Living Out My Dream in the Magical Sunshine Coast!: First Days in Cairns!

Dan, Amy, and I arrived in Cairns (pronounced like Caaahns by Australians haha) around 5 or 6am. Hostels don't open that early so we went to Mackers for awhile. Then we checked a few hostels and they were all booked. At that point Dan decided to head to Port Douglas because he'd only been planning on staying in Cairns for a night anyway and he'd already been there before. Amy and I headed to a hostel called Global Palace and were told that they had one night available for us but were booked for the next night. We decided to take it anyway so we paid and filled out our forms and then were told that we couldn't get into our room until 1pm. We were EXHAUSTED so we were pretty bummed about that because we'd been planning on taking a super long nap. So we napped on the couches in the lobby instead until a guy came and blew an air horn in our ears thinking he was funny. So then we headed to the lagoon, which was just a huge pool with grassy area all around it, and napped under a tree. I was disappointed to find out that there wasn't even a beach in Cairns- I had been expecting a big beautiful beach like everywhere else I'd been in Australia. After we napped for a few hours we looked around for a cheap restaurant. We found a place (I think it was called the Pier Bar but I might be wrong) that was selling pizzas for $5 (just on the weekend). I bought a veggie pizza and Amy and I shared some pita bread with yummy dips. Then we went and checked into our rooms at the hostel. We showered and then took amazing naps before we headed out to walk around Cairns. We went to a hostel called Koala and checked in for the next night. Then we went back to our hostel and met our roommates- Cindi from Taiwan, Thomas from Sweden, and Victor from Ireland. Cindi had already eaten dinner and had to wake up early the next day, but the guys, Amy and I decided to go to a place called PJ O'Briens for dinner. The hostel gave us vouchers for $5 dinners there (and we found out later that the food was yummy) so it was a good deal. After that we went on a pub crawl, which was really fun! Then, Amy, Victor and I went to Mackers (are you noticing a trend here?) and bought happy meals!

So some kids caught a crab and then put him back on the sand but they put him on his back so he couldn't flip back over and then they left him. I was soooo mad and wanted to go save him but it probably would have been impossible for me to get back up that wall! So this is me walking along the wall trying to figure out a way to save him. :(

Chicken schnitzel!

Me, Thomas, Victor and Amy

YAY Happy Meals!

And an even bigger YAY for the toys that come in them!!!

The next day we had to be out of our hostel by 10am so we woke up and took our stuff to Koala where we went back to sleep until 12:30. When we woke up we chatted with our roommate, Sam from Holland, who would soon become our good friend. We all decided to go back to the pizza place since it was still the weekend so the $5 pizza deal was still on. Then we stopped by the travel agency, where our travel agent Laura was (she was originally at the surf camp we went to but got transferred to Cairns, which worked out perfectly for us). Amy and I asked her if we were able to spend a night in Port Douglas after the rainforest trip, and she booked it for us (it was $25 extra, which is the same price as a hostel in Cairns, so it really didn't cost us any extra). Then we walked around and checked out the shops and I bought an awesome Tshirt. Then we changed into our bathing suits and went to the lagoon for awhile. Then Amy and I went to the grocery store to buy food for our next trip because Laura had told us the food where we were staying was expensive. Then we went with Sam to a little bar where they had live music, which was fun. Then we went and got our computers (well, Amy and Sam got their iPads) and went and sat on the steps of a building that had free wifi. I Skyped my mom and dad and then Amy, Sam and I took Photo Booth pictures. Then we went back to the hostel and Sam taught us Dutch, which was pretty hilarious. I even took a video but it's too long to put up here!

This was at the Koala- so pretty!

If you look closely in these two pictures you'll see black things in the trees- those were HUGE bats!!! They were so loud and flew around in the evening and it was crazy!