The Planet of the Hippies

After Byron Bay we decided to spent a day or two in Nimbin, the "Hippie Capital of Australia". This village is beautifully located in quite a hilly area. We arrived at sunset, found a great campsite/hostel and were taken away by the beauty of this place. We went for pizza in the only restaurant open at night, and Italian Pizza and Pasta place and got our first insight of some locals of this place. Most of them where happily bouncing around or jumping and hopping like little elfs. Or kangaroos. Or rabbits. Whatever. They were telling us about religion, astral travels and hemp.

We decided to go to the local travel agency the next day and book an astral jouney... :-)

Some guys where hanging out at that place for 30 years already, and are probably going to stay there the end of their life, and maybe until the end of a few of their following lifes, too....

Nimbin was a "normal" place, a village like any other, until in 1972 students decided that this is the ideal spot for the Aquarius festival, to protest against the Vietnam war. Some little, non-profit shops were opened and hippies start to live there. The amazing thing about Nimbin, compared to other "hippie towns or villages" I've been, is that most of them stayed! The village is full of people in their fifties. And the "original" shops are still there as such, too. Plus a lot of places where tourists can by crystals, spiritual books, alternative medicine and hemp products.

I think that everyone in that little village is on something. We were watching locals the next day in the morning, as well as tourists, and had a good laugh. Every 5 meters you can be sure somebody is asking you if you want to buy some weed. The whole village smells of marijuana. You go in a shop and the guy at the counter smokes a joint. Well, I think you get the idea....

In the afternoon we went to a water hole, a few km's our of the village. It was full of water turtels, and I think it was very deep, it was kind of weird to jump off some rocks into pitch black water. Stef decided to climb up a tree and sat there for half an hour. She wanted to jump, but didn't at the end. The tree must have been about 20 meters above the pool... :-) understandable...

We left Nimbin the next day.

Oh, yeah, I forgot: Stef jumped down a rope which was 10 meters hight. She's not a "fear rabbit" (German translation for fraidy-cat?) after all! Well done, Stef!

Btw, she canceled her ticket and is going to stay 3 more months! Yeah! We are on our way to Cairns together! Yesssssssss! Exellent!!!!!!!!!!

ADDRESS AND TELEPHONE NUMBER

whoever wanted to know it, here is my address and telephone number again:

Jeanine HUEBNER TCP#6441AUS
C/-Travellers Contact Point
Level 7, Dymocks Building
428 George STreet
SYDNEY NSW 2000
Australia

Telephone number: 0061 416 728 951
(writing text messages normally works perfectly!!!)

We left Urunga three days ago, late again, but yeah, we like travelling in the dark? Didn't take too long to get to Byron Bay, it took forever though to look for a spot to get some sleep. Everything was booked out, weekend, Easter, Blues festival........ and everyone told us that it's not legal to sleep in the car, and we got a bit paranoid about being woken up in the morning and having to pay the biggest fine ever, but in the end we just went to the beach and even managed to be really stupid and park in a spot which actually said "no parking between 10pm and 8am", and we got woken up by policeman after 3 hours sleep, went to another spot somewhere close to a banana plantation and slept until 10 in the morning!
Checked in a campsite, went to buy a tent in the afternoon ( I have another house now!) and went swimming. The beaches here are so beautiful, and the water is warm (and I got to go there in a minute....).
Next day Stef and our campsite neighbour Karl went skydiving. I was being responsible and decided to wait until I got a job, because I can't just keep on spending money.... but I wanna go as soon as I can! Who comes with me? Doris? Silvie? Isa? Zoe? Emma? Hey guys, you are really all coming to see me here????? That's SO COOL!!!!!!
Byron Bay itself is pretty, though a little disappointing, cause quite commercial, more than we expected, but still nice. We are leaving in the afternoon.

Beautiful day and phosphorescence

We arrived at Em's and Brony's mum's house at 4am. She's a very nice mum and lives in the cutest little home, with a river right in the backyard.
And she has the cutes little toypudels, Brandy (mum), Ralph (dad) and Heidi(daughter).
We slept in and went to the beach after we got up, I had the softest sand under my feet I've ever experienced, and the beach was wide.......... and empty........ and the water so warm...........
We had lunch in the garden, went for a swim in the river, talked, played poys, read books, went for fish and chips, talked, watched home made videos, read books, went for a night swim in the river (there were phosporescent in the water, and it was amazingly beautiful to swim in there, like in a fairy tale), did ear candles (these are candles wich burn down about 8 minutes each, relaxing your whole body with the sound of burning fire, apperently it's good for your inner balance, and it really is quite calming), meditated afterwards and then read books and went to bed again.
What a beautiful day!

notes

-I still love the word capsicum
-Spinach makes you strong
-I got stopped by the police because my car looks dogy and like trouble
-When we travel, we drive an average of 80km per hour
-We are really cruising
-I hate fast food - and Australians love it
-I discovered wedges, they became my favoured food for two weeks, now I hate them
-Sydney is very busy and full of people
-I saw my first Koala
-I can only imagine what possums look like - and that very well... :-)
-I wanna have fun at the beach now
-I wanna learn how to snow board in Australia
-I miss San Francisco!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
-I should get a job soon
-I should get a job soon
-I should get a job soon
...................
-I look forward to my next job!!!!
-We will arrive in Coffs Harbour at 5am again, I suppose

LOVE YOU ALL!
BYE!

Pictures

Next time there'll be more pictures of beautiful landscapes instead of beautiful people....

my decorated car

my decorated car, originally uploaded by JeanineJeanine.

Stef - my favoured model!

Stef - my favoured model!, originally uploaded by JeanineJeanine.

Brony, Em, I and Stef

Brony, Em, I and Stef, originally uploaded by JeanineJeanine.

Travelling girls

Travelling girls, originally uploaded by JeanineJeanine.

FINALLY

.... here are some pictures. It's always so hard to find a place where I can use my own computer to download photos. But there we go.
I am in Sydney again! After exactly 4 weeks. I haven't used the internet forever, and I just notice that I have difficulties typing...
After we arrived in Melbourne Tuesday two weeks ago, we got stuck there....checking out Cafes and bars all day.... Jaleen and Andrew let us live in their room, which was so nice of them, so YEAH! we had a place to stay and didn't have to sleep in the car for days because of this crazy motor sport ado. After the two of them left, we moved into another "real" hotel, Kashy, a friend of Stef's from Perth was staying in Melbourne for two weeks selling phones, so thanks to telstar we again had a cool place to stay.
I applied for two jobs, but didn't really want to get them, because Melbourne turned out to be really wonderful, but just too cold at the moment.
I decided to meet Stef's friends Brony and Em and travel together up the east coast to Byron Bay.
We picked up Brony in Warnabool and went back to Melbourne the next day on the great ocean road. Beautiful. Stayed with Kashy again. (Had spinach for dinner. And still an hour in the morning. - only for insiders...)
We stayed another fun night at Em's and Brony's brother Paul's place, where Em and her boyfriend live at the moment. Had a late start the next day, because partying is just more important than getting up early to travel, and arrived in Sydney at 5am where we were welcome by Stef's friend Lisa, a German girl who lives with her Australian boyfriend in Sydney.
We stayed there for two nights and tonight we are going to go to Coff's Harbour, where Brony's and Em's mother live. Okay, this wasn't very exciting information, but never mind.
Thanks to Steff and her friends I am saving a lot of money for accomodation... I haven't payed any rent in over two weeks...:-)

Brony & I

Brony & I, originally uploaded by JeanineJeanine.

......happily flying.........

on the phones.... gotta get connected!

on the phones.... gotta get connected!, originally uploaded by JeanineJeanine.

12 Apostels, Great Ocean Road, Victoria

12 Apostels, Great Ocean Road, Victoria, originally uploaded by JeanineJeanine.

ACHTUNG! Attention! Turtels!

ACHTUNG! Attention! Turtels!, originally uploaded by JeanineJeanine.

get it?

Jeanine w/ pink cigarette, Jaleen the photographer

Jeanine w/ pink cigarette, Jaleen the photographer, originally uploaded by JeanineJeanine.

This is when I met Jaleen in Melbourne, which was too cool, because we bothe weren't really supposed to be there. We hung out for almost a week, and I was soooooooooooo happy to have one of my American friends here - more to come?
Mat, that was the last cig of the once you gave me - and it's in a picture now.....thank you again!

Dale and I on the beach

Dale and I on the beach, originally uploaded by JeanineJeanine.

BIG UPDATE

Thursday.
I met Stefi! She's a friend from Germany who I haven't seen in over a year 'cause she's been in Australia since last December.
Weekend.
I went camping with Dale to St. Elliot, right at the beach. I had my first BBQ in Australia and learned the word capsicum, which I adore. :-)
Monday.
Said good bye to Adelaide and drove to Melbourne with Stefi. We arrived at night and slept in the City in the car, because we couldn't find a room. Melbourne is a bit crazy at the moment because of the Grand Prix. No rooms.
Tuesday.
We met up with Jaleen and Andrew. She's here on a photo assignment, after spending two months in New Zealand. I'm so happy to've met up with her here!
We are staying in their room - yeah! But tomorrow we got to move out and all be homeless....
I like Melbourne so far and maybe look for a job here after Jaleen's left. Not now yet....
Got to go....