Mardi Gras..... Sydney Style

Patrick, Chris and Tony flew down from San Francisco on the Air New Zealand Pink flight which was marketed towards gay people going down to Sydney for the 30th Anniversary of Mardi Gras! After finding the three of them we headed to our apartment in Sydney and over the next several days we explored, dined, and partied like we were in our 20's! The parade was amazing. 2 hours of non stop top notch floats. It was at night which threw a whole different perspective onto it. After the parade was the Mardi Gras party in which 27,000 tickets were sold! Yes...27,000! The party was held in the Fox Studios in 5 different venues. We moved around between the different venues and after about 4 hours we had seen and heard enough and made our way back to Oxford Street. On Sunday we had dinner at Bondi Beach at Icebergs. One of the nicest restaurants in all of Sydney! Another highlight was doing the bridge climb with Patrick on Friday morning.

After Sydney we headed up to Brisbane for one night. We had dinner at a nice steak house with Loc-Uyen, her sister, Ellen, Caryl, and the four of us. After having a few pints after dinner we headed back to my apartment to get a good rest prior to heading to Byron Bay.

On our way to Byron we made the trek to Nimbin. It is basically a town that the Grateful Dead would have been proud of. The small town is a complete throw back to the hippie days of the 70's. Lets just say that when you are offered 'cookies' you should check to see what all of the ingredients are in them prior to eating! You could be setting yourself up for one psychedelic trip!

The remaining days were spent in Byron Bay. We went to Kings Beach, had great dinners, and made our way to the light house. We stayed at a great apartment complex 5 minutes from the main beach and the center of town.

It was VERY sad dropping off the three of them at the Gold Coast airport on Friday morning. I had a great time with them and wish they could have stayed much longer.

Thanks guys for a GREAT time, an amazing dinner at Icebergs and Patrick thank you for the bridge walk. It was something I will never forget.

Bring on Mari Grass! (That is Nimbin's answer to Sydney's Mardi Gras)