Cairns, Australia

I've completely been slacking with the updates, so I decided it was time to finally write about my amazing adventures in Cairns, Australia a few weeks ago. We flew out of Sydney on Thursday morning and arrived in Cairns in the afternoon. We were greeted by beautiful weather, so we grabbed our luggage eager to get to the resort. We got there, unpacked and spent the day laying by the pool. Friday we were out up and early to head to the Great Barrier Reef for a day of snorkeling. It was AMAZING! First of all, the boat ride alone was hysterical. We took a catamaran and decided it would be fun to sit in the nets on the front, so my friends and I left our stuff inside and headed out to sit in the sun. The entire ride there we continually got drenched by waves that we would hit that would splash through the nets. It was so funny, even though by the end of the ride half the boat was throwing up from sea sickness, but that's besides the point. We got to the first location, put on our stinger suits and jumped in the water all ready to snorkle :) Unfortunately due to bad weather that they had been having previously, the bottom of the water had been stirred up a little which made it a little foggy, but nonetheless it was so beautiful. There were turtles, stingrays, and even reef sharks (even though we didn't run into those thank god). We boarded the boat to eat lunch and head to the second location which was nowhere near shore. We jumped into the water and were led around by guides who described all of the different types of coral that we could see. At the end of our tour we got back on the boat, took off our snorkeling gear, and jumped back in the water to go swimming-- it was a perfect day. We got home that night, walked into downtown Cairns to look around. We went to The Woolshed for dinner which turned out to be THE best meal of my time here thus far. It was a vegetarian meal, words can't describe how good it was.. needless to say we went back again before we left. Saturday we were up bright and early SO excited to go skydiving... fail. The weather was too bad to go up :( So we were scheduled to do it Monday instead.. therefore we went back to bed for a bit before we left to go bungy jumping. At about noon we were picked up to go to AJ Hacketts to go bungy jumping. Tracy, Rachael and I got there, checked in, and walked up the tower to get ready to jump. 164 feet above the ground, Tracy and Rachael stood there wondering exactly what they were thinking when they signed up for it.. I on the other hand had never been so excited :) When it was finally my turn to go, I put my toes over the ledge and felt my heart pounding in my chest haha. I heard my count down, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, BUNGY! And that was that.. it was the greatest feeling I've ever had before and I just dangled around upside-down wishing that I could do it again. When I was finally right-side-up and ready to leave, I picked up my pictures and DVD and walked back out to the van, wishing I could jump again. We got in the van to go to the site for White Water Rafting, where we met up with Kacie. Our tour guide was awesome! And even though the river was decently calm, it was deceiving. He let us get off of the raft and swim down some of the final rapids and it was scary. I felt like I was drowning, I got sucked under for a decent amount of time and was flailing in my lifejacket, helmet and awful water shoes they made us wear (now that's an image). When I finally surfaced I looked around to see Tracy and Kacie struggling too, so we all just started cracking up haha. When we got to the bottom we were greeted with tea and coffee, which was perfect. Talk about the most action packed day ever haha, I wish I could go back and do it again, if only every Saturday was like that. Sunday we got up to do a hike through the rain forrest which was beautiful! and then we went on a crocodile watch boat. We saw crocodiles just relaxing on the bank, ya know, normal haha. It was crazy to see them up close and personal with no cage or glass separating us from them. After the croc boat we took our 3 hour bus ride home which was less than comfortable, but beautiful. The sights were incredible. That night we went back to the Woolshed to get some more of the incredible food, shared a table with 3 guys from Europe who were traveling the world for the year.. it was so cool to hear some of their stories, and share ours with them as well. That night I slept like a baby, so excited to skydive the next morning. We woke up to overcast skies and strong winds :( nervous that we wouldn't be able to jump again. The company came to pick us up, which was a step further than we had made it the first time. We got to the company headquarters, filled out our paperwork, bought our photos and dvd's and sat on standby because we had been delayed due to weather. 4 hours later, we lost hope.. no skydiving in Cairns :( We went back to grab our bags, depressed, and boarded the bus for the airport to head back home.. I mean, to Sydney.. weird. We got home late Monday night, feeling so accomplished. By far one of the best weekends of my life <3

Sydney Aquarium & Wildlife World :)

Hahaha Tracy & I in the gift shop

Crazy lookin fish

School :)

Cute Dugong :)

Huge stingray!

Last Saturday, my roommate Tracy & I decided to get up and take advantage of the day. We looked online for things to do and decided that the Aquarium and Wildlife World were the perfect idea :) We got on the bus to Sydney, and after what seemed like the longest bus ride ever, we arrived in Sydney. We got off the bus and walked to Darling Harbour where the aquarium & wildlife world are located. We did the wildlife world first and saw some incredible things: the largest crocodile in the world, kangaroos :), wallabies which were definitely my favorite, and koalas :) after the wildlife world we went to the lizard lounge for lunch, which obviously was Tracy's favorite because she loves creepy crawlys like lizards and iguanas haha. Lunch was great, and once we finished we headed over to the aquarium which was AWESOME! We saw some incredible fish! Sharks, stingrays, dugongs, turtles, alligators, and even Nemo & Dori ;) My favorite part i have to say was the underwater walkways under the shark tanks. It gave us the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of the deadliest sharks in existence. My favorite animal was definitely the Dugong :) even though it was the size of a cow haha. Tracy and I are hoping that we'll get to see some of the beautiful fish next weekend first hand when we go snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef, hopefully not the sharks, but other than that :)

Walking under the shark tank!

Wallaby :) <3

Lazy kangaroo haha

Koala :)

Bus on the wear there haha, note the sign on the window

Mardi Gras in Sydney!

Last weekend we decided it would be a great idea to trek to Sydney in bright clothes and sparkles to witness one of the biggest celebrations of the year in Sydney, the Gay/Lesbian festival & of course MARDI GRAS! It was an experience to say the least. There were people EVERYWHERE, literally: in trees, hanging from light posts, sitting on top of buildings, on each others shoulders, all trying to see the parade that went by. Obviously being American we didn't know how to prepare for this and barely got to see anything at all, but being in the city during this time was enough for us. It was out of control, so many people were dressed up, gay pride flags were flying everywhere, and everyone was cheering. After about an hour of pushing through crowds to try to see the parade, we gave up and headed to a local bar called the Gaff to get some drinks and watch the parade on tv. The Gaff was packed from floor to ceiling, music was blasting-- it was awesome. The bartender at the downstairs bar was hysterical, i made sure to document his outfit because you wouldn't believe me unless you saw it. All in all it was an awesome night with even better friends :) i'm so glad we decided to go because it was an experience in itself to just be a bystander at this awesome celebration.

Downstairs at the Gaff!

Outside at the celebration :)

Our "sassy" drinks

The bartender! hahaha

Rachael, Naz & I on the train in :)