The girls managed to get themselves up on time the next morning, despite their rather late and blurry night. They checked out, made sure they had food for the coach journey and got themselves to the bus station. Seeing as Anya had been to Brisbane before she knew exactly where they should be waiting. And waiting. And waiting.
"Are you sure it's here" Sarah asked as there was only a few minutes to go until the bus was due to depart and there was no sign of it.
"Err yeh pretty sure. Don't think there is another bus garage" she said. Sarah went off to double check while Anya flicked through a trashy mag that had been left on the chair beside her. She wasn't really one to buy those sorts of magazines but actually liked seeing what sort of trashy celeb news was going on if there was an available magazine to look at! But just as she got stuck in to a story about how Jennifer really felt about Angelina stealing her husband, Sarah came running round the corner
"We're in the completely wrong place. QUICK!"
With backpacks, extra bags, and snacks they ran out the bus station and down the road to a small bus that was thankfully still there. As soon as they got on, they fell asleep. When they woke up they were in Byron Bay.
Byron Bay was hot. Sticky hot. Luckily they only had to wait 15 minutes until the hostel bus picked them up. All they wanted was to check in, freshen up and get to the beach/swimming pool. Anya had been to Bryon earlier in her trip and loved it there. This time they were staying somewhere different - The Arts Factory. It was known as a bit of a 'hippy' place. As they walked in to reception Anya immediately loved it. She was a hippy at heart. But checking in wasn't quite as easy as that. There was a problem. Sarah had booked a cube. But there wasn't a cube available and the staff weren't being too accommodating to the problem. After much 'discussing' with various staff and a bitch of a manager that wound Sarah up so much she wanted to cry (but didn't) they were shown to their hut. Now the whole hostel was based in a forest. The dorms were teepees (with lots of bed bugs Anya imagined), there were cubes, which were a bit more modern ('modern' meaning they had a mirror) and then there were huts. Sarah and Anya's hut overlooked the swamp that lay around the hostel. As the pair opened the door, the heat inside was rather overwhelming. And they knew it would be hotter at night. But it was just for 2 nights, and then they would be swapping to a cube... Now the check in had taken so long there wasn't much beach time left so they just popped out to get some dinner. Noodle Box. This was a good find. Noodles in a box. You can't get better than that.
The following day Laura and Ryan arrived. They had had a great few days in Sydney, exploring what there was to be explored, but were glad to be leaving the city. A few days is really enough of that place. Sarah and Anya went off to town to get some lunch (and despite this story being based around their meal times, they had actually missed breakfast on this day) and Laura said they would meet them once they were checked in. Soon enough they met up in town. Anya lead them to a nice sandwich shop which she boasted so nice 'because you can actually ask for what sandwich you want'. The group fell about laughing and didn't let that one pass, taking the mick for at least 5 mintues before wandering over to get their own sarnie (by the by, what Anya had meant was you can get whatever ingredients you want in the sandwich and they make it all up for you, rather than buying a ready made one...). They all wandered to the beach except Sarah, who was on a mission to find some sandals she had seen in Sydney. As Laura opened her sandwich, Ryan kept peering over at it. He was clearly jealous of her fat bursting chicken, salad, beetroot, and avacado sandwich and somewhat dissapointed with his tasty but quite plain beef and mustard compilation.
"Didn't think that one through did you Ryby" Laura teased. And with that, Ryan buried Laura's legs and renamed her 'Stumpy.'
That evening they had a some food and listened to some live jazz at the hostel bar, and an evening of further jokes and laughing. As Anya and Sarah got to bed they couldn't help but chuckle at the rather disturbing sounds that were coming from the swamp below them. The imagined Mr crocodile from the zoo was making a few of the 'plopping' sounds. They woke up at 4am, still a bit tiddly from just a few hours ago when they had got to bed, and went to wait for the van which was booked to take them up to the lighthouse so they could watch the sunrise. At 4am it was still pitch black. Once they were up there, it was still dark. As it got a bit lighter they realised that it was actually completely overcast and so they wouldn't really get to see any sun rising. They wandered around, took some pictures of the most easterly point of Australia and a couple comedy moments of Ryan (there's always possible pictures of comedy moments with Ryan) they were back in the van ready to be driven to the hostel again. As they waited, Anya listened in on the girl in the front who was asking the van driver a question. The 2nd most absurd question...
"Does the sun usually rise, because it kind of just got lighter this morning?"
Now Anya realised that she'd said some blond things in her time but seriously?? She wondered if the others had heard as well as they were at the back of the bus. Sarah had and they all had a titter about it later on.
For the rest of the day, Laura and Ryan rented out some bikes and cycled the whole of Byron Bay. Anya and Sarah did something just as equally active - sunbathing. For some reason Anya had got showered and dressed in to her favourite red poker dot dress. So when they got to the beach, she was jealous of Sarah who went to splash about in the sea. It was hot. So hot that she decided she wasn't too bothered about the people around her that she didn't even know, and just like a 5 yr old, she quite carelessly stripped off to her undies and joined Sarah for a splash about. Sarah was quite amused by this but glad she'd done it. As they left the beach the biggest coincidence of the week happened... Sarah has a brother called James. Now James had booked to go to Thailand in April to meet up with his 3 friends who were currently travelling the world. Sarah was obviously aware of this but didn't know where they were. But found out at this moment as they walked off the beach and bumped straight in to them! They had a chat and arranged to maybe meet up in the evening. Anya couldn't quite believe that one of them looked IDENTICAL to her first boyfriend, Sam. AND he was called Sam. Spooky. And sure enough Anya and Sarah went for a boogey at Cheeky Monkey's later that night.
The following day, they had booked a trip to Nimbin. A hippy town, where hippies lived and made a living out of hippy things. The bus turned up, and who should be on the same trip as them but James's friends. The 2 hour bus journey was tough for those who had been out the night before. Really tough. The bus driver talked about some of the history of the area and dropped them off in to Nimbin and to look out for the old lady who sold 'cakes.'
"She's just like your nan".
Anya wasn't convinced by this comment. She doubted that she'd catch either of her nan's walking up and down Nimbin highstreet selling 'cakes' to the public. And when they spotted the lady in question, it confirmed that she was actually nothing like either of them. Good.
There wasn't really much to do in Nimbin. They wandered about the museum, Anya bought a little badge to go on her favourite 'I Love Nerds' t-shirt, Laura bought a gorgeous colourful skirt which the strap would later break on, and then they just waited around for the bus to pick them up again. But not before having a chat to the non nan-like lady... They were then taken off to the middle of a forest where the driver cooked a rather good bbq. Then off to a small waterfall where a couple of crazy people (including Ryan) jumped off in to the water, and then they went 'home'. On the way home, Anya spoke to the boys about where they were heading after Australia. They were off to New Zealand. Up to this point in her trip Anya had actually crossed off NZ from her list. It had already gotten expensive, and so she had decided to stay in Australia and work and save for her holiday in Las Vegas, where she was meeting a couple of friends in a few months. But after talking to them about New Zealand she realised just how dissapointed she was in missing out the country from her trip. So she decided to do something about it and changed her plans. Anya had learned to also realise that everything happened for a reason, and the reason for bumping in to James' friends quite coincidently, was so that she would change her travel path to New Zealand.
That evening was a rather quiet one really. They just had some tea and cake. And spent the evening laughing. ALOT...
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