There’s also a nice jetty below the Byron Bay lighthouse you can visit. It’s pretty full on, you wouldn’t want to get too close to the water.
Kinda looks like a giant pavlova.
Reminds me of Scotland, or what I’d remember of Scotland if I’d ever been there.
I’ve been hearing about Lord Nelson beers for ages now. They have a pub hotel in Sydney which I was planning on visiting this weekend. They’re such a micro brewery that I thought you could only get it in Sydney. I found a 6 pack in Byron Bay for $26. That’s by far the most expensive 6 beers I’ve ever bought from a store. You could order 6 full pints of great craft beer at a bar in America for less than that.
It was worth it. Instantly I knew this beer was tops. I didn’t have a proper glass around, but even from the bottle it’s better than 99% of beers I’ve had.
I won’t sully the beer with one of my dumb reviews so I’ll just give it the score:
Lord Nelson Old Admiral 4.9/5
I can’t wait to visit the hotel this Sunday. I’ll be so sad if they’re closed.
I woke up early to do the famous lighthouse walk in Byron Bay and catch the sun rise. It’s weird walking through nature while it’s still dark. I nearly strayed from the trail a few times. The sun didn’t rise this morning; it was too overcast.
The walk was really nice. I didn’t do the loop. I did the scenic beachy bit both ways. If you don’t like climbing 1,000 steps you can drive right up to the lighthouse. You will have to climb some steps if you want to make it to the most eastern point of Australia though.
There is a pod of dolphins that hang out below the lighthouse. They were out this morning, but my camera isn’t good enough to get a decent picture of them. You’ve seen dolphins before anyways.
Here’s a link to a nice map for the Byron Bay lighthouse walk
This spectacular rock formation features prominently in the mythology of the local Koori people. One story tells of a man called Wao and Nguthungulli “father of the whole world”, who lives in a cave in a big rock which stands in the sea “six miles out from Byron Bay”. Wao followed two emus, who were the spirit of his deceased brother Jarring. He followed them from Woodenbong to the coast at Byron Bay. At the coast, Wao was taken by Nguthungulli to a cave and given a song, which he took back to his people.
Another story tells of two lovers from different clans who ran into the sea to escape their parents wrath. The lovers were drowned and transformed into the rocks.
And here’s the Julian Rocks
On the sign there’s a cross on the biggest rock, but I couldn’t find another reference to it anywhere else. It’s a mystery!
(Source: oldpeoplefacebook)
[video]
There’s a few things you need to know when talking to an Australian: They frequently abbreviate words, add “ie”, “y”, or “o” to the end, and have idioms just as colorful as the southern phrases you’d hear at a truck stop. They also have words that don’t seem to have a logical foundation.
So Brisbane is called Brissy. Breakfast is Brekky. Present is Pressy. Biker is Bikie, Trucker is Truckie, etc.
It sounds less silly to me than it used to.
Bottle-o or bottle shop is a liquor store. Servo is a service station, meaning petrol station. Autogas is liquefied petroleum gas, or LPG which many cars run on. It’s basically a mixture of propane and butane. The Bonnet is the hood of the car and the Boot is the trunk of course.
Avocado is Avo which confused me when someone would say Arvo. Because the “r” is barely uttered, I had trouble at first. What does Arvo mean? It means Afternoon of course. I still haven’t figured out a good reason for that yet.
Fair Dinkum could mean “Are you telling the truth?” or “That’s the truth” as well as giving something a fair go or just Dinkum meaning work or exertion. The origins of this one are fairly nebulous, possibly of Chinese origin from Din Gum meaning real gold, or good gold. That feels a bit like an urban myth though as I haven’t found any credible sources to back it up. Namely, Google Translate spits out “Ground Warm Shareholders”, “Diener and ancient”, and “Tarantino aunt” for various translations of “Din Gum”.
One thing that doesn’t make sense is that Aussies shorten most words whenever they get the chance, but sometimes they’ll make them longer by adding an “o” or “ie” to the end of the word. For instance we know that French Fries are called Chips, but they can also be called Chippies. Why add the syllable? Chips is just fine.
The Army Surplus store is called the Disposal Store. A Cot refers to a baby’s crib. Concession Price would be referring to a Senior Citizen Discount.
Most of the words make sense if you think it through, but I’ve learned it’s best to err on the side of caution just in case a word means something completely weird.
(Source: instagr.am)
During the holidays we went to Outback Spectacular; Australia’s favorite dinner show. It’s like Medieval Times, but instead of knights fighting you get trick horse contests and a whole bunch of safe, non-offensive Australian history. There’s singing, dancing, storytelling, horse tricks and The Man From Snowy River.
You get a hat when you walk in. If it has a yellow band then you’re part of Bunya Station and you have to cheer for your team to win the contests, the red band means you’re from somewhere else. I didn’t care because the reds sucked. Bunya Station forever!
No pictures allowed because it might spook the horses.
The food served was steak and vegetables. Dessert was pavlova of course.
The show was pretty neat, but there was a song with audible smooching I could have done without. The special theme of this show was Phar Lap; a horse that won a bunch of races during the depression and gave Australians hope. Some gangsters tried to assassinate Phar Lap in Australia, but they failed. Except, Phar Lap did die under mysterious circumstances while racing in America. Some say he was poisoned with arsenic by gangsters afraid of the Aussie horse winning all the races and ruining their racket.
I’d recommend Outback Spectacular just for the start of the show which integrates video for a ridiculously epic scene. Here’s a video which shows what to expect at Outback Spectacular.
Last year I finally took the plunge and bought jeans that were made from raw selvege denim. Imogene + Willie is based in my hometown of Nashville; they make all their clothes in the shop and use the best all-American denim you can find. Since I live in Nashville it was easy to get them tailored right in the store. They’ll repair them at no cost too, so the Bartons seemed like a great way to keep me from buying my usual dodgy Levi’s every 3 months.
The jeans are perfectly broken in and fading nicely. I’ve worn them nearly every day I’ve been here. That is, until December when I noticed a hole from riding a bicycle too much.
It would be ridiculous and time consuming to send them back to America to get fixed. I was fearful of sending them to a regular tailor because I didn’t know if raw denim needed any special care. I found Up There in Melbourne who seemed to know what was up. They mended my jeans for me out of the goodness of their hearts.
I plan on visiting the store next week when I’m in Melbourne. I hope I don’t spend too much money.
