Byron Bay: Land of the Happy Hippie

This morning we left Noosa. We said goodbye to our new friends at Flashpackers and headed south to Byron Bay. We caught a Premier bus down, which took roughly 7 hours. It’s a nice way to see some of the surrounding countryside and some of the towns along the way. Although, travellers be warned, the winding roads are not so charming when sporting a hangover. In retrospect, celebrating our last night in Noosa with Tequila Thursday at KB’s may not have been a great idea.

We arrive in Byron around 5:30pm and are dying for food. We are greeted by a drum circle and dancing hippies. We thought Portland was full of hippies – no, they all reside here in Byron. If you’re not walking around barefoot you’re weird. Byron is adorable. It’s a foodie paradise, coffee abounds, and little surf shops dot every block. Organic is king here, so is hemp. Hemp sandals, hemp soap, hemp milk, hemp walls for construction – you name it.

We make our way two blocks and around the corner to Nomads. It's the closest to the beach, and right in the middle of town. We hear it's a good time. It’s new, but from the stains on the carpet you wouldn’t guess that to be true. This hostel is huge and already crawling with party people. We find out later that drinking actually starts around 1pm here, and doesn’t stop until 4-6 in the morning! We drag our suitcases up to the first floor, which is blocked by a swaying drunk with a staring problem. Past the group of twenties in the hallway to our first 10-bed dorm. Three words: dark, stinky, cramped. Note to self: never check in to a hostel on a Friday night. We figure once we have food, it’ll look a bit better…

SoulBowl potato bowls

The boardwalk has lots of great options, and we pick a cheapie with a very interesting new food concept – potato bowls. I try a Thai Time - similar to a Teriyaki Bowl, but with sweet potato, red curry sauce, bean shoots, baby spinach and chicken. Chris goes for a Spuddy Gonzales with chili bean sauce, red onion, corn, sour cream, avocado and jalapeno. Delicious. We want to open one of these, brilliant.

We cruise the beach, more hippes with a rager of a drum circle and dancing. Big sandy crescent shaped beach, with a cool shipwreck just offshore. There’s a lighthouse which we’re planning to hike to this weekend. We are nearly run over by a girl performing acrobatics on a skateboard, and then we have to dodge a mad flying fox – a hideous cat-sized bat with big ugly wings – ugh!

Back to the frat house, excuse me, hostel. The bathroom is a typical row of stalls, unisex of course, and full of informative posters urging you to get tested. The laundry room has a condom dispenser. The showers urge you to be green and save water by showering with a partner, and even their wifi is “safer than sex.” We are quickly learning the most important thing to have when traveling in Australia is a solid sense of humor.

At least it's well designed.