Cairns You Believe It....?!

(Sorry about that bad joke...!) Anyway, last Saturday I FINALLY got myself out of Sydney and landed in Cairns, which they call the gateway to the tropics and the Great Barrier Reef. Its a fairly small city, with suburbs that spread out a fair bit, its rammed full of touristy backpacker places. Most of the people walking around are travellers. Loads of hostels, crap bars and pubs, and a nice little front/esplanade next to the sea. The weather is so much nicer here than it is in Sydney, and although I've seen a bit of rain here, during the day its mostly warm and usually sunny, at night it gets a bit chilly, but its nothing to whinge about. There are some markets down by the Esplanade, selling the usual tourist stuff, hand-made jewellery, clothes and pictures and stuff. There is a fruit/veg market in the city too, and plenty of decent shops to get you by, as well as a few large shopping centres and plenty of little secluded ones too.

I'm staying in a trusty old YHA in central Cairns, and there is a decent crowd of people here, by that I mean that the place isn't overrun by English chavs, and there are a friendly bunch of Europeans and Asian peeps here. The hostel is living up to the YHA reputation it has; clean and good value for money, not noisy but not too quiet. There are loads of other hostels around, another main one being a fairly new place called 'Gilligan's' or something like that, its pretty huge and has a massive bar / club venue, which I went to on Saturday night....

....Ok, so I've got no money and no job, but it'd be rude not to go out on my first night in a new place! Because money was tight, half a bottle of Lime Finlandia vodka went down well at the hostel, then I didn't really need many drinks once I was out! It was a late late late night, the city was booming, and because its not really very big, everyone is out in the centre as all the bars and clubs are within comfortable walking distance of each other. It was busy in most of the places we went to, and I didn't spend much money, bonus! All the pubs and bars have got the World Cup showing too, so if the music took a turn for the worse (which usually happens in dirty backpacker bars!) then football was on hand to help the night from going off-key!

Sunday, I just lazed around, after all, it WAS Sunday! Watched the football on Sunday night. Japan and Croatia proved to be a good game, except for the severe lack of talent in front of goal. Then, the Soccerroos played Brazil! This was a pretty decent game, and I felt sorry for the Aussies going down 2-0, they played well, and if Harry Kewell and Viduka perhaps had any guts in front of goal, the Aussies would have secured another shock win. Oh well, on the form they are on, they should edge past the Croatian's... Anyway, enough football!

Today I took a walk down towards the seafront, there is no 'real' decent beach, but they've built a bit of a pool thing and put some sand around so its a good enough place to relax with a book and some tunage. I got a bit sunkissed which felt nice after experiencing the cold weather in Sydney. There are some 'open-kitchen/bbq' things there so you can have a BBQ which is pretty sweet.

Plans for this week include trying to find some harvest work, as I desperately need some cash, and harvest work will let me get my 2nd year working holiday visa. Also, I've got to alter my flights at the Qantas office, as I'm supposed to be flying from Cairns to Hong Kong, then from H.K. back to London in little under a months time... Although I miss you all loads and loads, I'm afraid I still have a fair bit to do out here!

Another thing I've done, is shave most of my hair off, because its a bit easier! Straightening and styling my hair isn't the thing to be doing when living in a hostel.

Big hello to my old flatmates in Sydney; Karine, Jess & Mark, and also Aslan the Shark. Please Aslan, look after them, and make sure they stay out of touble! Miss you guys! However Karine, I am not missing your sex talk thankyou very much!

There are some pictures, but this computer is about as ancient as the bible, so they are taking a while to upload. I should think that they'll creep up on my photo gallery as the week progesses.

Take care for now my lovelies,

Stevie.