Cairns

Cairns was an extremely quick stop on my Australian tour. As I have grown up I would like to think I have become quite accustomed to what I like and dislike. Hot weather, partying and sun sea and sand is a little out of my comfort zone. It requires me to completely relax, and I am not so sure I like that. I enjoy to do, go see sights, places, see people wandering being busy, drinking coffee. I like accessibility, places like Cairns are not about accessibility. 

Despite that, I had such an enjoyable time. Unknown to me, I went to the biggest party hostel in the whole of Cairns, Gillingans. Right smack bang in the middle of China Town in Cairns (the Chinese are everywhere!). The people here were extremely friendly and this was definitely your typical backpacker hostel. The people I met were great, within the first 3 hours I had already made my 'Cairns friends' shall I say. 1 Singaporean, 1 German born Vietnamese, 1 Korean and 1 French. We spent the evening in the bar and did little else. 

The following morning we went for an over-priced breakfast. Cairns is not the cheapest of places, both with their food and their activities. In Cairns there is very little else to do than go and join tour groups, to The Great Barrier Reef or the Rainforest and many many other activities. But they are all over $99 AUD.

Bing-su, what a lonely bing-su. Having spent the evening and the day with people, I needed some alone time, and to catch up with friends and family at home. Cairns has free public wi-fi, that is the best part about this little town!

Australia love to decorate their trees, and I love the decorated trees, it always reminds me of Asian dramas making everything appear so magical and romantic. (ew, sap)

This path and trees is located right by the lagoon. It is such a pleasant place during the evening, it is not overcrowded and yet it is still busy enough to not feel alone. People gather to swim, to sit and barbecue and just enjoy the mildly warm evening.

On my final full day I went to the Great Barrier Reef, and holy smokes was it magical. Spending the day on a tour is something that causes me anxiety, the feeling of restriction and trapped in one location. I cannot make any of my own decisions like where to eat, what to eat, what time to eat (a lot of it is based on food haha), it makes me feel a little funny. However, I managed to meet two people within the 30mins who put my mind at ease. 1 young German and 1 French. 

After the hour journey out to sea, far far away from land (water causes anxiety too - which is probably why you're wondering why I went to the big ol' ocean as a lone traveller and additionally spent $200 AUD on the trip), but when you are in a location you cannot NOT do these types of things. I spent the day snorkelling and eating with my new companions, looking at all the small and big fishies, the star fish and of course the Great Barrier Reef.

During the last few hours, we spent the last of our time together trying to have a bbQ, it ended up not happening and we ended up at the Night Market with rubbish asian food. Always asian food, I was most definitely SICK to the stomach of asian food by the end of my Australian travels.

Cairns was a blast, I met some really cool people, had little sleep (due to the club being RIGHT BENEATH my hostel) saw one the World's Greatest Heritage Sites and actually got to experience a warm climate in Australia.

And so the 4am wake up call begins the next morning for my 6am flight to Melbourne!