5 Days in Cairns

Actually it was more like 3 days in Cairns and 2 days on the Greyhound. Chris and I took a trip to Cairns last week for a little break before finals. Chris may not care about the blog anymore, but I feel like I should write something, so here you go.

Monday:
We got up early for breakfast then went back to our rooms to pack. After that we had to go turn in our Illustration finals at the School of Creative Arts (SoCA for short). Then it was time to begin our adventure. We got our bags and hopped on a bus into town where we had to walk to the Greyhound bus stop (which for some reason is at the ferry terminal).

Eventually the bus came and then we were off on a 5+ hour ride. We watched The Day After Tomorrow for the first half of the ride then stopped in Cardwell for a meal/toilet break. After eating some delicious potato wedges, we got back on the bus for another couple of hours. This time we watch V for Vendetta (too bad it was the 1st of November and not the 5th). After the movie ended we arrived at the Greyhound bus stop in Cairns, which was conveniently located across the street from our hostel. We checked in and climbed all the way up to the top floor to our room which was literally a cube. The window faced the inside of the building which was kinda weird, but it's a hostel, what do you expect?

With our room we were given vouchers for a free meal each night at P.J. O'Brien's Irish Pub, so that is where we went for dinner. We figured it's a free meal, so we might as well. They gave us only four options, and when we got our food it was seriously a single spoonful. We ate our "meals" and left, still kind of hungry. So we stopped at Baskin Robbins for some ice cream. Now that's a real dinner. We sat on the Esplanade and enjoyed our ice cream then went to bed, exhausted from such a long day.

Tuesday:
We spent Tuesday exploring the area. We walked all around downtown, went in some stores, bought some stuff. Chris was on the hunt for a new watch but couldn't find one that wasn't ridiculously expensive. Somewhere in the middle of all this walking around we stopped for lunch. We didn't feel like putting the effort into finding some awesome place to eat so we went to the McDonald's (aka Mackers) right by our hostel. After lunch we walked around a bit more until we were too hot and tired to continue.

We brought our stuff back to the hostel and changed into bathing suits so we could spend the afternoon at the Lagoon, which is a public salt water pool that is way cooler than any other public pool I've seen. We swam for a while then sat in the sun. It was quite nice.

Eventually we went back to the hostel to put on real clothes to go to dinner. We weren't going back to the free meal place, so we walked around for a while looking for a place to eat. We got a table at this Italian restaurant called Michelangelo's. After looking at the menu and realizing there was nothing I would eat (It was a small menu with lots of seafood and tomatoes) we left to find someplace else. Yeah, I know I'm too picky, but don't worry the restaurant we ended up at was way better. We went to a place called Outback Jack's. The menu was similar to the Texas Roadhouse, so obviously it was awesome. There was also a gigantic (fake) crocodile on the wall and really cool paintings of Australian animals. This meal was infinitely better than the one at P.J. O'Brien's. After dinner we took a little walk along the Esplanade before going back to the room.

Wednesday:
This was our big adventure day. I booked us a tour with Northern Experience to go to a bunch of awesome places in the area. The bus picked us up at the hostel before 8am and we were on our way to Lake Babine. On the way it started raining and continued to rain off and on throughout the day. Lucky us. Lake Babine is actually a volcanic crater filled with rain water. When we got there we went inside the cafe and I ordered a cup of tea (which I didn't realize meant that I would get my own little teapot, strainer thing, water, and milk) and as I was about to pour a cup of tea our tour guide told us to come outside. I kind of angrily left my tray at the table and walked out before even taking a sip. We went down to the dock  to see some eels in the water then went on a walk through the rain forest. We saw these huge pine trees that don't look anything like the pine trees I'm used to. Apparently they were around with the dinosaurs. Then the tour guide let us finish the walk ourselves. Along the way it started raining pretty hard and I was already frustrated that I didn't get to drink my tea so Chris and I and this other girl from England walked through pretty fast. When we got back to the cafe place my tea was sitting right where I left it so I finally got to enjoy what I paid for.

After that we got back on the bus and headed for our next stop: the Curtain Fig Tree. This was a pretty quick stop, it was literally just a huge tree and no one really wanted to stand out in the rain. This tree has been growing for over 600 years and was gigantic. While we were there we saw I think four golden orb spiders which is a gigantic spider similar to a black widow.

Then we moved on to our next location, Millaa Millaa Falls. This was a lovely waterfall that has been used in lots of commercials and stuff. We were told we could swim if we want but that the water is full of runoff from the cow fields so be careful not to drink it. No one swam. The water looked pretty sketchy up close too.

We didn't stay there very long and we were back on the bus for a drive through the tablelands, a plateau covered in beautiful green hills and farmlands. It almost seemed more like Ireland than Australia. After stopping for some pictures we continued on to Paronella Park which is the remains of Spanish castles built by Juan Paronella in the early 20th century. This is the main reason I booked this tour and it was beautiful, even in the rain. We had lunch there which was actually quite good, then went on a guided tour. There was so much to see and I took loads of pictures that you can see on facebook. After the tour we got to explore by ourselves for a bit. There is a waterfall and over it is a suspension bridge, so we walked out on that. It was pretty cool to be standing on top of a waterfall.

Eventually it was time to move on to our final stop of the day: Babinda Boulders. It is basically huge boulders with a river flowing through them. There is an Aboriginal story about a girl who died there waiting for her love so now when young men swim there she takes them thinking they are the one she waited for. We walked the path along the river, took some pictures, saw more huge spiders, and ended up at the picnic grounds where we had afternoon tea (my fifth cup of tea for the day). For some reason there was a rooster there. After a while we left for an hour long ride back to Cairns.

By then it was after six and time to eat some food. As we were about to go find a place to eat, Christopher realized that he left his hat at Outback Jack's the night before so we went back to get it. Then we walked around looking for someplace to eat and ended up at Grill'd, a nice burger/sandwich place. I had a delicious chicken/bacon/avocado sandwich. After eating we walked around a bit and found this Night Market place which was a bunch of little like kiosks selling all kinds of stuff, and Chris finally found a watch. There was one row of just a bunch of massage places that we made the mistake of walking down. We were bombarded by Asian people trying to convince us to get massages. After a while we left there to go get some gelato because there were gelato places everywhere. After enjoying some delicious gelato we went back to the room to find wireless internet so I could register for classes.

Thursday:
Thursday was a lot like Tuesday. We walked around and went in shops. We had lunch at a pizza place called Avenue A, then walked a bit more before going to the Lagoon. Again we swam for a bit then sat in the sun. It got kind of chilly at some points. As we were sitting there we started to smell smoke and then we noticed a haze everywhere and bits of ash falling from the sky. There was smoking rolling in off the water. We didn't figure out exactly what was going on but it was weird, the whole area was smoky.

After being there for a few hours we decided it was gelato time and went to get some and it was delicious. We walked around the Esplanade for a while then ended up back at the hostel. When dinner time rolled around we went out searching for another place to eat and ended up at Rattle N' Hum Bar & Grill which was under our hostel. It was a pretty cool place with good food and I drank a Toblerone. Yes, there is a drink that tastes like a Toblerone, it was pretty much a milkshake and it was delicious. We spent one last evening walking around the area.

Friday:
We had to get up early to shower, pack, and check out before 10am. Once we checked out we had to wait around until 1pm for our bus. So we sat under a tree for a while and watched some seagulls. Then we had an early lunch at the Coffee Club. They gave me a mountain of nachos and it was delicious. We still had more than an hour to kill so we changed and went to the Lagoon. Chris swam and I just sat on the edge getting a tan. Finally it was time to go to the bus stop so we changed again and went and waited.

For the first half of the bus ride we watched The A-Team. Then we stopped in Cardwell like before and got some food and drink. For the rest of the drive we watched The Day After Tomorrow. Again. We got back to Townsville a bit later than expected and missed the 7:30 bus back to JCU. So we had to wait until 8:30. While we were sitting there this crazy drunk man came and sat next to us and talked at us. I couldn't really understand much of what he was saying. Eventually some cops with a scary dog came over and took his drink away and told him to leave, which he unwillingly did. Eventually we made it back to JCU safe and sound.

Now we are in finals mode. Chris has already had one exam and we each have one left. I have a paper to write but I am procrastinating by writing this instead. Also, it has been raining every single day since we got back. Kind of a lousy way to end the semester, but at least I don't feel so bad about being stuck inside writing all day.

We will be leaving Australia next Friday and heading for Fiji for a few days. We will be back home on Wednesday the 24th, just in time for Thanksgiving. See you all in two weeks!