destination cairns

Wednesday night found us at The Golden Sheaf, one of east Sydney's most well-known venues located in Double Bay. We met a girl named Brittan at Tuesday's happy hour in Darling Harbour, and invited her to come out with us. Brittan is a singer originally from Colorado who's currently living in Bondi. (Funny how we all travel 8,000 miles to Australia and meet mostly Americans...) In standard form Andrea, Morgan, Drew, Kyle, TJ, and I pre-gamed at Drew's -- mixing our standard Ginger & Captain's and taking more than our fair share of "security shots" [a term I drunkenly came up with to refer to that last shot (or two) you take before going out to ensure you don't leave for the bars sober]. Naturally, we had to ensure we were extra "secure" in order to brave the storm *literally* which inevitably led to a drunken night that allowed me a whole 15 minutes of sleep before leaving to catch our flight to Cairns.

This marked the beginning of a nothing-short-of-disastrous day. When I say that I slept 15 minutes that entire day, I might be exaggerating. I quite possibly had 5 or 10, MAX. Boy did my deliriousness make for an interesting beginning to our trip. Morgan, Andrea, and I started by arriving at the Kings Cross train station just as the train was pulling away. You sure do run in to a few interesting character sitting at a train station at 4 in the morning. There was one "homie" [a term we used to refer to homeless people] who had blood shot eyes, could not formulate real sentences, and was walking with a swagger that can only be compared to a throughly intoxicated Jack Sparrow. When I say blood shot, I mean RED. Like the entire sclera was RED. Homies don't generally make me that uncomfortable but I tried my best to steer clear of this one. Problem is, he was a talker. Cue iPod and book. 16 minutes later, we were saved by the train and ventured on to the airport. Having lost those 16 minutes, we had to make up for it by making a mad dash to the gate. Harder than it may seem especially when you've only had minutes of sleep, are likely still drunk, and are carrying a large duffel bag (because we didn't want to have to pay extra to check a bag... duh). We arrive at the gate only to find out our flight has been delayed. Would have been nice to know so I could have saved myself from feeling like I was going to die! We boarded the plane and were taxiing for 30 minutes (further delayed by the massive downpour that contributed to Sydney's worse flooding in 5+ years) when we are stopped because this middle aged asian had health complications. So... that took another 45 minutes to address -- medical personel had to come on board and access the situation, the family left the plane, and it took another 20 minutes for the plane to fill out all of the paperwork. In hindsight, I feel absolutely terrible for this person but in the middle of it all, I'm not gonna lie, I was thoroughly annoyed. It took 20 more minutes for the Captain to get clearance to leave before we were able to take flight. Too delirious to read, too uncomfortable to actually sleep, too rainy to see outside, and two sleepy girls beside me... the next 2.5 hours were spent staring at the seat in front of me.

We arrived in Cairns 2.5 hours later than the anticipated arrival time, caught a cab and headed to the hotel. The cab was $24 (split 3 ways) but there's an airport shuttle option for $12 for those of you traveling alone. The hotel was booked and paid for by Kyle but everything in Australia is so lax that we were able to check in as him. However, the front desk informed us that they charge $50 for each additional person over the 2 the room was booked for so Morgan told them that she would be staying with a friend (keep in mind, there's 3 of us checking in). Being unable to contact Kyle (because he didn't have a phone) and worried that he might show up and blow our "cover", we decided to wait outside for him. 4 hours passed from the time he was supposed to arrive and we grow increasingly worried. Tired and hungry, Andrea and I decided to wander the town in search of food and to get me a cell phone. Another hour passes and we return to find that Kyle has still not arrived. A new front desk person has arrived so we decide to leave him a note at the front desk and head to our ocean view room - the one thing that seemed to work in our favor that day! When there's a knock at the door, we open it up to find Kyle (he's alive!!). Turns out his plane was delayed for 5 hours due to the flooding in Sydney. Dinner is spent at Grill'd - a chain of burger bars that sell the most delicious and healthy assortment of burgers for about $15. If you are ever in Australia and see one, I highly recommend you try it especially if you're Gluten Free. Tummy's happy and full, it was off to bed for me. Much needed rest will be required to enjoy the full day of touring the National Daintree Rainforest I had ahead of me.