Advertisement
Published: September 29th 2007
Edit Blog Post
town of wollongong
fed to me to this beAch community, lovely beAch Great Barrief Reef Meets Rainforest
Wow where to start?! So much has happened since I last wrote an entry even though it has only been just over 1 week. I arrived in Sydney on Friday Sept 21st around noon and my awesome Aussie mate Fernanda was there to come collect me. We met in 2006 on our Eastern Europe Contiki Trip. I spent 5 nights staying with her and her lovely Spanish family. Fed's brother Danny was also on the Contiki trip so we had a blast all hanging out together. To top it off, I was able to 'reunite' with a bunch of other friends from that tour - G, Johnny, and Ivan. So the 6 of us had a great time catching up as you can imagine. I also was able to see and party with my friend Lisa, we met in Spain. It was great having Aussie friends to show me around and to hang out with. To be honest, this go in Sydney was mainly about partying; we went out Friday, Saturday, and Sunday nights. The Aussies took me out to great bars/clubs along the water at 'Darling Harbour' -my fave being the club 'Pontoon' and
to a neat place in 'the Rocks' called 'Vivas' for Fed and Danny's Farewell party (they left for Africa the day after I left Sydney).
Partying aside, I saw lots and am eager to return to Sydney as planned at the beginning of November. Fed took me to the famous 'Bondi Beach' in Sydney where we had lunch overlooking the beach and all the surfers in their wetsuits trying to catch good waves. I was surprised to see people in the water given that it was quite chilly in Sydney - beautiful and sunny weather the entire duration of my stay, but chilly for me since I had just come from Fiji. At night it was chilly and along the water during the day it was cool but generally in the afternoons a light long sleeved top and jeans did the trick. Fed also took me to the beach town of Wollongong - huge surf beach.
Monday while my Aussie friends were at work I set off to explore the city on my own... I wandered the streets peeking in shops of course and taking in the awesome chilled out vibe of Sydney. It was amazing to see
another night out in sydney
pArtying it up for fed aNd danny's fARewell at long last the stunning Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge in the flesh - they really are unique and amazing structures. I took the ferry boat to the coastal town of 'Manly Beach' - what a great spot! The boat ride over was lovely and there were dolphins swimming alongside the boat (I've now seen dolphins 3x's so far - once in Fiji, ferry to Manly, and out on the Great Barrier Reef - dolphins always seem to excite me). The weather was quite nice this afternoon and quite a few people were swimming (don't think I would have ventured in however I did turn my jeans into capris by rolling them up). After visiting Manly G met up with me in the city center and we rode the Monorail during the evening marveling at the lit up city - it is truly beautiful. There is something so magestic about big cities on the ocean. We then did the tower (same idea as the Toronto CN town but not quite as high). On Tuesday I set off with G (she took the day off work to hang out with me, what a sweetie) and we headed to Taronga
cairns in queensland austrAliA
my friend pete took me for A ride on his bike to the beAutiful trinity beAch Zoo. The special thing about this zoo is that you need to take a ferry boat there (scenic ride of course) and then the zoo is set up on a hill (you take a gondola up to the top and then you work your way back down to the ferry taking in all the sights). The views of sydney from the zoo were great. Highlights were seeing cuddly koalas and kangaroos!!
On Wednesday the 26th it was time to leave Sydney, it was bittersweet because I was of course excited to get to warm and sunny 'Queensland' but obviously I was said to say farewell to my friends. My flight was actually delayed an hour which was fine and I arrived in Cairns around 7pm. At the airport I bumped into a friend of a friend, Pete, who actually lives in Cairns so we exchanged mobiles and agreed to meet up. I stayed at Calypso Backpackers' Hostel for 3 nights. This was my first opportunity in Australia to actually have to go out and meet people and make friends because obviously in Sydney I spent time with the friends I was visiting. As soon as I checked into my
greAT bArrier reef
A beAutiful dAY spent out on the reef, i went scubA diving for the 1st time hostel room I hit it off with an English girl named Heather. Pete ended up ringing me to come over for a beer so Heather and I went over. He had a lovely condo but also had a cute little kitty but I'm allergic to cats so that was not good... The next day, we met Becky, another English girl, we hit it off immediately. Pete ended up (as promised) taking me for a ride on his motorcycle, it was super fun!! He took me to 'Trinity Beach' where we grabbed a drink, it was so much fun being on a motorcycle, I haven't been on one in years! He dropped me at the Cairns Lagoon where I met up with Heather and Becky. We lazed the afternoon away. That evening the girls and I went out with Pete and his friends - it's always great when you have locals to show you the ropes.
Tuesday was the best day yet I think!! I went on a catamaran sailboat day long excursion to the Great Barrier Reef and went for my first scuba dive ever. It was so incredible!!!! I liked it was more that I thought I would.
greAT bArrier reef
crystAl cleAR wATers The feeling of being able to breathe underwater and to get so close to the corals and fish was spectacular, words cannot describe it. The excursion took us to a couple different reefs and was the water ever clear and incredible. It looked better than the postcards, I couldn't stop saying 'omg, this is incredible'!!! Luckily I met 2 awesome people on the boat and hung out and snorkeled with them all day (and actually met up with them that evening and partied with them too). A kind Belgium boy Henry and an Aussie girl Rosemary who was up visiting friends. Needless to say we enjoyed a great night out on the town in Cairns!!
I'm now in Cape Tribulation and my time on the internet is ending as we speak so must run now. I did a Daintree River boat cruise today and saw a huge wild crocodile... super cool! The rainforest is beautiful and I'll write more about my adventures here later on.... thanks for reading! 😊
Advertisement
Tot: 0.085s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 11; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0331s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb