Mardi Grass

Here we are on the bus traveling through the countryside with nothing but fields and the occasional sheep out the windows. people are talking and playing music as we quietly observe the fellow travelers, keep in mind the three of us are squeezed into one bus seat, for an hour and a half that felt more like 3. We then see this couple, a guy about the age of 19 sitting with his younger brother...so we thought and man were we wrong! we watch then and all of a sudden they KISS! we are immediately grossed out like where the hell are we going! to us this looks like two brother making out one significantly younger than the other, needless to say this little show keeps us occupied for the rest of the trip.
We get to Nimbin, and drive down main street, i think my mouth fell open so wide i didn't know if i still had a lower jaw when the pus pulled to a stop at the end of main street, there aren't any words for the explanation of how this town looked except to say plainly that it looked like a fairytale land where every possible color was being worn and painted all over the buildings were designs and quotes and smoke. we get off the bus into fairytale land and are so overwhelmed i think i might have staggered into the street and almost got knocked over by a group of 50 year old gypsies. we man up and begin our adventure through town, pick up the nimbin news and read about the events going on for Mardi Grass, we wondered around the shops that sold everything from bob marely shirts, blankets, bags, bongs and jewelry to, food and books. happened to walk through town hall while there was a presentation on how to make 'special' brownies and when to harvest your 'crop' at peak season. seriously what planet had we arrived on. it was the beginning of the late afternoon and we came out of a store to enter a giant cloud of smoke to peer through and see a giant inflated joint being carried down main street, only later did we realize it was 4:20. we started to get hungry, gee wonder why, and bought some cookies from a lady down a side street, what a mistake! We then, still hungry, wandered back to the town hall to find food out back where we got nachos and planned the rest of our trip and travel back home, we were ready to leave! Only to discover that the first nimbin shuttle had already left and the next one would get us back too late to catch our greyhound back to Brisbane which would result in us missing our flight back to Townsville! we were FREAKING out and those 'cookies' didn't help matters. so we hustled our way to town hall to ask a nimbin resident where the buses were to pick us up, when we reached that destination the bus station was closed! red eyed and freaking out we tried to find someone who could fully open their eyes and weren't slurring their words... ahh a cop! he told us to try the place we had just left, determining we were going to have to stay at this place over night began to really freak out!! not knowing where else to turn we made our way through dancing 'bring a bong' girls and techno beats to the nimbin police station completely frazzled. We decided we would call for a taxi to come and get us, the crossword doing cops weren't of much assistance except to tell us we would be around 150$ poorer after being picked up by the taxi that would take about an hour or so to get here, feeling a little calmer we decided to go to a coffee shop. twiddling our thumbs and listening to the strangest music in the world while sipping on some form a tea, and every ten seconds looking at our watches end up back out front of the police station pacing back and forth watch the locals stumble around.
Finally our taxi lady arrives, as we stress to her we only have two hours to get back in order to catch our grey hound! (little did we know that wasn't going to be any problem) I sat up front while the other two sat in the back. we left that crazy town and never looked back. As the drive began we realized this lady wasn't exactly normal she was taking hairpin turns at 80 miles and hour! nervousness set in and we started to talk to her, asked her where she was from and how nice the area was and about our studying abroad, then to our great mistake asked her how she got to be in the taxi business, literally word for word this was her answer, "I wanted to find people that didn't want to be found", i shot them a look in the back and mutually i think we all thought, we are gonna die here on this windy road in the middle of nowhere australia! it didn't stop there she went on to tell us about how she had to change routes because some girls tried to beat her up in her taxi and she switched over to the night shift so she could try and find them, and that she keeps a bat in her back seat. finally we got back to Byron and I don't think i have ever exited a car faster!
With our freedom and grumbling bellies we set out and found none other than Baskin robins ice cream! it was like a godsend! as we ate it in shock of how our day turned out we actually did almost miss the greyhound back! safely on the bus we three passed out for the ride back and got off the stop at some ungodly hour of night to walk back to the apartment to thank our lucky stars we were alive. I don't think i have ever been so thankful for the end of a trip before as i was that night!
needless to say we made it back safe and sound to Townsville with one hell of a story to tell!