Cairns, the city that lives an endless Summer. Cairns isn't a giant city, but a perfect backpacker's paradise. Wtih tons of hostels, clubs and weather that can't be beat it's not wonder so many of the people i met there ended up staying longer. I was there for a grand total of 5 days, but nothing all that exciting happened until about day 3 so we'll start there.
Day three took me to Kuranda to ride over a rainforest in a skyrail and see a lovely village fille dwith marketplaces and crafts galore. I honestly probably sould have bought more souvenirs there given the number of options I had, but i'm tryin to hold out until the end to get that stuff, so unfortunately I didnt pay too much attention. Kuranda was actually quite beautiful in terms of the forest as I watched it from above, but even more stunning was the ride back. I took the scenic train ride from Kuranda all the way back into Cairns. And while that hadn't been my original plan, missing my bus ended up being a blessing in disguise given the magnificent views from the train windows. Waterfalls, rainforests and a stunning backdrop of beach and city. It was amazing. Definitely got me back in the swing of things after a few days of laziness and just walking about the city.
Day four was by far my favorite day of my week in Cairns. I went for a snorkeling trip on the Great Barrier Reef and ahhh it just couldn't have been better. I had gone for the cheapest option I could find and ended up on a boat filled with people that were all about twice my age--with the exception of course, of the crew. At first I was a bit annoyed that I wouldn't have anyone else to hang out and laugh with for the day, but God immediately took care of that one. Not long after stepping onto the boat a lovely German couplel sat down beside me. Somehow we got onto the topic of how I spoke German and for the remainder to the day we chatted auf Deutsch about where we'd been, where we were going, fears of snorkeling in the open ocean, their children, where I had studied abroad--they were from Munich and had actually heard of Dorfen! success! --the Middle East, and how valuable travel was. Unfortunately about halfway through the trip, one of the women on the boat got quite sick due to the waves and i got a bit of a shower. Luckily it wasn't too much or I don't know that I would've made it without throwing up either.
Anyways, by the tie we got there I had befriended one of the crew members who happened to be Italian and once in the water he was great about pointing out all the best spots to check out the reef. Having been so freaked out to go snorkeling in the open ocean I let a few people head out before me so that I could follow them in. I figured if they were fine I would be too. haha I guess used them as my personal guinea pigs for my own sanity. Once in the water however---oh my gosh. It was INCREDIBLE. The coral was brilliant with color and the number of fish...it was insane. I even got to see a turtle and some reef sharks! I grabbed a pic of the turtle but wasn't able to get any of the sharks unforunately=( We stayed out for an hour or so and I probably couldd've stayed longer except that I was definitely ready for lunch. So we finally boarded the boat, had some lunch and then got the chance to head to Green Island for the afternoon.
Green Island is a beautiful island off of Cairns that happens to be have a small zoo on it. Excpet this is no normal zoo. It houses the worlds largest croc in captivity, Cassius, who is 5.5 meters long. Oh, and all of the crocs in the exhibit, including Cassius aren't jsut random Crocs. Oh no, these are Crocs with a history. All of them have at some time or another been killers. There was an entire wall of papers about crocs that had killed people, or been caught, opened up and foudn to have arms and legs inside of them. GROSS. But also creepily fascinating. After enjoying that for a bit we all made it back to the boat to sail back to Cairns.
As we sailed home I got the chacne to chat with the skipper and the 3 crew members (Italian, Kiwi and Aussie) about how they got on the boat and ended up doing what they were. All of them had at one point just fallen in love with scuba (the Aussie guy had gone for the 1st time just the year before) and then proceeded to travel around the world in pursuit of the best dive and sailing spots. They love what they do and get to take people out for long trip to get them certified, learn to sail and dive some of the most beautiful spots in the world. Amazing. Honestly, if I hadn't booked my flight already, I would've seriously considered staying and trying to get a sailing license. I love the water so much. Being there makes it so easy to see why people stay.
Anyways, my final day I headed up to Cape Tribulation and into the Daintree Rainforest. It was honestly a stunning, albeit bumpy drive up. We got to spend a while hanging out on the bech at Cape Trib and eventually headed home. We also hit Port Douglas for a bit, which was eh okay. Overall the best part of the trip was getting to chat with the others. I met a lovely Parisian and was able to grab dinner with her, an Argentinian and thies great German girl who had also been on the tour. Dinner was delicious and we ended up following it up by a hilarious night of chatting with some Aussie Navy guys at a nearby bar before heading back to our hostels to get ready for the next day. Oh, did I mention it was ladies night? success. I have officially hit 3 ladies nights in a row--cheap drinks all day baby.
ACCENT UPDATE: Unfortunately, I still have not been hanging out with too many Aussies so my accent is still crap. On the bright side ich habe eine wette verloren mit eine Freund in meiner Hostel. Also, ich hatte fuer den Ganzen Woche nur auf Deutsch gesprochen wenn ich mit ihn waren. Also, mein Deutsch ist jezt ein bisschen besser als es war eben eine Woche vor. (I lost a bet with a friend in my hostel. So, I had to speak German whenever I was with him for the entire week. So, my German is now a llot better thn it was even a week ago! yay!)
