On the North-Eastern Coast

I got into Cairns at about 12 last night, then managed to check into my hotel at about 1. After trying not to wake up my dorm-mates, I fell asleep for about twelve hours. Not much going on today so far besides checking out the city. Alex and Tim said that they were goin skydiving today, I think, but I opted out to spend the day relaxing and exploring Cairns. So far, the most exciting thing I've seen is a bookstore that sells John D. MacDonald novels, and that's just on my street alone! (Okay, that might just be interesting to me)

The place that I'm staying at, Gilligan's, is pretty cool so far. The entire place seems geared towards people my age. There's an internet cafe on every floor, a bar and club on teh ground floor, a sweet little pool out back, and it looks like the place is situated right in the middle of town. Since the place is half hotel / half hostel, I am staying in a room with three more people. I haven't met them yet, even though two of them were there when I came in in the morning, I'm sure they're just lovely people.

Now, about Brisbane. When I last updated, I had no idea what I was going to do while waiting from my flight, besides maybe finding a quiet corner to catch some sleep in. I can easily say now that Brisbane is the most surprising place I have visited on this little trip. The city seems to be about the size of downtown Sydney, which is odd since Brisbane itself is nowhere by the ocean like every other Australia city I have seen. I had lunch in what was possibly the coolest, most charming cafe I have ever seen. I explored the Queen Street Mall and all of the massive shopping malls that border it. I met up randomly with this girl from Sweden while reading a book on a park bench, then hung out with her for the rest of the day. The day that I had thought would be filled with boredom and naps was instead filled with exploration, wonder, and sushi.

I have plans to go diving on the Great Barrier Reef, but I'll try to get another post up at some point afterwards. Later!