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Published: October 6th 2008
BRISBANE
City Skyline View from South BankHOME SWEET HOME!! After 11 days and nights of crazy Australian fun, I am MORE than glad to be back home! I had an absolute blast (and have a nice sunburnt body to prove it!) but am truly glad to be back home with my own bed, a clean kitchen, and my own bathroom with a hot shower! I definitely lived the life of a backpacker: sleeping with multiple foreigners in one tiny room, cold showers (or not showering for 3 days at a time... ew!), and eating/drinking the cheapest things possible! Needless to say, I am broke and will not be traveling for a long time, but am glad that I got out of Sydney for a bit. I met SO many people from ALL over the world and made some awesome friends along the way. Here's a recap of my crazy 11 day spring break:
Day 1: Got into Brisbane in the late afternoon (or arvo, as the Australians say) and my friend Geoff and I headed straight for a Mexican restaurant because I had been craving Mexican food and a margarita. Mission accomplished; was already having a blast in Brisbane and I had only been there for
BRISBANE
South Bank Beach (man-made beach in the middle of the city) about two hours. Later we went to one of his friend's apartments, Daniel from Mexico, and he was throwing a party for Mexican Independence Day. I met a couple girls from Norway, some Aussies, some South Americans, and some Mexicans. We then went to a pub that was throwing a big bash for Mexican/Chilean/Brazilian independence and it was one huge party with cheap Coronas and plenty of good Spanish music. Tons of fun.
Day 2: Geoff, his Canadian roommate Brendan, and I walked around the city all day long (we had great weather the entire trip, luckily). Got to see a ton of the city, South Bank (which is basically a man-made beach in the middle of the city), the shopping area, and the botanical gardens. Later that night we went to the RE (the local pub) and Geoff and I went our own ways to meet some new people. He met a creepy American guy and a Fijian, and I met a group of Aussie guys. We ended up hanging out all night long til bar close and walking home with them, only to realize that we followed them and missed out street and had no idea where
Travel Buddies
Geoff and I in Brissy we were. One of the guys gave us a 20 to get a cab home, SO nice of him. I've had multiple Aussies offer to do that, and no one would EVER do that back in Iowa City, we're too cheap and stingy - so that was much appreciated 😊
Day 3: Geoff and I laid out by his pool the entire day and grilled out some Aussie sausages (did I mention that I miss brats and hot dogs??). Later we went into the city and walked around for awhile and walked around the river (Brisbane isn't on the ocean) and ended up getting a pretty good steak and chips for 18 bucks. We then ran into an Aussie couple, Ken and Chrissy, while walking into a bar, and they had been at the party the first night I arrived in Brissy. So we ended up partying with them for the next, like, 7 hours, which included a stop at their apartment so we could wear some of their clothes since we were just in street clothes. We later met up with Danial fm Mexico and Sarah fm Norway... it was such a fun night!!
Day 4: My
A Night at the RE
This was after they (Aussies) kicked our butts at Flippy Cup. Very disappointing... last night in Brissy, so we just laid by the pool again all day and relaxed. We were going to go to Surfers Paradise in the Gold Coast, but woke up too late and didn't want to sit on the train for an hour and a half. Then we went and stuffed ourselves with more Mexican food (I think the waitresses at Montezuma's knew us by name). We later went back to the RE where I made some more awesome Aussie friends and we taught them how to play Flippy Cup, but somehow (unfortunately) the Aussies beat the Americans! The RE is basically a pub that's all outside and has a big stage, so it's a great place to go when the nights are warm. It was a BLAST and the guys I became friends with were so much fun.
Day 5: Got into Cairns on Monday (early evening) and got to our hostel which was right in town. The guy at the front desk, Angelo, was crazy insane but SO friendly and so much fun, I would definitely stay there again just for him. We shared a room with two Welsh girls who were the most unfriendly people
Palm Cove
45 min bus ride north of Cairns ever, but luckily we weren't in our rooms much. Welsh is the craziest language I have ever heard!! That night we got good dinner at the Woolshed (basically the best pub in Cairns) for only 7 dollars. Then we met up with two of my friends from school, Mike and Ben, who were staying at the hostel, Gilligans, right across the street from us. Gilligans is a super nice hostel with a GIGANTIC bar attached to is, most of which is outside and surrounded by this big pool and waterfall. We all hung out together, and with their English roommate Catherine, then ended up doing a little pub crawl around Cairns. We ended up at the Woolshed which turns CRAZY after 10pm and people use the picnic-style tables as a dance floor. That night my friend Ben made me enter a dance contest and I was the first one eliminated (I got booed off)... so needless to say, I won't ever be dancing in public again 😊 We also met a guy from Sweeden, Marcus, and a guy from some Scandinavian islands, Kristian, who we ended up hanging out with for the entire 4 days.
Day 6: Took a
Day On The Reef
Great Barrier Reef!! 45 minute bus ride north up to Palm Cove, which reminded me a little bit like the Bahamas. Pretty buildings, small town, nice calm beach, etc. It was really nice and relaxing and we just hung out on the beach and in the water all day. It was really pretty and a nice break from the craziness of Cairns.
Day 7: Spent the day at the Esplanade, which is this huge, pretty man-made beach in Cairns since the beaches along the city are gross. Everyone goes there to hang out, so we stopped at Wooly's (Aussie grocery store Woolworths) for some food and laid out at the Esplanade all day. We later went to a really nice Mexican restaurant with Kristian, Marcus, and their Sweedish friend Jonas. It was SO much fun, they are all SO funny and outgoing. And Europeans, especially them, will ask you ANYTHING, so our dinner conversation consisted of talks about politics, religion, and life on other planets, haha. Later met up with some American guys I met that were in the Air Force that were stationed in Guam and in Cairns for a little vacation, all of who were very cool!
Day 8:
Magnetic Island
Maggie Island, just 25 minutes off the coast of Townsville. GREAT BARRIER REEF! If you read the post before this, you know how my morning started. About an hour into the 90 minute boat ride to the reef, everyone was looking a little green from the choppy waters and these 2 little girls ended up throwing up all over themselves, and from there I knew I better get to a bathroom, quick. Needless to say, it was the most terrible boat ride of my life and those stupid little ginger pills they gave me didn't help with the seasickness at all. I hate boats. Anyways, we go to the reef and it was awesome, I wish I had rented a digital camera! I saw tons and tons of awesome, different fish... some of which were almost as big as me!! Tons of pink, neon green, purple, and blue coral. Then it started to pour, we had lunch inside the boat, then headed to another part of the reef, but I slept the entire way, but by the time I woke up, it was sunny and we were there! Here I saw HUGE fan coral, sea cucumbers, different fish, and I guess there was a giant starfish and turtle that I missed! I was so mad! The ride home wasn't that bad, I sat outside on the front of the boat and talked a little bit with some people, which helped take my mind off of whether I was going to barf all over the place or not. Later that night we walked into Gilligan's and heard someone say "HEY!" and we looked and it was a group of people from our boat that day! I ended up hanging out with them all night and had a BLAST dancing the night away with Emma and Laura from Scotland, Gareth from Australia, some guys from Ireland, a guy from England, and one guy from Alaska who had been in Iraq. Probably my favorite day/night in Cairns.
Day 9: Took a 6 hour train ride from Cairns to Townsville and slept the entire time, then took a 30 minute ferry ride to Magnetic Island. It's a pretty small island that's not too developed, but reminded me a little but of the Virgin Islands, just not quite as nice I guess. We got there in the evening and checked into our hostel, 4 bunk beds in one very small room but the hostel area itself was RIGHT on the beach with a beautiful view. We walked around a little bit, but there were no street lights, the birds were making weird noises, and some guy was driving around in a hurse, so we felt like we were in some type of horror film and decided to head back to the hostel for the night. Had a good cheap, dinner at the hostel and sat and talked with Steve from London and Ben from Munich, which was fun. Hung out on the deck all night with loud music, a beautiful star filled sky, lights in the palm trees, and the glow of Townsville in the distance. It was picturesque. Met a guy, David (20), from Germany and hung out with him too. SOOO many people were traveling around Australia by themselves from ages 18 to 30, it made me want to take a little trip alone!
Day 10: Got up and had breakfast on the deck facing the ocean... it was awesome and I wish I could start my day like that every day. We then walked around the island and went to a place called Picnic Bay which was sooo pretty, had Calamari/chips and Chocolate Mud Cake for lunch at one of the few restaurants on the island, then took a bus to Alma bay, which was SO pretty. Surrounded by big rocks, clear water, and little surfer kids running everywhere. Walked around for the rest of the day then headed back to our hostel for a freezing cold shower and a nap. Had dinner and drinks for the rest of the night with the same people from the night before, plus our 29 year old roommate, Steve, who was from Sydney. He told us about all his travels (he's been everywhere from Egypt to Denmark to Peru) and also told us about all the crazy things he's experienced in hostels. It was an awesome night, and I even met some Aussie guys and girls that were from the island!
Day 11: Checked out of the hostel but laid on the beach all afternoon (ouch! sunburn!) with our German friend David, then took the ferry back to Townsville. By this point in time we just wanted to go home because we were so tired, dirty, sick of cold showers and small beds, and we just wanted to be comfortable and relaxed! So we took a 15 dollar trip to the airport to get on a earlier flight, only to find that the airport is even smaller than the Des Moines airport (yes, it is possible), so we didn't know what to do. We said screw it, we want warm showers and nice big beds, so we booked a room at the Holiday Inn, and paid another 15 bucks to get back to the city. Townsville is crap. There is really nothing there and it's not a big city at all. It didn't help that everything was closed and that birds were the only things that roamed the streets either. We had a great dinner at the local McDonalds and even the guy working there asked us "what the hell we were doing in Townsville"... and that poor guy LIVES there 😊 haha. So we go back to our hotel, all excited for warm showers, tv, big warm beds, the works. Well we shower and just get into our beds and having a blast watching some American movies, when.... THE POWER GOES OUT. We were stunned... we splurged on a stupid hotel room to enjoy it's ammenities and THIS happens! So we called down and they said it wouldn't be but a couple minutes... so we start to go stir crazy/get slap happy because this town is just a joke and everything is going wrong and we are wasting money on all this stuff that's unneccessary. So then, Geoff decided to start jumping on the beds because it was so dark there was nothing to do and the elevators didn't work... after 3 minutes of jumping he attempts a flip and punches a hole in the wall. Hahaha, it was ridiculous but hilarious at the same time.
So the next morning we woke up and the power was finally on after being out for a good 4 hours of the 13 we spent there, and I figured we'd get the room for free or atleast 1/2 price. Nope. Had to pay full price, which was ridiculous and the guy said I was getting a deal. So finally right as we were leaving he said sorry for the probably and Geoff told them he was sorry for punching a whole in the wall. It was hilarious, but nothing we could really do, we figured we had to atleast tell them. So we took a cab to the airport and left that place behind, hoping to never return 😊
AND NOW I'M HOME! I had a blast, met so many amazing people, relaxed, partied, and got way too much sun... everything a good spring break trip should be! Now it's back to school and work, only 5 weeks left until final exams!! CRAZY!! The more that time passes, the more I fall in love with this place and the people and I never want to leave 😊 Hope you've all had a wonderful two weeks (minus the Cubs AND Hawks losing.... UGH!) and that everyone is well! Love you all!!
P.S. shout out to my BIG SISTER KELBY :: happy 31st birthday!!!!!!! LOVE YOU!!!!! 😊
P.P.S it only allows me a certain amount of photos, so that's all you get for now. i'll see what i can do.
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