Remember when you were 16, and you were just learning how to drive?  Do you remember the moment you walked away from the DMV, permit in hand and huge smile on face, and begged your mom to let you at least drive up the street? (I do, I nearly drove my mom and I into a ditch).  Well, imagine learning how to drive all over again.  But on the other side of the road.  In a foreign country.  With a “110” speed limit (so, that’s miles per hour, right?)

After (reluctantly) leaving the Whitsundays, Drew and I boarded a flight back to Brisbane to complete the final week of our journey through Australia.  We arrived at our terminal (we were, again, very early, especially considering that check in took all of five minutes since there were only two gates at the Whitsundays airport) and soon we were back on our way to Brisbane.  Since we were headed to a few different places in Brisbane and the surrounding areas, though, we had decided to rent a car once we arrived.  So when we finally arrived on Friday around 2pm, we went straight to Hertz, filled out our paperwork, and hopped in our tiny car to continue down to Byron Bay.  As soon as we got in the car, we kind of paused and thought, “wow, it is so easy to rent a car here.  They didn’t even ask us if we knew how to drive on the wrong side of the road!”  We pondered this thought for a millisecond, and then Drew started the engine and we were off.  Of course, Drew hit a few cars in the parking lot on the way, but at least he got the hang of it before we got on the highway (Oh wait a minute, that’s what would have happened had I been driving).

When we were originally planning our trip to Australia, trying to decide which cities to visit (because we did only have a limited amount of time) nearly everyone I spoke to told us, “you must go to Byron Bay!”  So naturally, we decided to go to Byron Bay (we had to cut out Frasier Island to make room in our agenda), and throughout our trip whenever we told someone we were headed to Byron Bay, the typical response we received was, “Oh I LOVE Byron Bay!”  Somewhat off the beaten path, the small town is most well-known for being a laid-back “hippie town,” though we were also told that it has become somewhat touristy as of late.

But back to driving.  One of the things that really frustrated us about driving in Australia (especially through the small towns) is that street signs are rare to find.  However, fortunately for us, signs saying, “hostel this way” are not, so once we finally stopped looking for the street signs and started looking for the hostel signs, our accommodations were much easier to find.  We pulled into the parking lot at Nomads Byron Bay, and walked on in.  When I had registered for this hostel initially, there were no private rooms available (except for the very expensive private king suite) so we were all set to stay in a four person dorm (which we weren’t too thrilled about, but whatev; it would do for two nights), however, when we checked in the receptionist told us, “Oh hey, we’ve upgraded you to the king suite for the first night!”  So, like any normal person would say, my response was, “Oh no, you know, I think we’d rather not have to switch rooms after the first night of our stay, thanks though.”  About the same time I was nudged by Drew in the stomach, a different receptionist turned around and said, “Hey, this is a free upgrade, I’m staying in an 8 man right now, I’ll take it!”  and then the other receptionist said, “yeah, this is a $260 a night room!” at which point I gave in to the free upgrade (while also thinking, who on earth would spend $260 to stay in a hostel when you could buy a room at a nice hotel at that price!)  Anyway, our room was pretty sweet.  We had towels laid out, a coffee pot, and even little mini shampoos and soaps (ah, the things we had taken for granted while traveling through Australia on a budget!)

After getting ourselves situated, we took a quick stroll through the city (emphasis on the word “quick,” as the city was only a few blocks long) but we admired the diverse restaurants and laid-back, hippie vibe.  Then, in traditional Andrea and Drew fashion, we walked around looking at the menus at all the different restaurants, trying to decide on a place to eat.  We eventually decided on a place called Asia Joe’s (“healthy” Asian food, as the menu proclaimed) and it was delicious (and budget-friendly, too!  Which is not easy to find in Australia…)  Oh, and it was also BYO, which was even better.  We ended our night at an outdoor lounge called The Beach Hotel (named as such for its location right next to the beach), and we really liked this place as well.  It was definitely one of the most happening places in Byron that evening.

The next day (Saturday, 1/14), we had fully planned on doing absolutely nothing but sunbathe on the beach, but we woke to dark clouds and a breezy mist, which only got worse as the day went on.  So instead we enjoyed a nice, long breakfast at a place called The Byron Orion Curry House (I loved this place; I ordered a huge plate of mushrooms on toast, although the dish was a lot more glamorous then I just made it sound. In fact, I think on the menu it was even titled “fungus on toast;” with a name like that how could I pass it up?)  It was still raining when we were finished with our meal, but we were determined to not let a little rain ruin our one day in Byron Bay, so we did the “lighthouse walk,” a 2.5 or so hour round trip walk to the lighthouse.  The walk took us right along the bay, which was beautiful.  We walked past the most easterly point in Australia, and eventually came to a point where you could apparently see dolphins.  We dolphin-watched for a while, and sure enough, we saw about three of them off in the distance.  We walked a bit further, though, and noticed a small crowd of people excitedly gawking over the side of the ledge, so we peered over to see what they were looking at and saw an amazing thing – a school of about 30 baby dolphins were swimming along the side of the bay.  We watched them for a while, and it was so cool!  Definitely one of the coolest things I’ve seen all trip (but apparently, if you visit Byron Bay in bla, you’ll see tons and tons of whales in place of dolphins, which would also be very cool to see).

By the time we arrived back to our hostel, exhausted and wet, it was time to check into our new room (a slight downgrade from the king suite we stayed in the prior evening).  We had intended on taking a quick nap before going back outside, but the slight drizzle had already turned into a quick downpour, which made it tough to really do anything.  So, instead, we decided to revisit our undergraduate college days and participate in the hostel’s “beer pong tournament.”  The tournament commenced at 4pm, which gave us just enough time to clean up real quick and head downstairs to join the fun.

Of course, we had at least a good 5 or 10 years on everyone else hanging out and participating in the tournament, so like any sociable adult would do, we broke out our books while we patiently waited on the couch for our turn.  We did look up and watch the other teams compete during the intense moments, though.  For example, there was one team of two girls playing, and at one point one of the girls knocked her cup of beer over.  But before anyone had the opportunity to have the bright idea of grabbing a napkin to wipe up the mess, the girl who had knocked the cup over proceeded to use her hand to wipe the spilled beer from the incredibly gross and disgusting table back into her cup and put it back into play.  It was right around that point that Drew and I decided we were just too old to play pong at Nomads, so we went back to our room to finish our books in peace.

For dinner, we had already planned on doing something a bit nicer (I wanted to go to a place called The Balcony, but upon a second glance we decided that the place just looked a bit too overrated and touristy for our liking), so we headed to a small wine bar and café across the street called Mokha.  At Mokha, there was primarily outdoor seating, and there was a lovely slow rock band playing right outside (and as an added bonus, every entrée order came with a complimentary glass of wine!)  We ordered the pumpkin risotto and the fillet sandwich, and after the conclusion of our meal we decided that it was one of the best we had had all trip.  If you ever get out to Byron Bay, I highly recommend this place (and make sure you order the risotto!)

In the morning (Sunday, 1/15) we went to a casual breakfast joint called The Rocks (again, very good) and then we began our four-hour drive to the Sunshine Coast.  Overall, we enjoyed Byron Bay (although I think I liked it a lot more than Drew did).  There are a lot of great boutiques and restaurants, it has a fun vibe and atmosphere, it is beautiful and different, and I thought that, in general, it has something for everyone – a great beach for the kiddos, a fun bar scene for the youngsters, and elegant shopping for the adults.