Today I was up at 7am again. I had a pretty aweful sleep by this trip's standards. I woke up at around 2 AM and then kept waking up every hour or so for no reason at all. Anyway, I finally gave in and got up around 7am.
There were no planned activities for the morning. I spent about an hour getting my luggage back together. That's one thing that is a big pain when traveling this way...keeping organized so everthing fits back in the bag. After that I went down to the dining area and had another big breakfast. I then decided to take a walk to the Botanical Gardens at around 9:15am. It turned out to be about a 35 min walk and it was blistering hot, even that early in the day. I didn't understand all the crazy fools out for a run. By the time I got to the gardens, I was a sweaty mess. I walked around for probably 30-40 min. Its a HUGE garden so I really didn't even cover half of it. I saw the fern garden, the oriental garden and the presidential rose garden. It was really beautiful. There were some nice views of the bridge in the distance too. They also had these really funny looking birds called ground gulls I think. They looked like seagulls with extremely long, curved beaks.
At about 10:45am I decided to head back to the hotel. I managed to find my way but was soaked and tired when I got back. I went up to the rooftop pool and had a dunk and then returned to my room for a shower and to gather my luggage. I then met the rest of the tour group in the hotel lobby at around noon. We took a taxi bus to the airport.
We checked in at the airport for a flight to Ballina...this is the closest airport to Byron Bay. I had some lunch in the airport (a sandwhich). I'm actually getting sick of eating out, especially since the affordable food is mostly crap. I love a good french fry, but can only have so many. I tried to get on WiFi at the airport and no go. Got an error message that said I had a bad connection even tho it said the network strength was really strong. I borrowed my friend's laptop and called Koodo using Skype. After going thru a shit-ton of menus I requested user support and it said the office was closed. I GIVE UP. Soooo frustrating, especially now that it seems my phone won't even connect to free WiFi.
Our flight departed at 2:15pm. It was a short flight...only about an hour. The lady next to me snored like a bear, but I found it funny more than anything. We landed in Ballina at around 3:30pm. My WiFi worked at that airport and I was soo relieved. It was then about a half hour bus ride to Byron Bay. We stopped near our hotel at a point high above the beach and took a short walk down to sea level. The views were gorgeous. Long sandy beach with lots of waves. It was VERY windy, and also overcast but still pretty warm. We met back at the bus and then it was a short ride to the hotel.
We stayed at a place called the Apartments Inn. Its not actually a hotel but more self-contained apartments. The rooms were nice. We only had two twin beds but there was a ton of space and the bathroom had a tub and shower. We also had a few kitchen things but not a full kitchen.
My roomate Mary and I decided to take a little walk around town. Its a very small town with one main street and a few small side streets. Its totally a tourist/surfer town. Lots of beach shops and little eateries. Not cheap here. ..$2.50 for a chocolate bar. ..but this has been the trend in Australia so far.
We met some of the group back at the hotel and then went out for dinner at about 6:30pm. We went to a place called Fish Head because most people were looking for seafood. I was not impressed. I paid $33 for the "fish of the day". I basically got a fillet of half-cooked fish on some sauce with a few tomatoes. I didn't even get a side dish. I ate half the fish (the cooked bit) and then called it a day. One guy ordered a beer the waitress recommended and when we got the bill we noticed they were $20/beer. And our table ordered three! The best part is, they were made in Brooklyn!
After dinner we made up for the debacle by going for gelato. I got a snickers gelato and it was devine. I almost forgot about my unplanned sashimi meal.
Mary and I returned to our hotel and petty much went to bed. We ended up chatting for a very long time tho. I learned some very interesting things about my her...like her dating/marriage history. I wouldn't say we have a lot in common in that respect, but she's nice and we get along well as roomates. We're far more alike than most other people on the tour, but thats not saying much. We are a very colourful mixed bag of nuts. I couldn't have put together a more strange group of people if I tried.
That's it for today. Till next time. Pray to the internet Gods for me so I can post these messages. I have three pending now.
T
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