A lighthouse, healing gems, and ganja

Last weekend we went to mythical Byron Bay. Lots of stories entwine around this place, praising its alternative lifestyle and laid-back attitude. However, apart from a higher-than-average density of yoga studios, Tibetan massage parlours, vegan restaurants, and shops selling transcendental bullshit of some sort, it is just a normal beach resort. Hence, we did what mass media regards as "cool", and spent most of the first day playing beach volleyball.


Next day we were up for some seriously alternative stuff and drove to Nimbin, which is just a good hour's drive in the hinterland. Now, Nimbin used to be a deserted village, but in the 1970s a bunch of hippies held a festival there, and they haven't left ever since. Sounded promising. However, it all turned out to be the most shameless tourist trap I have seen so far. The streets were crowded with grey turned hippies, whose brains had obviously taken considerable damage from all the acid. And everywhere you could hear their chant: "Marihuana, chocolate, coooookies!" Not surprisingly, the famous Nimbin Museum was just a run down house with loads of rubbish pasted to the walls.


Next weekend I wanna do something more mainstream.
___

Lamington

Saturday. National park. Again. Short hike. Nothing special really. Although, they had a rainforest canopy walk, which deserves 3 out of 10 points on my personal fun scale. And we saw wild kangaroos. However, they were not as tame as in the zoo, and hopped off when you got closer than 10 metres.



Driving there was probably the best thing. It was a really rural area, and the roads got narrower and narrower. It became particularly narrow when two local rednecks overtook us in their dodgy bushtruck with an insane speed. Maybe they wanted to get the freshly shot koala home as soon as possible...
___

Bart vs. Australia

Finally someone posted the legendary Simpsons episode on YouTube. And it's true what Lisa says. In the southern hemisphere the water drains clockwise! Stupid Lisa science queen!!! And yes, better don't stick your hand down a kangaroo's pouch. Mmmmmh... pouch mucus!



You can find parts II + III here and here.
___

Briz

Now that I have been in Brisbane for four weeks I got the urge to write something about the city itself. However, after half an hour of thinking I realised that there is not much to tell. In fact, Brisbane is just a characterless conglomeration of buildings - tall and shiny in the centre, two-storeyed and wooden in the suburbs. And a few palm trees, admittedly.

But see for yourself...

___

Go out and play!

I went to Noosa National Park last Sunday with my flatmates and a couple of exchange students from France and Italy. It's a relatively small park located on a peninsula to the North of Brisbane. We took a short hike through the forest, and then dipped our feet into the cold waters of the Pacific Ocean. Animals spotted: 2 frogs, 1 spider, 57 bush turkeys, 2 dolphins, 2 turtles, 1 koala, loads of birds, and no snakes.


Sorry, no pictures of cute animals today, as I was told that my blog was seriuosly threatening my manly image. So, the only pictures of animals in the future will be me wrestling a croc or having a grilled wallaby for supper. Besides, the koala was so far up the tree that my lousy zoom only caught a blurry, grey blotch.
___