oh my, that IS a big banana

well - the journey has begun. i have made it all the way to byron bay - though only a mere 12 hours (by bus) away, i feel as though i have entered another country. one run by hippies.

but before i get into that, i suppose i should backtrack to the great adventure it has been to date. my last few moments in sydney consisted of saying goodbye to bondi beach, watching a few last-minute aussie shows (bondi rescue, neighbors and palm beach) and then heading off to meet ariana. we had decided to finally get to one of the moonlight cinema shows playing at the local park. this was something that had been going on every night for the past few months and it's any wonder why we didn't get there sooner.

paying the price one would normally fork over to go to a regular movie theatre, we bought tickets that allowed us into a secluded section of the park and laid out blankets on the grass to sit on. okay, we forgot the blankets, so we laid out beach mats instead. nice and bamboo-ey for the bum. at least our tickets came with complementary cardboard "chairs" to limit the chance of back kinks at the at of the night. when we managed to figure out how to set them up, they resembled something of a make-shift toilet seat instead.

we settled into our seating arrangement and dug into our personal supply of wine, chips and dip. wine was, after all, a whoppin $8 a glass if bought there. good thing i'm not much a fan of it to begin with. beside us the VIP seats got complementary drinks for the show along with their own personal beanbag chair. for the rest of us common folk it would cost $7 for such a comfort. i chose to stick with my cardboard toilet.

eventually the giant inflatable screen came up and the sun set. we were ready. as it happened, paranormal activity was playing that night - something of which went nicely with the evening bats screeching in the background. we settled in to be slightly terrified. my last night in sydney couldn't have been better.

after the movie ariana dropped me off at the bus stop. the bus came. i got on it - surprise, surprise. we were off for an 8 hour overnight journey to coffs harbour - a city north of sydney. i put on my seatbelt (first time i've ever had to do that in a greyhound bus), inflated my neck pillow, put in the earplugs and secured my sleeping mask over my eyes. i was set for the night and failed at my attempts to not think of how ridiculous i must have looked to others as i tried to get some sleep. it worked - kind of.

eventually we made it to coffs harbour at which point i hitched a ride with another hostel curtesey bus to get to my hostel. it was 8am and i couldn't check in so i walked around and checked out the beaches. then i checked in and went out to walk some more. i hit up the main town, the botanical gardens and then back for some din-din.

the next day was more of the same only i made it all the way to the "big banana." it was yellow and completely and utterly unnecessarily gigantic. i went there with the sole purpose of getting a picture. i did. and then i had a banana smoothie as i gazed at the big banana and wondered who in the world thought of the brilliant idea to start australia's curse of the "big things" phenomenia. apparently it started as something to attract tourists, but now it is a big joke among tourists and most australians simply grow red with shame that they are still standing. or at least that was my experience with the big banana. check out more of the "big things" at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia's_big_things

that pretty much summed up my journey through coffs harbour, and today i made my way to byron bay. a city defined by its exotic scenery, hippie lifestyle and endless stream of travellers - i fell in love at first sight. that and i was completely happy to be getting off the bus. while waiting for the curtesy van to take me to the hostel, i met a fellow traveller heading to the same place. sarah and i hit it off and spent the day settling into byron bay...... i'll save the details for another day. enjoy the pictures in the meantime!