Oz

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Gud'day

Sorry for the lack of entries recently but when i arrived in Brisbane the Internet at the Hostel i was staying at wasn't working, unfortunately the first impression of Australia wasn't good, the hostel i stayed at was more inclined to the kind of people who want to get off there face 24/7! literally there were people drunk by the pool at 9:30am!!!!! There was constant noise and people coming in and out of my room at all hours of the morning, but i only had to stay there for 2 nights and i wasn't sad to see the back of that place, at least i know not to stay there when i am next in Brisbane.

I caught a flight from Brisbane to Cairns which is near the top of the East coast and i found it much nicer, the hostel I'm at is really really good there's a pool, hammocks, Wi-Fi & computers and a free meal every evening at a local pub :-) Its a lot more relaxed and chilled out up here i think partly due to the immense heat, i don't think its been less than 25*c even at night! so I've been getting a great tan, for the first few days i just settled into Ozzie life and looked around the local area, its really easy to meet people because everyone in the hostel is really friendly and because we all go to get the free meal in the evenings you can meet people there as well. The meal is from a place called the 'Wool Shed' which is about 15 mins from the hostel, its a really lively bar which i think is particularly popular with travellers, the food is fantastic and you can upgrade to some of the food on the main menu for between $5 & $8, every night there's something they put on as entertainment like Mr & Mrs Backpacker on Thursdays or Goldfish racing on Sundays which i have yet to see but I'm very keen to just to see how they get them to race.

On my first night i met up with an English lad and a girl from Germany who were really nice but i cant remember there names to save my life (which I've found happens with a lot of people i meet & I'm pretty sure most Backpackers have the same problem) they asked if i wanted to go swimming with them in the 'Lagoon' so obviously i was expecting what I'm sure most of you would for it to be a harboured bay cut off from the main sea, but actually the 'Lagoon' in Cairns is an outdoor swimming pool open to the public next to the beach, it was really nice but very surreal because shortly after getting there it started getting dark and as i looked up half the sky was night and the other half was day! Not only that but within seconds the sky filled with 'Flying Foxes' which is what locals call the very large bats! It was a sight that i won't soon forget, any who that's pretty much it but I'm going to do some more entries for what i did around the weekend.
Take care

Alex

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Photos

Sam
This is Sam, he's the owners cat that lives in the hostel

The Pool Area
The Hammocks are to the right behind that palm tree