There's not ONE game in this arcade!

The above quote is from Tansey and boy did I laugh. We went to one of the shopping arcades here in Cairns and she didn't know that an arcade isn't always a place for video games. It's an easy enough misunderstanding but it was pretty funny.

So we've started our adventure and the last few days have been almost overwhelming they've been so amazing. We started off with a record 16.5 hour flight per the flight attendant. Due to headwinds and a late start out of LA that pushed our travel time up exponentially. This caused us to miss our flight out of Melbourne so we had to fly to Brisbane and then up to Cairns. Nothing like doing a whole city-hopping tour without actually getting to see the city. After 24 hours of time just in the air, we arrived in pretty good shape. Our hostel, the lovely Caravella Backpackers Resort on the waterfront, upgraded us to our own double room and we went out to get dinner. Cairns is a very tropical place that seems really similar to Hawaii...with the addition of cockatoos and giant fruit bats that fly around at will. Our first night at sunset the sky filled up with the bats in flight like a scene out of Van Helsing. I have to say they creep me out quite a bit but really they just look like foxes with bat wings. Bizarre. Our first day we spent wandering around the town. We did a bit of shopping at the mall and did my favorite thing to do in a foreign city - Visit the grocery store. It's by far the most fun ever and there were plenty of funny names of things and novelty items we got to purchase. Don't worry we got pictures and there will be a whole separate "Hilarious Products" section once I finally post pictures. After dropping our purchases we wandered down the beach for a couple of miles to start. It's a little weird because the water almost completely leaves the harbor for low tide. We made our way over to the botanical gardens and did not realize just how far they were, so we walked, and walked, and walked. This seems to be a theme with me and traveling. We were so tired, sore, and cranky by the time we got back for dinner we could have died. However, it was SO worth it as we happened upon the rain forest boardwalk in the center of the gardens. It was a real rain forest where it actually happened to rain on us and it was so strange and lovely all at the same time. There were butterflies hanging all over the place and giant caterpillars straight out of Alice in Wonderland. Well worth the pain.
The next day we got relatively early and decided to hit the Cairns Tropical Zoo. It's low season so there weren't many people there. We had wallabies and kangaroos come up to us right away because they must have smelled the feed we'd been given at the entrance. The little kangaroo grabbed my hands and ate right out of them. It was amazing. The whole place was just medium sized but everything was so hands on it was like no zoo I'd ever been to before. We attended most of the feedings and talks and the red panda bear was by far my favorite. Well, besides the koalas. I kept pondering how to smuggle one out of the zoo but figured the odds of success vs. the jail time probably wouldn't be worth it. We got to hold one for a picture which was super cool. Tansey ended up in bed early and I went outside to write but ended up running into a lovely couple from London who had just checked into the next room. We chatted until late about everything from the boyband 5ive, to Dexter, to Americans in Europe, and various other topics about life. They were great and reminded me why I like to travel and meet other likeminded people.

The next day was our Great Barrier Reef trip. I had no idea what to expect because I have been plenty of places that have no lived up to expectation. We decided to go out with Passions of Paradise and after a couple hours sail out of Cairns we found ourselves at a part of the reef called Michaelmas Cay. It's a very smelly island full of thousands of birds but you're there to dive and snorkel so the beach was really just a taking off point. The water itself is a beautiful deep blue, until you hit the reef where it turns green. The bits of water that you know are reef are dark dark blue/brown and you'd never guess that underneath is the most amazing thing you could ever see. The coral and whatnot were so many different colors and moved with the waves in some sort of symphony. We saw reef rays and a giant turtle and HUGE oyster-looking things that breathed and pulsed. Purples, yellows, reds, pinks...fish with beaks, square fish, round fish, long fish....seriously so beautiful I had to try not to cry. After about an hour and half we went in for lunch on the boat and the move to Paradise Reef, the second snorkel location. This one was a little deeper and further out. Because of the depth of the water when you looked down off the side of the reef it was like looking into a swirling cathedral full of fish as far as you could see. Amazing! After that it was time to head home. The way back was so much fun though. We made friends with the staff and had a great time. I was exhausted but we'd made plans to go out to this bar/restaurant called Vibe. We'd been keeping pretty early hours and thought we'd do something different for our last night, especially since it was Friday. We thought we'd hit upon the local gay scene as we walked in to boys in nurse uniforms and various other costumes. Turns out even the straight boys dress up like weirdos so it makes it all very very confusing. We had a drink or two, made friends with a kid who was absolutely my friend Matty from home, and had a great time. Tansey managed to slip on an actual banana peel and I laughed until I cried. How does that happen in real life? We ended up back in bed by 11:30 and that was good enough.

Today was laundry day and our flight to Sydney. It's rainy and it took forever but it's a lovely city that's very London-esque from what we can see. I think I'm going to like it very much.