Adios 2006 – Woo Hoo!
New Years Eve in Byron Bay, Australia. It was okay, I guess. We had one of those New Years Eve’s where noone bothered counting down the…countdown. We all said “Happy New Year” at approximately 2 minutes after midnight. Where were we? The Great Northern Hotel. Otherwise known as the only place with no cover charge in Byron Bay. The evening began with the “seafood platter” at Bo’s on the main road. I’ll give you a little piece of advice…the world renowned prawns in Oz taste funny. It’s strange how a different ocean can cause a completely different seafood taste. Maybe it’s the salinity. Actually, funny is being nice. Really nice. We closed down the bar (actually not much of an accomplishment to tell you the truth) with only a tiny buzz. Not from lack of trying, I can tell you. But then things got more interesting.
We were hanging out with some Ozzie tourists from various parts of the country. Noone from Byron actually goes out in Byron it turns out. The bar had “pokies” in the back, which are slot machines. Some guy asked me “Have you ever lost money at the pokies?” HeHe. I wasn’t sure how to answer. And here I was thinking I was familiar with every way of losing money in the universe. Show’s what I know.
I had an urgent need to visit the little girl’s room for some reason, so we headed to the beach. First of all, the public toilets in Australia have black lights. Not for club lighting, but to keep junkies from shooting up. It turns out that you can’t see your veins in black lights. Weird.
So we headed down to the beach to ring in the first 2am of 2007. There was the beach, bonfires and the coolest Aussie around – Rosco Pico Trane. Rosco, among other things, gave us the in’s and out’s of the AFL (Australian Football League), including one strategy where you hit your opponent in the….who dad. He also had the good grace to show me the southern cross. He was a gentleman and a scholar…and a football player and a dancer and an astronomer. Mmmm…that’s about it.
Post beach, we wondered back toward the main street to find a native drum circle with loads of dancing hippies. The music was absolutely AMAZING. Unfortunately, the booze wasn’t flowing freely enough due to FREAKISHLY strict laws in place specifically for New Years Eve. The drums really were phenomenal, booze or no booze. You’ve got to love those hippies.
If you’re looking for a New Year’s party, Byron Bay isn’t really the place to be.
– Carrie
Tags: Australia, byron bay, Carrie, New Years, Travel
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