Byron Bay

 I had SUCH an amazing day today down in Byron Bay.  I'm sunburned, tired as all hell and happy, but I'm so glad I did it.

I caught the 7am (QLD time) bus down to arrive by 11:30am (NSW time) and the 9pm bus back to arrive by 11:30pm (QLD time).  I found out I could fit a lot into about 8 hours!

I only had one small issue on the way down there where a chick on the bus said to me 'not my problem' over a disagreement and I scowled at her and directly said, 'There's no need to be rude!'  Inside though I wanted to call her a bitch, but I'm not that mean :P
So I tried not to let that one incident get to me and decided I was going to enjoy Byron, and because she was on the bus with me, she wasn't from Byron, therefore she didn't matter :P  Love how my logic works.

I did a lot of exploring in that town.  I'm amazed at how much it has, and how it has it's own culture.  I found myself absolutely loving it, and people were so friendly!  I had totally forgotten that Schoolies was on down there as well, but the schoolkids (kids?) I passed said 'g'day' to me as I walked past.  So nice of them.

Of course, I took a lot of photos.  I apologise haha.

Two of the hot backpackers playing outside during our meal-stop



Me at Clarkes Beach, Byron Bay!

Up at the bottom of the lookout.  I actually had to find a cafe with a powerpoint to charge my phone battery cos my portable ones wouldn't work :( Luckily I managed to cos I was hungry anyway, cos I wanted photos from on top of the lookout (below)





On top of the lookout.  The water is actually like an almost emerald-green and fades to a blue further out a bit.  It was pretty awesome.





I walked right from the far right side in the distance :P








Looking back toward the lookout I was just on.




Red Bull tent set up for Schoolies

At one point in the day, I wrote down a list of what I learned about Byron Bay.

• Guys are hot!
• Guys either have dreadlocks or surfer-hair
• Same goes for the chicks
• You either surf, skate, tan, get drunk or get high
• Buskers are everywhere
• People aren't afraid to say hello to strangers
• There's no McDonalds, Hungry Jacks or KFC, but there is a Subway
• People drive cars from the 80's and early 90's
• You can smell weed quite often 
• All fashion trends go out the window
• Having a jam sesh with bongos and trumpets on the beach whilst eating pizza is normal (those of you on my facebook can see that video)
• Dad's can multitask - a kid under one arm, and a carton of beer under the other.
• Backpackers are everywhere, noting the same things I am :P

I spent a lot of time at this awesome place called "The Junction" which just had a great vibe, authentic Byron Bay Coffee (which we sell at work!) and food and a really cute waiter!  i would have been there for a few hours haha.  

9pm finally rolled around and I got on my bus, only to realise it was full of 17 and 18 year olds all heading up to Surfers Paradise for a night bender at our Schoolies up here.  They were hilarious and very friendly.  They even cleaned up their rubbish for the driver when they got off the bus, and sang all the way to Surfers, and it was so eerily quiet when I was the only person continuing on to Brisbane.  I video'd some of their singing haha, not that you can see anything, and I don't expect anyone to sit through all of this.  It was this for about 2 hours straight.

Storm #3 and #4 (pics)

Got through work today.  The 5-hour shift dragged.  I went over to my friend's place after work, as planned. I got out of work a little bit late because customers  decided to ask me stuff literally about 5 minutes  before the end of my shift was due.  So typical lol  - so I did that and got out about 10 minutes late. Got there and saw their new apartment.  It's on a high level of the tallest building in Brisbane, and apparently there are another 30 or so levels above them haha.  I got some happy snaps :P It turns out I picked a good day to turn up.  The view was spectacular and I was in awe.  I'm only used to views like that when I go on holidays, and let's face it, how often is that nowadays? :)  Today, we had two more storms.  I was up there in time to get pics of the 4th one rolling it's way around.  So unreal. So much respect for Mother Nature at the very moment I was up there. We could see it in the distance, over Ipswich area, maybe Logan. Few drops starting. Now the storm was circling its way around and over our heads.  I found it amazing the cloud formation that was made, considering there was still a patch a blue sky amid it all. The storm working it's way around. I thought for a while it might be forming a map of Australia :P I And down it pours!  One side of the city being saturated, yet the airport sky-blue haha And it finally hit my friend's building.  The white bits are the small hail-stones, that were bouncing off off the windows and the ledges. The storm cleared up after maybe an hour or so, and then we were treated to a spectacular lightning show over the city.  No matter how many times I snapped my phone camera, I couldn't predict the lightning - it was too quick!  But I'm so glad I got to see that. We watched the earlier James Bond movie on their Apple TV, which I didn't mind and Scott cooked an awesome pork dinner for us all.  I met their housemate too, who was nice :)  I'd never met him before, but gave him a hug anyway haha. I kept looking out the windows over the skyline and at the lightning which was now in the distance (to the left of the photos you can see here).  The storm was gradually making it's way north. I was blown away, really.  And if I was outside I may have been also :)  Pretty cool show Mother Nature!  What an opportunity! And now time for some photos that aren't mine :)  The same storm. Now this was down just south of the border before it made it's way up here.  I woulda freaked out if I saw this water spout! Haha, I've only ever seen one once before and it was tiny. And this is the latest pic I've seen of it, up toward the Sunshine Coast.