Life-a learning experience: The Age of Aquarius

After our quick tour of Sydney, we made our way to Byron Bay, a beachside town south of Brisbane. The easiest way to get to Byron Bay is via bus and the best bus to take is the overnight one so you can sleep over the 12 hour journey and arrive in time for lunch.

Along all my travels I have yet to stay in a hostel, a point Jon was quick to change when he booked our accommodations for Byron Bay. While I agreed to try a hostel, my sense of adventure and trying something new stopped when Jon asked if I would be comfortable sharing a bathroom with other people.... The answer was a resounding NO, I am well past my dorm style bathroom days.

We checked into Nomads, a well known hostel chain and made our way out to explore the town. We cut our exploration short so we could return to the hostel in time for their social event of the night....beer pong. Jon thought it would be a good way to mingle and I thought it would be apropos for me to play my first game of beer pong on my first night in a hostel.

As we descended the stairs to the social room Jon turned and said, "Are you ready to be the two oldest people here?" Recalling the crowd in the lobby when we checked in, I could say with certainty I was ready to be the oldest. I just hoped these kids were ready for us.

While Jon was partnered with the worst beer pong player in history, I somehow managed to get a near professional. Little sweet Kevin from Vancouver, Canada was a good shot and as it turned out, I could hold my own too. Kevin and I advanced to the final round and we came so close to victory. Unfortunately coming close to victory does not afford you the same bragging rights as claiming victory.

We woke up the next day and boarded the Happy Coach for an excursion to the Northern Rivers area and Nimbin. The Happy Coach advertised their excursion as "the most fun you can have with clothes on".

The first stop of the day was to see a water fall. Our dreadlocked hippie driver Fred led us down the winding path to the fall, embedding historical facts about the area along the way. Fred was certainly building things up; so imagine our surprise when we came to the end of the path and found ourselves in front of the most pathetic looking water fall. So pathetic in fact, Jon and I did not even want to bother taking photos. But then we thought better of it, without any photos as proof....how could we really claim we saw the most pathetic looking water fall in the Northern Rivers area.

With that little detour out of the way and our clothes still on, we made our way to Nimbin and hoped the fun could finally begin. Nimbin is a village of hippies notable for the prominence of its environmental initiatives as well as its cannabis counterculture. The village has one major street lined with frontier-style building facades and it is a strange, strange place.

Numerous vendors were pushing variations of home grown cannabis products hidden behind their legitimate merchandise. As we made our way through the town, we were met with an inquisitive eye and whispered "cookies?" every few meters. It seems we really did enter the Age of Aquarius...and if you wanted to have "the most fun you can have with clothes on" you just needed to buy one of those cookies and chill out with the locals.

The only local we got to chill with though was Eric, a friend of our driver Fred, who had some trouble with the police in Nimbin and opted to hitch a ride back to Byron Bay on the Happy Coach with us at the end of the day.

After two nights in Byron Bay we decided to board a bus and head North to the Gold Coast and Surfer's Paradise Beach.

Nadia shooting her way to the finals of beer pong.