Days 478-484! We’re closing in on 500 days of travel! I think we’ll just surpass it by the time I head back to the US, but we’ll keep counting the days until I settle down somewhere long term! But let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, I had a really nice week of relaxation, I had a fair amount of time spent with friends, celebrated a new holiday, and finally got my tattoo for Australia! Which checks off a tattoo in every country I’ve visited so far! It was all around, another very good week in Yamba!

Well, I’m all done with farm work! So on Thursday, April 24th I attempted to sleep in and have a relaxing day… but my brain is still used to waking up early, so there wasn’t much sleeping in unfortunately.

But I still could spend the day relaxing! It was a rainy day, so the relaxation was spent indoors. And I took the time to start sorting through my things and slowly start the process of packing to leave Yamba!

I wasn’t 100% sure when I was leaving, I still had intentions of finishing the music I’d been working on first. But I was definitely leaving soon!

I also listed my surfboard and bicycle on Facebook marketplace. Unfortunately, I cannot take them with me!

It was a cloudy afternoon, so I hopped on my bike and rode to the grocery store. It was definitely an easier journey when I had a car… but it wasn’t so bad when the summer sun wasn’t blasting down on me.

After dinner I met up with my friend Paddy to hang out and jam. I showed him a couple of the songs I had been working on and it sounded like he enjoyed them! Which was very nice to hear.

Friday, April 25th brought a VERY early start to my day. I wasn’t working, but today was a holiday in Australia called Anzac Day. This is a holiday, similar to Memorial Day in the US, that commemorates the troops in Australia. Now, it recognizes all military service members, but more specifically it highlights the anniversary of Australian and New Zealand troops landing in Gallipoli during WWI. Apparently, the British troops essentially sent the Australian and New Zealand troops to be slaughtered and this is a public holiday for remembrance of the fallen soldiers.

I was told by multiple people that I should 100% attend the dawn service for Anzac Day. So I rolled out of bed at 5:30am, met up with my friends Paddy and Bella, and walked up the hill to the park overlooking Main Beach, where the service was being held.

There was a good couple hundred people gathered around for the service. It was very interesting seeing how serious people took the day as my feelings for Memorial Day in the US are that most people don’t take it that seriously.

The service consisted of a older gentleman talking about Anzac Day, another soldier talking about his experience in the Australian Army, a bag pipes being played as names of fallen troops were read aloud, and a bugler capped it off.

This actually reminded me of a time where I played the trumpet at a Memorial Day service in high school. I hadn’t thought about that in a long long time!

The rain thankfully held off until the service ended and I went back home to fall back asleep and relax until the Anzac Day “festivities” continued.

One of the popular traditions for Anzac Day is to play a game called Two-Up. In Aussie tradition, this game involves gambling, and is apparently the game soldiers would play to pass the time.

Pubs are allowed to host a two-up game once a year and the Pacific Hotel was hosting one. So I met up with my friend Connor to see what it was all about.

Two-Up is a game where one person has a tiny spatula and 3 coins. The players bet on whether the majority of the coins will be heads or tails. To bet, you shout and shake around the amount you want to bet to signal which side of the coin you’re betting on. Then someone betting the same amount (and opposite side of the coin) will come over to you and, in this case, the tails better holds the all of the money. Whichever side shows more wins both players money.

People were betting anywhere from $5 to hundreds of dollars… I was a bit perplexed by the latter.

Me personally, I was planning on just watching but my friend Connor insisted that I HAD to participate and forced me to play with one of his $5. I had my ups and downs over the hectic next couple of hours, but it was a blast! Everyone was having fun making a ruckus, shouting bets, and loud cheers and groans after the tosses were made.

The $5 Connor gave me, I eventually gave back… and ended up turning it into $100! I had a lot of fun, but I couldn’t help but feel like the playing of this game took away from the seriousness of the holiday at hand. But… as I said, nothing is more Australian than gambling and drinking beers.

Even so, it brought a fun energy to the pub and everyone was much more social. A couple other friends showed up later in the evening and I ended up hanging out with them until 8pm! It was a long afternoon at the pub, but a really enjoyable one spent with friends.

It was torrentially down-pouring again on Saturday, April 26th. But even so, today was a special day! It was finally time to get my Australia tattoo.

I’d been putting this off to when I was done working and have a lull in surfing so I wouldn’t risk infecting the tattoo.

The tattoo parlor was right around the corner from where I’m living and I met up with the tattoo artist Ciana! She specializes in more traditional tattoos, but was more than happy to design a fine line one for me to help add to the scrapbook of travel tattoos.

I wanted a tattoo to commemorate my time in Australia and the thing that probably made me the most happy was all the time I got to spend surfing and in the ocean! Now since I already have a tattoo of waves, I didn’t feel like I needed another one, but Ciana drew a beautiful longboard sitting in the sand. And now, whenever I’m missing the waves, I can just look down and be reminded of all the wipeouts, successful rides, and sunny days in Yamba! And of course, a broken foot too…

Also on Saturday, I figured out my timing with my friend Sam (from Yamba) who now lives in Brisbane. I bought a bus ticket to leave town the following Saturday… so exactly one week away… to go visit him and crash on his couch. I’m very excited to see him and get to experience Brisbane! I’ve been missing traveling!

Now of course, on Sunday April 27th it was a gorgeous sunny day with beautiful surfing conditions. But, because of the new tattoo, I wasn’t going to be going into the ocean!

So instead, I went back to the days of my broken foot, grabbed my camping chair, popped in my headphones, and sat in the park overlooking Main Beach while listening to music.

I was also responding to a lot of messages about the items I had listed on Facebook marketplace as well.

It was a beautiful day and relaxing in the shade was a perfect way to spend the afternoon. Afterwards, I went home for more relaxation and started preparing for my upcoming studio sessions!

I took a bunch of clothes that I accrued while in Australia (mainly for the different work I was doing) and brought them across the street to an Op Shop. I have to be able to fit my life in a backpack again! It’ll be good to be back on the road for a bit before heading back home!

Monday, April 28th was another day of relaxation. So, I decided to do the same activity as the day before.

I had to soak up all the outdoors and sunshine I could before the rain was slotted to come in later in the week. I’m going to miss this view!

Tuesday, April 29th came with a much more exciting day than the past few. I woke up bright and early to get ready for my day and catch the bus to Maclean!

Thankfully, the timetables for the bus were up to date and I caught the bus with ease! This time however, it was $4.20 not $2.12… oh well!

After a quick and painless 20 minute bus ride, I was in Maclean being picked up by producer Jack! It was time for some studio time!

Today we worked on the final 2 songs of the EP! We’re nearing the end of our hard work… but the studio session ended up being a bit stressful. The last song that we had to work on is probably the one I’m the least confident on how I want it to sound. So a lot of the session was spent trying a bunch of ideas and a lot of them not working. However, we started making traction on it and the song is slowly heading in the right direction.

It was a new experience in the studio though! We’ve had a couple minor stressors happen, but this was a full few hours of listening to awkward tracks and music that wasn’t sitting right. But, the stress showed we both really cared about the music we were working on and that we were trying to make it sound as good as we could. So it wasn’t necessarily negative stress, not necessarily positive either though.

By the end of the session, we had something to listen to and think on for the next session in two days!

Jack dropped me off at the bus stop and I caught another bus back to Yamba.

It was a beautiful day out again and my friend Chantelle was putting together a little barbecue at the park by Main Beach. So not long after I got home, I was setting back out to join everyone.

Chantelle’s dad was in town and she wanted to introduce him to all of her friends in Yamba. So it was an eclectic group of people I knew and was meeting for the first time! As you can see, I was swept up into conversation and didn’t even notice the picture was being taken!

Everyone at the barbecue was super friendly and it was fun chatting with everyone while enjoying good food! It’s kind of funny that my first Australian barbecue happened so late in my time in Australia… however, there were no shrimps on the barbie… apparently (and unfortunately) they don’t really do that and it was just an add campaign to get Australia on the map for US citizens.

We started getting viciously attacked by mosquitos, so we said our goodbyes and called it a night! But it was such a nice way to spend the evening.

By Wednesday, April 30th, it had been 4 days since I’d gotten my tattoo and it had been healing nicely. So, I decided to not pass up the beautiful morning and go for a surf!

The surf report was a bit incorrect on its forecast and the ocean was a lot choppier and lumpier than it was supposed to be. But I made it work for a shorter surf session! I caught a few waves and bobbed around waiting for waves a lot longer. But I did have one really nice wave that was probably around 3-4 feet! They were mostly small but some big ones popped up out of nowhere and I successfully caught one!

I’m glad I was able to sneak at least one more surf session in before I sold my surfboard!

And luckily, my friend Izzie had a friend looking for the exact board. So I was able to get it sold later in the day as well.

I spent the rest of the day relaxing and thinking about the songs I wanted to continue working on in the studio the following day. And then I met up with my friend Max for our final night of dinner and pool!

It actually was Max’s birthday today and a few of his other friends joined us as well for dinner at the Mexican! The restaurant always treats us super well when we eat there (they’re regulars at the pub I worked at), so they gave us a couple of free shots of honey tequila. Very nice of them! Also probably the tastiest tequila I’ve ever had.

After dinner, we made our way up the hill to a very quiet Pacific Hotel. We played a handful of games of doubles pool before calling it a night. It was a really fun way to round out the week! Especially with only a few more days in Yamba, it’s nice to be spending it hanging out with friends!

Not only was it Max’s birthday, but it’s also my sister Sophie’s birthday today too! Well… in Australia at least.

I’ve had a wonderful time in Yamba and I have a couple more nights here before I head out! They’ll be filled with music making and hanging out with more friends. But I’ll get into the sappiness in next week’s post. I am looking forward to my next adventure before heading back to the US though!

I’ll see you next week in Brisbane!

– Elie