Almost famous in Australia

From Australia: Sydney to Byron

The residents of Byron Bay worked together to successfully keep away the skyscrapers and fast food chains that clutter most coastal towns. Inturn, Byron remains a picturesque paradise with great cafes, shops, beaches and surf.

Parker and I decided to make Byron home for a few days to soak up the sun and play in the water. First, we purchased proper snorkel gear that is also suitable for our future dives. Then we were upgraded to shorter surf boards by default - they were out of long boards. The waves won, again, but we were able to get up a couple of times.

In a local pub, we met our two new friends Damian and Jan. Turns out we were staying at the same place. The pair are frequent visitors of Byron. They were on a three day break traveling with their 'Kostly Kombi', the coolest camper van we have seen. The next couple of days, we met each other in the communal kitchen and swapped travel stories.

Damian and Jan live three hours from Byron and they gave us an open invitation to stay with them. We enjoyed a relaxing couple of days in the cute coastal town of Mooloolaba. We especially enjoyed their favorite hole in the wall Thai restaurant that they have nicknamed Dodgy Thai. It's your typical hole in the wall, not so posh but great food and cheap.

Damian is a journalist and the weekend editor for the Sunshine Coast Daily. We were surprised when he told us that he wrote about us in his weekly column. We were quite flattered. He certainly made us sound way cooler than we actually are. At least some of it was true!

We got on well with our new friends who take a relaxed and fun attitude towards life. We were excited to find out that we were all going to be in Amsterdam the same time next year. Also, I think we have convinced them to put Austin Texas on their travel list.

Link to Damian's Column:

http://www.sunshinecoastdaily.com.au/story/2010/05/16/only-the-depth-varies-opinion/