So we flew into Brisbane from Singapore and arrived into Australia at a stupid time in the morning. Because we're tight backpackers we didn't want to pay a hostel for a room that night seeing as we wouldn't have arrived until about 3a.m. so we all camped out in the airport on some sofas. Fortunately Brisbane airport stayed open all night (unlike Cairns as we found out later!) and I shoved my ear plugs in my ears and a tshirt over my head while making myself comfortable in the dark and empty airport. When I woke up it was light and bustling and all the hundreds of people in the airport attending to their own business had seen the sight of what must have looked like 4 young tramps piled over all of the sofas. We wasted some more time until the free shuttle bus picked us up to take us to our hostel (called Base Hostel - I'd recommend!) and grabbed some breakfast. We were so disgusted by the prices of things in the airport and were just praying that prices were tripled because it was an airport and that this was not just typical Australian prices. We had good from paying roughly 30p for a can of coke to paying almost £2. A meal had gone from £1-£2 to £6-£10. So we freaked out a bit, realised how much we would need to get a job when we got to Sydney and decided never to eat out in Australia. Of course the first thing we did when we got to Brisbane centre was sit down in a food court! Driving from the airport to our hostel was so exciting as we hadn't seen buildings so built up in such a long time. I was gasping with excitement at all of the talk tower blocks and the hustle and bustle of the city even though the lack of these things is what had drawn me to Thailand in the first place!
We then explored Brisbane, a much smaller version of Sydney but a city that had everything I needed. A lot of our traveller friends had said that they hated Brisbane because it had "no point", but for me, someone who loves city life but can often feel swallowed up by how big everything is, it was brilliant. A 10 minute walk through the city centre led to the artificial beach surrounded by green parkland and the river. The beach was absolutely gorgeous, with 3 pools resembling the sea (for the swimmers like me, Matt and Nathan) and a section of sand for the sunbathers (Heidi).
We spent a few days in Brisbane, enjoying the beach and the shops, and also spent a lot of time flat hunting for when we arrived in Sydney. The strain of travelling in a 4 became apparent while we were in Brisbane, spending so much time with the same people began to get a bit much for all of us and so Matt and I had a night out in a club called Victory. That night we were introduced to goon. Goon is simply a box of wine, apart from in Australia the box is discarded by the drinker, leaving just the silver bag with a tap to pour out Tim wine. Also, a bag of 4 litres, sometimes 5, only cost $9-$12 (about £6ish). Matt and I were not actually aware that this was what goon was, thinking that it would actually be labelled as goon and come without the box, but we were soon enlightened in Cairns.
The club was amazing, we met a few people and found some spare $s on the floor! We both ordered a "jam jar" each, which is kind of the same as an English fish bucket but in a jam jar. The club was massive with lots of rooms and an outside area with a live band.
In the morning we both went to get lunch and then to the Brisbane museum. The best part about the museum was the animal section where they had skulls of all types of animals found in Australia ranging from the smallest to the largest. They also had a section full of insects that you could touch and look at - horrible insects might I add, like a praying mantis and massive spiders.
After a few days we had pretty much done Brisbane and were ready to go to Cairns. The same thing happened at Cairns airport where we arrived at about midnight and did not want to pay for a hostel. However, this airport did not stay open past midnight and our flight was the last of the day and so we got kicked out of the building and had to sleep outside the airport until 5a.m. when we gathered our things together and headed towards the free shuttle.
We arrived at our hostel called the Asylum and to say I was not pleased with Heidi (who had booked it) would be a massive understatement. It was a dump. We arrived at about 7a.m. and people were still awake from drinking the night before, including the member of staff who eventually let us sign in and gave us the keys to our room. Our bedroom was basic but we were sharing just as a 4 which is always a privilege and it was the cheapest hostel we could find in Cairns so it was going to be a dump, right?
Turned out it was the best hostel so far. The people were amazing, those who worked there and those who were visiting and we became best friends with 3 English girls who we continued to meet up with on our travels.
Cairns was similar to Brisbane only in the fact that it also had a man-made beach in its centre. The sea was actually pretty dirty and there was no same around the shore, hence why the lagoon was made. This lagoon was more beautiful than Brisbane's and we spent a few days there, some just us 4 and some with the many friends we made at the hostel. We met one guy named Hampus who was fascinated with how small Heidi was and whom completely fascinated me. We had hour long conversations about pure fiction, becoming more and more engrossed in what we were saying until we were just too tired to talk any more. We had a confusing debate about the difference between share, chair and Cher due to his strong Swedish accent not leaving much definition between the three words. He was hilarious and we spent many afternoons in the pool hanging out with him and many evenings drinking with him.
One night was Nick's birthday (the drunk worker who gave us our keys on the first night) and he walked around the hostel dressed in a Santa's outfit whilst letting the "artistic wasters" paint all over him. The artistic wasters were something out of Mean Girls. They were very clique-y and were not all there. They were constantly high, never stopped drinking, were not all there and would daily give each other homemade tattoos.
We all went out for Nick's birthday as the owner of the Asylum was keen to get us out of the hostel for at least one night, although he often drank with us too, and because we left so early for the club we were back home by midnight and up to our usual drinking games in the front yard.
Having said all of that, we spent numerous days getting early nights due to our early mornings. Cairns was where we bought a day trip to the Great Barrier Reef where we all did 2 dives and spent the rest of the time snorkelling. We hired an underwater camera and took loads of snaps of us with our underwater gear on and all the fish we saw. Funnily enough we didn't see anything as amazing as when we went snorkelling in Bali and swam along with turtles for an hour. Having said that, it was a brilliant experience and I truly felt like a mermaid. Swimming that deep underwater for 40 minutes and seeing the fish in their natural habitat is an experience I will never forget. Our diving instructor looked like someone who walked straight out of Home and Away and I was so happy to be under his care for over half an hour. As we rose to the surface we swam through a layer of red fungi that was floating on the surface. I turned to Heidi to point out how disgusting it was and saw her floating away on the surface due to the weights on her snorkelling equipment. I quickly swam over and held her firmly until she stopped floating away and got her balance back. I then turned away from her and followed the instructor who was taking up back to the boat. He then turned to me, pointing at my face, and told me that I must have had a nose bleed from being so far underwater and that I need to clean my face. I was distraught. This gorgeous instructor not only had to witness me in a tight wetsuit but pointed out my nose bleeding down my face. I quickly shot underwater to clean my face and realised it wasn't blood but the horrible red fungi from the top of the water. I turned to Heidi who was laughing her head off at me as I blushed in embarrassment. She had obviously seen my face as I had stopped her from floating away and yet she still hadn't told me about the muck on my face!
We then explored Brisbane, a much smaller version of Sydney but a city that had everything I needed. A lot of our traveller friends had said that they hated Brisbane because it had "no point", but for me, someone who loves city life but can often feel swallowed up by how big everything is, it was brilliant. A 10 minute walk through the city centre led to the artificial beach surrounded by green parkland and the river. The beach was absolutely gorgeous, with 3 pools resembling the sea (for the swimmers like me, Matt and Nathan) and a section of sand for the sunbathers (Heidi).
We spent a few days in Brisbane, enjoying the beach and the shops, and also spent a lot of time flat hunting for when we arrived in Sydney. The strain of travelling in a 4 became apparent while we were in Brisbane, spending so much time with the same people began to get a bit much for all of us and so Matt and I had a night out in a club called Victory. That night we were introduced to goon. Goon is simply a box of wine, apart from in Australia the box is discarded by the drinker, leaving just the silver bag with a tap to pour out Tim wine. Also, a bag of 4 litres, sometimes 5, only cost $9-$12 (about £6ish). Matt and I were not actually aware that this was what goon was, thinking that it would actually be labelled as goon and come without the box, but we were soon enlightened in Cairns.
The club was amazing, we met a few people and found some spare $s on the floor! We both ordered a "jam jar" each, which is kind of the same as an English fish bucket but in a jam jar. The club was massive with lots of rooms and an outside area with a live band.
In the morning we both went to get lunch and then to the Brisbane museum. The best part about the museum was the animal section where they had skulls of all types of animals found in Australia ranging from the smallest to the largest. They also had a section full of insects that you could touch and look at - horrible insects might I add, like a praying mantis and massive spiders.
After a few days we had pretty much done Brisbane and were ready to go to Cairns. The same thing happened at Cairns airport where we arrived at about midnight and did not want to pay for a hostel. However, this airport did not stay open past midnight and our flight was the last of the day and so we got kicked out of the building and had to sleep outside the airport until 5a.m. when we gathered our things together and headed towards the free shuttle.
We arrived at our hostel called the Asylum and to say I was not pleased with Heidi (who had booked it) would be a massive understatement. It was a dump. We arrived at about 7a.m. and people were still awake from drinking the night before, including the member of staff who eventually let us sign in and gave us the keys to our room. Our bedroom was basic but we were sharing just as a 4 which is always a privilege and it was the cheapest hostel we could find in Cairns so it was going to be a dump, right?
Turned out it was the best hostel so far. The people were amazing, those who worked there and those who were visiting and we became best friends with 3 English girls who we continued to meet up with on our travels.
Cairns was similar to Brisbane only in the fact that it also had a man-made beach in its centre. The sea was actually pretty dirty and there was no same around the shore, hence why the lagoon was made. This lagoon was more beautiful than Brisbane's and we spent a few days there, some just us 4 and some with the many friends we made at the hostel. We met one guy named Hampus who was fascinated with how small Heidi was and whom completely fascinated me. We had hour long conversations about pure fiction, becoming more and more engrossed in what we were saying until we were just too tired to talk any more. We had a confusing debate about the difference between share, chair and Cher due to his strong Swedish accent not leaving much definition between the three words. He was hilarious and we spent many afternoons in the pool hanging out with him and many evenings drinking with him.
One night was Nick's birthday (the drunk worker who gave us our keys on the first night) and he walked around the hostel dressed in a Santa's outfit whilst letting the "artistic wasters" paint all over him. The artistic wasters were something out of Mean Girls. They were very clique-y and were not all there. They were constantly high, never stopped drinking, were not all there and would daily give each other homemade tattoos.
We all went out for Nick's birthday as the owner of the Asylum was keen to get us out of the hostel for at least one night, although he often drank with us too, and because we left so early for the club we were back home by midnight and up to our usual drinking games in the front yard.
Having said all of that, we spent numerous days getting early nights due to our early mornings. Cairns was where we bought a day trip to the Great Barrier Reef where we all did 2 dives and spent the rest of the time snorkelling. We hired an underwater camera and took loads of snaps of us with our underwater gear on and all the fish we saw. Funnily enough we didn't see anything as amazing as when we went snorkelling in Bali and swam along with turtles for an hour. Having said that, it was a brilliant experience and I truly felt like a mermaid. Swimming that deep underwater for 40 minutes and seeing the fish in their natural habitat is an experience I will never forget. Our diving instructor looked like someone who walked straight out of Home and Away and I was so happy to be under his care for over half an hour. As we rose to the surface we swam through a layer of red fungi that was floating on the surface. I turned to Heidi to point out how disgusting it was and saw her floating away on the surface due to the weights on her snorkelling equipment. I quickly swam over and held her firmly until she stopped floating away and got her balance back. I then turned away from her and followed the instructor who was taking up back to the boat. He then turned to me, pointing at my face, and told me that I must have had a nose bleed from being so far underwater and that I need to clean my face. I was distraught. This gorgeous instructor not only had to witness me in a tight wetsuit but pointed out my nose bleeding down my face. I quickly shot underwater to clean my face and realised it wasn't blood but the horrible red fungi from the top of the water. I turned to Heidi who was laughing her head off at me as I blushed in embarrassment. She had obviously seen my face as I had stopped her from floating away and yet she still hadn't told me about the muck on my face!
A couple of days later we hired a mini van with Amy, Tash and Lizzie (the 3 English girls) and drove our own way to the waterfalls in the surrounding area. We ment untie Peter Andre waterfall which actually turned out to be the Herbal Essences waterfall. We were staring at all the female visitors who were standing in the water and flicking their hair back while their friends took photos of them. Turned out they weren't all vain as we assumed they were, and they probably wondered what on earth we were doing screeching Mysterious Girl at the top of our voices. We had been misled! We also visited "Josephine Falls" which, of course, was the best waterfall. A natural slide had been created from the water falling down a rock, and so we climbed up one side, ran towards the flow of water and then slid down the rock into the big bluey green pool of water.
Some other random things happened while we were in Cairns, such as us finding out tilt Amy had been on ITV's The Cube, where she won the money that she was travelling on, Matt and I devoured a family box at McDonald's which consisted of 4 chips, 4 burgers, 4 drinks and 20 chicken bites, and we panicked a lot over the fact that we hadn't found a flat in Sydney yet. Little did we know that it would all be fine...
Some other random things happened while we were in Cairns, such as us finding out tilt Amy had been on ITV's The Cube, where she won the money that she was travelling on, Matt and I devoured a family box at McDonald's which consisted of 4 chips, 4 burgers, 4 drinks and 20 chicken bites, and we panicked a lot over the fact that we hadn't found a flat in Sydney yet. Little did we know that it would all be fine...
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