Alright, so, I slacked a bit on the blog so I'm gonna go back in time a few days and let ya know what we've been up to. Since I have a lot to write about and a terrible memory, I'm basically going to write down what I have in my journal- sorry guys, this may get kinda long, but I'll do my best to edit out the unnecessary parts :)
We hit up the rainforest 2 days ago, which was really different and pretty to see. We took the Skyrail up to Kurunda and it stopped at two spots along the way- one was a boardwalk through the jungle, and one looked out at an enormous waterfall. The hanging gondolas made me a little nervous, they would go past poles and rumble around; it was just unsettling, but a neat thing to do/see nonetheless. And check out the cheesy photoshopped picture they take LOL! Kurunda itself was a boring place- a normal tourist town. I did buy mango wine that I got to taste test and it was delicious- a bottle for Mom and Terry and a bottle for Wes. We had 4 hours to kill there, but by the 2nd we were ready to get outta there! Luckily, we were able to trade our 3:30 tickets for 2:00 and take off. The train may have been my favorite part of the day :) It was a beautiful ride with a little bit of interesting history about the building of the tracks and such. It was a relaxing and scenic 2 hour ride that dropped us off right behind the shopping centre in Cairns. Once we got back, we picked up break and cinnamon sugar from he grocery- its frustrating to go in and see all the cheap meals we could make if we just had enough time in one place to refrigerate and keep food. We had a quiet night in after that and packed up for our plane to Melbourne....
A couple of odd things about the Cairns airport- they never checked our IDs, you're allowed to check liquids, and you don't even have to take off your shoes when you go through security. I was randomly selected to be checked for explosives, which was funny, but a pretty simple process. She just wiped a bunch of my stuff and my shoes and pants with this wand and then stuck it in a machine. Lucky for me, she didn't find my TNT.... haha, what a weird little place. Another weird thing: when the seat belt light went off on the plane, everybody got up and moved around and got their bags and shuffled about. In the states, that light doesn't mean anything. Where are you gonna go? You're on an airplane? It was so unexpected for half the passengers to start moving about all the sudden lol.
Once we got to the airport in Melbourne we had to pay 20 dollars for a shuttle to our hostel- it was good and bad. We got to see a lot of the city cause we were on the shuttle forever, but we also had to pay 20 dollars and listen to the drivers sob story about how stressful his job is... what an awkward moment that was! I felt bad for him, but honestly, what do you say? A cool thing about Melbourne is that the trams go straight down the middle of the lanes of the road- cars can drive behind them and stuff! I couldn't get over how crazy that was. The YHA here is cool- its small yet spacey at the same time, hard to explain. Plus, we get a 4 person room again! We made Ramen as soon as we got to the hostel and met this guy that's really nice but awkward/creepy and he has this scary looking rash that he itches constantly....sooo that's quite uncomfortable. The bar downstairs has 5 dollar gourmet pizza and 12 dollar beer jugs, so we got dressed cute and went down there- what a cool, swanky place! I got Espanol pizza- goat cheese, roasted red peppers, and chorizo- delish! It was not what I expected from a bar under a backpackers, but it was a nice surprise :) It ended up being trivia night, which was fun even though we never won a round. Also, creepy itchy guy showed up and lingered around a few times before sitting with us. He's ok for awhile, and he knew some trivia answers, but the scratching just gets to me! What if its contagious or something?! Anywho, we went to bed early, as always and I slept great!
Today, we woke up and made toast and then showered up for the day. We booked Sydney Central for the next 3 days and we have a bus ride at 7:15 tomorrow morning- eek! We walked around the city- went to Federation Square and China Town and just saw the sights. We came back and grabbed fries and another gourmet pizza (an Athenian one this time, yummm, complete with lamb and tsaziki sauce) and then went back out on the town. We found a City Circle Free Tram that, surprise, makes a circle around the city! Haha, it was a cool way to find out more about the city and we even got off and tried to go to the Queen Victoria Markets- oddly enough, they were closing down even though it was 3 in the afternoon...riiiight. So we went into a petshop instead! There was this adorable pitbull, which by the way, are not called pitbulls here and don't have the same bad rep- they're called Staffys! I wanted to hold it but the lady said no... she explained why but I couldn't really figure out what she was saying so I just said ok lol. We got back on the bus, barely, it was packed, and then 4 stops down the line the driver just popped out of his little box and was like "Peace out, see ya later, be back in 6 minutes, better start walking" Haha, ok, not those exact words, but that was the basic gist of things. So we got off and walked the rest of the way, which was kinda long but I was all hyped up on coffee so it went quickly. Have I told you coffee here is all fancy shmancy? No filtered coffee here, its all espresso and named all sorts of weird stuff- like, an espresso with cream and sugar is called a flat white. So thats what I get. Cause I don't understand the other stuff, lol, I'm a stupid American. So yea, we came back, and I did some laundry, and now I'm here, updating all of you lovely people :) Speaking of, I need to go check my laundry! Hope you all are doing wonderfully, I miss you, and I'm hoping everything goes well the next few days and we get ourselves and all of our things back into the states soon!!!!
We hit up the rainforest 2 days ago, which was really different and pretty to see. We took the Skyrail up to Kurunda and it stopped at two spots along the way- one was a boardwalk through the jungle, and one looked out at an enormous waterfall. The hanging gondolas made me a little nervous, they would go past poles and rumble around; it was just unsettling, but a neat thing to do/see nonetheless. And check out the cheesy photoshopped picture they take LOL! Kurunda itself was a boring place- a normal tourist town. I did buy mango wine that I got to taste test and it was delicious- a bottle for Mom and Terry and a bottle for Wes. We had 4 hours to kill there, but by the 2nd we were ready to get outta there! Luckily, we were able to trade our 3:30 tickets for 2:00 and take off. The train may have been my favorite part of the day :) It was a beautiful ride with a little bit of interesting history about the building of the tracks and such. It was a relaxing and scenic 2 hour ride that dropped us off right behind the shopping centre in Cairns. Once we got back, we picked up break and cinnamon sugar from he grocery- its frustrating to go in and see all the cheap meals we could make if we just had enough time in one place to refrigerate and keep food. We had a quiet night in after that and packed up for our plane to Melbourne....
A couple of odd things about the Cairns airport- they never checked our IDs, you're allowed to check liquids, and you don't even have to take off your shoes when you go through security. I was randomly selected to be checked for explosives, which was funny, but a pretty simple process. She just wiped a bunch of my stuff and my shoes and pants with this wand and then stuck it in a machine. Lucky for me, she didn't find my TNT.... haha, what a weird little place. Another weird thing: when the seat belt light went off on the plane, everybody got up and moved around and got their bags and shuffled about. In the states, that light doesn't mean anything. Where are you gonna go? You're on an airplane? It was so unexpected for half the passengers to start moving about all the sudden lol.
Once we got to the airport in Melbourne we had to pay 20 dollars for a shuttle to our hostel- it was good and bad. We got to see a lot of the city cause we were on the shuttle forever, but we also had to pay 20 dollars and listen to the drivers sob story about how stressful his job is... what an awkward moment that was! I felt bad for him, but honestly, what do you say? A cool thing about Melbourne is that the trams go straight down the middle of the lanes of the road- cars can drive behind them and stuff! I couldn't get over how crazy that was. The YHA here is cool- its small yet spacey at the same time, hard to explain. Plus, we get a 4 person room again! We made Ramen as soon as we got to the hostel and met this guy that's really nice but awkward/creepy and he has this scary looking rash that he itches constantly....sooo that's quite uncomfortable. The bar downstairs has 5 dollar gourmet pizza and 12 dollar beer jugs, so we got dressed cute and went down there- what a cool, swanky place! I got Espanol pizza- goat cheese, roasted red peppers, and chorizo- delish! It was not what I expected from a bar under a backpackers, but it was a nice surprise :) It ended up being trivia night, which was fun even though we never won a round. Also, creepy itchy guy showed up and lingered around a few times before sitting with us. He's ok for awhile, and he knew some trivia answers, but the scratching just gets to me! What if its contagious or something?! Anywho, we went to bed early, as always and I slept great!
Today, we woke up and made toast and then showered up for the day. We booked Sydney Central for the next 3 days and we have a bus ride at 7:15 tomorrow morning- eek! We walked around the city- went to Federation Square and China Town and just saw the sights. We came back and grabbed fries and another gourmet pizza (an Athenian one this time, yummm, complete with lamb and tsaziki sauce) and then went back out on the town. We found a City Circle Free Tram that, surprise, makes a circle around the city! Haha, it was a cool way to find out more about the city and we even got off and tried to go to the Queen Victoria Markets- oddly enough, they were closing down even though it was 3 in the afternoon...riiiight. So we went into a petshop instead! There was this adorable pitbull, which by the way, are not called pitbulls here and don't have the same bad rep- they're called Staffys! I wanted to hold it but the lady said no... she explained why but I couldn't really figure out what she was saying so I just said ok lol. We got back on the bus, barely, it was packed, and then 4 stops down the line the driver just popped out of his little box and was like "Peace out, see ya later, be back in 6 minutes, better start walking" Haha, ok, not those exact words, but that was the basic gist of things. So we got off and walked the rest of the way, which was kinda long but I was all hyped up on coffee so it went quickly. Have I told you coffee here is all fancy shmancy? No filtered coffee here, its all espresso and named all sorts of weird stuff- like, an espresso with cream and sugar is called a flat white. So thats what I get. Cause I don't understand the other stuff, lol, I'm a stupid American. So yea, we came back, and I did some laundry, and now I'm here, updating all of you lovely people :) Speaking of, I need to go check my laundry! Hope you all are doing wonderfully, I miss you, and I'm hoping everything goes well the next few days and we get ourselves and all of our things back into the states soon!!!!
Wow. That's something I never thought of. The differences in coffee. Do they have coffee shops?
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you hide your TNT well.
Miss you.
It sounds like a great few days. =)
Those pizzas sound absolutely delicious! As well as the coffee...yummm food! Sounds like you're having a great end to the trip! Miss you muchos.
ReplyDeleteThey have a ton of coffee shops- but not what you're thinking of lol. Although there was one kinda like Fuzzy Duck in Glebe- it was a bookstore in the front and an outdoor coffee shop out back, it was cute!
ReplyDeleteThey were Emily! Seriously, so awesome, I'm bl