After our private rooms and aircon hotels in Thailand, Juliet and I were absolutely dreading staying in hostels in Australia with 6 or 8 person dorms. However so far they really haven’t been that bad. After a terrible weather forecast with promises of rain for today, we were pleasantly surprised to wake up to clear blue sky again. We spent the day on the beach in the sun and came back to find we have new room mates. Being in a dorm means that you meet different people the whole time from all over the world, each with different stories. Our Danish roommate from the beginning was in the room when we got back so after catching up with her, the new roommates gradually starting arriving and we got to know each of them. French, Suisse, Danish, Australian, we have them all! Then our English roommate from the night before came back to get her stuff and say goodbyes and since her bus wasn’t actually for a while, the three of us spent the next couple if hours chatting about everything, ski seasons, travelling, jobs, uni – she went to Leeds, the uni that Julie is going to next year so they had a lot to talk about! If I think back to the other hostels we’ve stayed in since being in Australia, so far we haven’t had one bad roommate and the hostel experience has been pretty good.
We just have to be patient when waiting in line to use the showers, and time our breakfasts and dinners so that we don’t go to the kitchen in rush hour… then we have a chance of getting a cooker and even clean plates and cutlery.
Moreover with safety deposit boxes for our passports and lockable lockers in the dorms for our personal items, everything feels safe and people are generally very considerate when coming back into the room late at night or keeping tidy and within their own areas (Juliet and I are still trying to master getting ready for bed in the middle of the night, super silently after nights out.)
Our fears of hostel and dorm life we realise now were very over the top as it’s a very socials, fun way to travel! (Even if there are guys shouting right outside the room at this very moment…)

We really didn’t do much today, just living the chilled lifestyle of chilled Byron. On our way home from the beach we passed a hippy market with the Byron children’s Bollywood club doing a performance and then stopped to get teriyaki sauce to make a delicious stir fry for dinner. After our bonding session with dorm mates and a very long film (The Wolf of Wallstreet) we are now going to sleep as we have an adventure planned for early tomorrow morning… Stay posted.