East Coast

Monday 2 Jan
I moved into a hostel in Sydney so that I can sample the night life in the city. I went to an irish bar recommended in the guide book but it was not so great, to get to it I had to walk along Oxford Street which is the main gay area in Sydney and that was an experience, there a lot of men (sounds like heaven but they are all gay), there are not too many women and there are a few male/female couples who walk along obviously holding hands which makes them look like tourists. After the irish bar I am walking back along the street and this time with the courage gained from Guiness, I decide to check out one of the noisy bars that is bursting with music and people. It was really good fun, one guy bought me drinks just because I was a visitor to his city, the people were so friendly I had a better time there than in the irish bar.

Tues / Wed /Thur 5 Jan
Sore head and early check out are not a good combination. The French people are on the same bus as me, I just knew they would be. I didn't book accomodation in Byron Bay (silly me) and I didn't book the next part of the bus trip to Noosa so I end up staying in a place called Lennox Head, just outside Byron Bay for two nights. This is surfing country, people get up at 8am because the surf is better then. There is not much to do here except surfing, it is a really laid back relaxed place, it had a hippy reputation but now it is a bit more commercial than hippy. Last night I went to a bar and saw Nathan Kaye playing, he was good, also someone told me that the place to be at new year is the Woodridge country music festival as there are 500,000 people there for nye. I'm told that the old guy at the bar is a surfing legend who was in a video called Morning of the Earth which was filmed in Lennox Head and apparently is a cult thing in the surfing community.