No, actually it was just plain awful. It was a little too hot when I went to bed for my liking and then at 4am I was completely freezing and the hostel only provided a sheet so I was wrapped in that like a caterpillar. The girl sleeping in the bunk underneath me kept wriggling throughout the night so I would jolt awake every time, and the "curtains" only covered half the window so basically let in all the light from the streetlights and neon signs outside. I don't know how many times I woke up, or how much sleep I got. Maybe 3 hours?
Anyway, in the morning I had a wander round Cairns to see what it as all about. Cairns is a strange place. Fantastic for backpackers travelling in groups, quite a lot of shopping in outside stores and inside malls, plenty of restaurants on the Esplanade, which is the road that runs along the "beach". I say "beach" because there is a tiny patch of sand that you can sunbathe on and the rest is grass and boardwalk. It is very pretty though, and usually there's an outside pool area but it was under construction when I was there.
I found Cairns quite strange. I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I found it quite commercial and a bit tacky in areas, and I wouldn't go on a family holiday there, but it is the perfect place to travel with a group of friends where you just want to relax, shop, sunbathe, swim, and party.
After having a snoop round the main area I found a free internet cafe and started looking up hotels. Yes, for $15 a night what was I expecting? The problem is I'm a light sleeper, and everything keeps my awake. I found a hotel further out that wasn't completely out of my price range and booked it for the last few days of my stay. After that I felt much better and went a sunbathed on the beach/grass listening to my audiobook (if you travel alone, it is the best way to pass time and keep yourself occupied).
I booked a couple tours while I was there. One was the Karunda Railway and Cableway, which some people said was worth it, and some people said it wasn't. I have now experienced it, and can tell you all that it is worth it. A coach picks you up from your hotel (delapidated hostel) and drives you to Freshwater Station, which is a cute little station with a small museum and an old carriage by the cafe. The train itself has seats to one side where all the views are, and there was some commentary on the way up which did prove interesting, although I'd heard a lot of it already from the coach driver. The history is apparently not very long, or very elaborate.
So the train takes ages to get to the top, about an hour, and goes quite slowly, but it is nice, and when you reach the top it is easy to walk to Karunda village. There are lots of shops and market stalls, which sell some quite unique souvenirs that I hadn't seen before (I have spent 4 months looking in souvenir shops in many different cities, so this was a pleasant surprise). Aboriginal art, local art, jewellery, opals, kangaroo skins, aussie hats, ornaments, accessories, etc etc. There was also a koala place to hold a koala, but I'd already done that, and the butterfly enclosure just plain freaked me out so I decided not to go in there, but they are nice ideas, and there are also a lot of restaurants and cafes.
On the way down, I used the Cablecars, and met Deena and Colin, an elderly retired couple from a town near Brisbane who were on holiday, and we had a great chat on the trip back down, which is supposed to take about an hour apparently but really only takes half that. As we almost reached the bottom of the mountain Colin provided us with some interesting commentary on the water skiers in a lake to the side of the cable car station which consisted of "Woooaahh, he's going for it, he's going for it, aw he chickened out! The bogun. I really thought he was going for it that time. Oh that guy made the jump! I give him a 6."
The other tour I booked was a snorkel cruise, which is a massive thing for me because I hate the ocean. Seriously, the whole idea of the ocean freaks me out, but I was so close to the Great Barrier Reef I just knew people would ask me if I saw it, so I gathered all my courage and went out to sea. It was a lovely sunny warm day which was great, and the staff on the Ocean Freedom (the boat we were on) were great and encouraging. I sat in on the talk about diving and ruled that out straight away, and then donned my uber attractive wetsuit, flippers, flotation jacket, and snorkel, and made my way into the water. Flippers are seriously hard to keep in the water when you are wearing a flotation jacket. It was fine propelling myself forward, but to get myself upright required a bit of a twist, kick, flip dance move that I'm sure the fish weren't impressed with.
I did see some amazing fish, of which I do have photos but they are in an old school camera which uses film (I know! Such ancient technology!) so I can't share them with you, but I did see a puffer fish, parrot fish, angel fish, and I found nemo.
When I got off the boat, I think the adrenaline of the day, plus packing my stuff and hauling it to my new hotel kept everything at bay, but when I sat down for dinner, spending 9 hours on a boat definitely caught up with me and it felt like I was still out at sea. I don't get seasick, but that feeling afterwards always knocks me for 6. Still, I was so happy to be in my wonderful new hotel room I couldn't let it keep me down. Seriously, I am not a hostel kind of girl. Hotels all the way. So for the next 3 days I just swam and sunbathed, and only ventured into town to have dinner. It was the most wonderfully relaxing time ever, and such a relief after the hostel.
Next blog post: Melbourne!
TTFN!
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