Cairns was fun, especially because the weather was so great. I spent a total of six days in my final city and split up my time between a hostel located a bit farther away (so I could take some down time) and one right on the water in the center of town. My first three days were rather laid back and spent by the pool reading or watching TV. The hostel had a bar on the grounds and so one evening I had dinner there and on a separate night I participated in the pub quiz with an older couple serving as the other members of my team. We had fun but unfortunately didn't win. My two shining moments included being able to correctly identify 10 of 12 cartoon characters and also getting to the front of the bar fast enough in the lightening round to earn my team a free pitcher of beer (which my partners gladly drank). After I learned some interesting facts, such as all polar bears are left-handed and Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a bellybutton, the couple at my table started giving me life advice. Granted they were pretty drunk, but it was still fun to see what they had to say. One of the things they pointed out is that I am a "square" and that I need to loosen up (aka they wanted me to drink more with them).
After I moved across town I was directly located on the esplanade, which is home to many restaurants and "Cairns Souvenirs" stores. It's was much busier than the previous place, though I was still able to relax outside by the lagoon. I went running along the waterfront and also ran a couple of errands to pick up some last minute things for my trip to the barrier reef. After much deliberation I decided that it was something I had to do, in spite of my fear of getting seasick. I went yesterday and it was awesome. I think one of the things that makes it so cool is the fact that it's so perfect that it looks man-made, but it's most certainly not. I clogged my body up with enough anti-nausea drugs to get me through the first half of the trip, but after lunch the waves got really bad and I spent a great deal of that time looking over the side of the boat (well, not really looking because I had my eyes closed) and just tried to breathe deep. I wasn't alone...there were many barf bags filled during the course of the afternoon.
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| Cairns |
We were given the opportunity to snorkel in two locations and not only did I see all the coral and some sea cucumbers (I held one!), but I was also lucky enough to spot some whales, a few sea turtles, and a couple of HUGE clams. I went alongside one of the boat/tour guides and he pointed a bunch of cool things out and also stroked the clam so that we could see it open up; it was really neat.
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| snorklers |
It took me a little while to get in the water (I thought it would be freezing but it was fine; I didn't even need a wetsuit) because of my small fear of fish. I don't know what it is about having them swimming around me but it just makes me feel weird. I got over it eventually and just went in, but the first few moments were...interesting.
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| fish right off the back of the boat |
I finished up my trip and then went back to my room to try and settle my stomach. I made a very light dinner and ended up taking another anti-nausea pill before going to bed just so that I could attempt to sleep without feeling like I was still rocking back and forth. I woke up today and headed out the door to the airport. Cairns International is a nice little airport, but my flight was delayed and I ended up sitting in the terminal for awhile. Once on board, the flight was easy (until we started descending into Melbourne...the flight crew was told to slow down because of the bad weather) and we landed about an hour past our scheduled arrival time. I was welcomed back into my apartment by some mail, including a notice that I have a parcel to pick up at the post office, a book from Amazon sent from some unknown source (I need to figure that one out), some birthday cards (thank you!!) and a bill from UniLodge that I have to sort out. I have a big to-do list for tomorrow and the weekend. I can't believe it but I'll hit the half-way mark tomorrow, meaning that I only have 5 months left in Australia. School starts on Monday and I'm sure I'll be expected to hit the ground running. It's nice not to feel as overwhelmed this time around. I'm definitely more comfortable with the system and won't be the kid running around like a chicken with their head cut off. It's time to switch my brain from vacation to work mode; good thing I gave myself a couple of days to do so because I know it's not going to be easy.
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