Rain and Shine

At my cool, calm, and chill accommodation we had guests from all over. Some from Australia, part of Europe including France, Netherlands, and England. There are couples and mostly families visiting sharing their meals together, taking river swims, and enjoying the many sites around Belligen.

There are many UNESCO heritage sites, the rainforest, Dorrigo, Coff’s harbor, and all kinds of unique birds, wildlife, hikes, waterfalls and a pleathora of things to do.

The weather had been rainy the past couple days and yesterday it was the same where it was raining. I woke up and went for my Flat white at the Big Bear café, did my grocery shopping at the local market spending $35 on about 10 items. It costs money to be in an area this beautiful so the two local grocery stores get everyone’s business. Eggs for $7, Yogurt another $8 and bread $5 a loaf- there are not many affordable options as it is a upscale kind of town.

The other alternative would be to eat out everyday as the food scene is fantastic, but that is definitely not the style for my stomach, but it is quite tempting with their delicious European/ Australian spin of things. I learned that a Flat White started in Australia and then it became popular in Great Britain and Europe.

After my trip grocery shopping, I came back and had my lunch, which was Tuna, avocado, rice crackers, cheese, and organic hummus. The sun started shining and that was my sign to head out to the farmers market, which was every Wednesday from 2:30 to 5:30. It was very small, but very lovely and everyone was super nice. They had fresh honey, peaches, nectarines, apples, baby purple and white eggplant, the large zucchinis (Matt’s mom used to grow these in her garden), fresh halumi/lebanah cheese, green beans, tomatoes, Cacao powders, fresh pesto/garlic spreads, and French pastries. The city seems to have a French influence for sure and you can find a great French pastry around many corners.

After my time here, I went for my 1 hour walk up the hill through a different side of town, which landed me near the cows and the Butter factory, which was an old butter factory from the 1800s turned into art galleries, jewelry shop, dance studio, and a great café for coffee, brunch, or ice cream.

Things were closing up, which that was the town concept that things open early and close by 5pm, which was fine as I had to keep going with my walk. I really enjoyed seeing the cows with their nametags- Alfred, Very, and Utopia. They looked very happy and well taken care of and the clouds were spectacular after the rain. I stopped into the golfcourse “Now and Zen.” I thought maybe there would be some fun golfers in there to sit and chat with as I loved the golf scene. I had worked quite a few golf tournaments during my time in California and I just find golfers to be super calm, chill, and nice people. What can I say I love hanging out with the older crowd of people.

After this I went in town as I was going to treat myself to gelato after this long walk. I stopped in and most of the flavors were gone for the day so I decided I would come back tomorrow plus the nice guy I ran into the other day was not working. She said the owner makes up to 300 varieties of gelato and each day he makes new flavors-it just depends on what he feels like making. I was going to wait until I saw that magic flavor to treat myself another day.

Then I proceeded to stop by “The Federal” to investigate this weekly Trivia starting at 6pm. I did not really want to go by myself as I wanted to socialize with others. An Indian guy who looked like a friend of mine greeted me and told me to definitely come back and he would be there later. You do not see many Indians in Bellegen…practically none so this was exciting for me.

Heading back to the hostel I ran into the receptionist who was on his way out and I told him I was trying to figure out where to go and he said that he was going to have a drink before heading home and invited me to join him. We went to “The Brewery” where they make beer in Bellegen and of course it’s fantastic the “Hazy Honey IPA.” Honestly I do not think anything bad comes out of this city-it is like some kind of Pleasantville for food and drink. They also had a great Ginger beer that many people were drinking. He had been working there also part-time at night bartending so the manager gave us the first round of beer on the house, which was very kind.

We sat for a bit and he was talking about how he is studying to be a mixologist. He spent years being a welder and commented on the tremendous labor that goes into it and getting burnt out so he is switching gears. He moved from the city and now lives in the country, which he loves. He was telling me about the different areas of Australia to visit and

 

He left to head home and I decided to have another beer and that was the ginger beer, which was fantastic. The whole atmosphere there was these bright open air windows, eco-environmentally friendly vibe with a wood fire pizza in the front and an upstairs for live music. I just kept looking around like a tourist because I just loved how Belligen comes up with these unique, special spots and not to mention the manager there was super cute and invited me to come back anytime…. And that was the beginning of something really fun…..