Lecture Recess #1 Exploring Cairns and Port Douglas

    Last week lecture recess began. It's basically just spring break, but it means a full week off plus the following Monday, as Monday is the Queen's Birthday (long live the Queen!)  A group of my friends decided that we should go up to Cairns for the break and have some fun, so Friday night at 1 in the morning, we boarded a greyhound for Cairns.  About 5 hours later, sufficiently exhausted from the uncomfortable ride, we arrived and began the search for a MacDonalds at which we could get some coffee. We finally found one and were quickly picked up by the friendly people at JJ's Backpackers where we were staying. 

Cairns is a very touristy place.  Most of the people I met there were German, Swedish, French, Japanese, or Korean.  In fact, I think the number of Australian's that I met there was somewhere in the ballpark of 5.  Because of the city's touristy nature, there is a ton to do and some great bars and clubs.  We met up with some classmates that had come up before us and spent the night on the town, hanging out, drinking, and almost going swimming.  We had no plans until Monday, so we spent next two days exploring Cairns. 

On Saturday we explored the Esplanade, the boardwalk situated on the seawall protecting the city.  

 

Swimming in the ocean here is not recommended.  To prevent erosion, a seawall was put in, effectively getting rid of any possible beach and making it a haven for estuary birds and crocodiles.  To replace the beach, a huge public pool called the lagoon is in the middle of the city, right on the boardwalk. Its beautiful and a lot of fun.  Also, all signs here are in English, German, and what I think is Japanese.

As we explored we found that there was an outdoor market/festival going on.  There were lots of these incredible chalk artworks and little shops that were a lot of fun to explore.

One of my favorite places was the night markets where you can get cheap souvenirs, $15 massages, and fantastic Asian food.  Its a maze of shops all trying to sell tourists some of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen (i.e. giant high-top converse shaped purses) but there was also some really cool stuff and I acquired a little souvenir for my parents (get excited guys).  It was after this that we decided the streets did not have enough music and so provided some of our own.

On Sunday I met up with a friend of a friend who took us to the fun local bars and drove us up to Port Douglas.  Port Douglas is a beautiful little fishing town with a gorgeous beach.

 We walked up to a lookout on a rocky cliff and were greeted with an incredible view of the harbor.

We spent the whole day here before driving back to Cairns.  It was really an incredible time. 


To be continued in the next post...