Christmas on the other side of the world

Christmas without family is simply not Christmas for me. 

I enjoy every year spending time at home with close family, traditional mulled wine with my best friend on Christmas Eve lunchtime, and delicious food in the evening with mom, grandma, and grandpa.

I thought I wouldn't mind not spending Christmas at home, but on that day, I already felt a strong longing for home. 

We spent the days in Byron Bay, the campsite was full, and there were mainly families with children. 

We relaxed a lot during the days with coffee and a good book, champagne, gingerbread, and delicious burgers with kangaroo patties. 

In the evening of December 24th, we went out to celebrate Christmas in the city. First, we went to a "Christmas Carnival" with performances, live music, and many food stalls. However, since it started raining heavily, we couldn't stay there for long and went for a drink and listened to the music of an incredibly talented street musician. 

However, it didn't really feel like Christmas Eve. We had already wondered why so many families with children were spending Christmas Eve there. But we didn't further question it, maybe it's just a tradition here. 

The next morning, on December 25th, people at the campsite were already setting up and decorating the tables, had started the grill, and opened the champagne bottles. 

Well, we thought, maybe they just celebrate the 1st Christmas holiday especially in Australia. Well, in the evening we found ourselves in an embarrassing situation and learned from a very nice family that Christmas Eve is actually on December 25th here.

"They were wondering why we were dressed up and christmasy in the city yesterday" - Oops... learned something again.

On December 26th, we left Byron Bay and drove to Nimbin, a small hippie village in the interior. That is the only place where smoking weed is legal and accordingly, the people and the shops on site. All deeply relaxed, colorful, and mostly without shoes. We spent a day there and yesterday we drove further to Port Macquiere. 

On the way there, we saw the extent of the forest fires for the first time. Whole forests were burned down, black charred stumps or black tree trunks.  

In Port Macquire, we will visit the Koala Hospital today.

Tomorrow we will continue to our last stop, Sydney.