Byron Bay

We just got back from a weekend at Byron Bay (September 23-25)! Basically it's the Santa Cruz of Australia. This also happened to be my first experience with a hostel and I have to say it was so much fun! We stayed at a funky little place called the Arts Factory. They had free music performances at night and there were hammocks scattered all over to lounge around in. The room I was sharing with a few friends as well as some other random people was called Wagon Wheel.

The inside of the Wagon Wheel room.

The main hangout area for the hostel.

Drum-circle that was performing when we first arrived.

We basically chilled on the beach a lot or wandered around town doing some window shopping during the day, and then at night we would walk out to the town (about a 10 minute walk from the hostel). We went to a bar called the Cheeky Monkey, which was a lot of fun and we hung out with people we met at the hostel.

See the skateboards?

 On Sunday morning I woke up at 5 A.M. to watch the 5:30 sunrise. Byron Bay has the most easterly point of the Australian mainland, and therefore is the first place the sunrises in Australia. There's a famous lighthouse at this point and the hostel had a van that drove us up to it. It was so tranquil and beautiful out there! Definitely worth the early morning. We got back to the hostel around 6:30 and I fell right back asleep. Our timing was perfect because just as I was falling back asleep it started pouring outside. The rain sounded so pretty on the roof of our hostel!

 

Byron Bay was definitely an experience and I can't wait to see what else Australia has in store for me!