of being tied to one university they had been traveling with a group around the country and doing environmental things. It sounded pretty cool. They seemed pretty excited to have all of us there hanging out too, because they had been stuck with each other for several months and were very interested in talking to some different people.

            Being the grannies that we are, Sonya and had a fairly early night and got up early the next day to catch the greyhound bus to head back to the Gold Coast. Byron is definitely somewhere that I will visit again when I get the chance (and the money!).