I found Nemo!!
We arrived in Sydney, cleared customs, and I got a stamp in my passport!! I think, wait, maybe not...dunno, will check later...if I did its only the 2nd one in 10 countries!! Anyways, we checked into our hostel, it was a little sketchy but we were so tired it didn't really matter. We walked around Kings Cross, the whole area was a little sketchy but we survived. Found a backpacker travel agent place to figure something out for our time here but they were about to close sooo we grabbed food instead, then went back to the hostel and pretty much just passed out.
Thursday we woke up realllly early- like 4am but didn't really get up until about 8. We got ready and went to the travel place, talked to the girl for a while and considered a bunch of different options that would allow us to see a prety decent amount in 18 days. We eventualy decided on a Brown Dog tour which usually starts in Brisbane, goes through the outback up to Cairns and then from Cairns down the east coast to Brisbane. Butttt the next trip leaving from Brisbane wasn't until the 25th soooo we called and found out that we could fly up to Cairns and do the trip backwards and end back in Cairns! Sweet! So we booked flights to and from Cairns and then booked the Brown Dog trip. Its all inclusive- food, accomodation, travel, scuba, sailing, cattle farms, sheep sheering, EVERYTHING you can imagine! How sweet is that?! None of the other options covered as much ground or were as cool, they also weren't all inclusive and when we worked it out, this one was the best! I'm super excited!!
So, we left there and decided to walk into Sydney...that's when the heavens opened and we got absolutely soaked! Oh, I forgot to mention that this was also the coldest day in Sydney in Nov. Since 1905!! Rediculous!! 15degrees C. Sick. But we made it into Sydney, visited the Sydney Opera House, the Harbour Bridge, Circular Quay etc, the observatory, and I saw Nemo swimming around in the harbour!! :). We wandered around for a while before heading back to Kings Cross. When we got back we got a coffee and tried to start figuring out a plan of attack for New Zealand- hopefully something similar to this Brown Dog tour...not sure yet. Last night we just hung out, our hostel sucked as far as social people go and we started falling asleep pretty early so we weren't exactly social either...jetlag sucks. We went to bed somewhat early.
This morning (Fri) we got up, grabbed a shuttle and headed to the airport...this is where the confusion for today began. The shuttle dude asked where we were going so I told him Cairns (in Australia), he said, "oh internttional" so I said no, Cairns, but he insisted it was an international flight, so I let him. We arrived at the international terminal with an hour to spare but a line about 2 hours long, sooo we skipped the line and sweet-talked my way into getting us checked in ASAP. The dude at the desk made some smart-ass comment about how we should have been there earlier b/c it was international, so I impolitely informed him that I was pretty sure Cairns was in Australia, and yes a different state but not international. He said the plane was going to Japan and I should have been there earlier. Well, shit, how was I supposed to know?! Ugh. So he wrote in on my boarding pass (which was stupid since we give those to staf) that any flight number below a 400 was international and any flight number above was internal. Well ours was 167 and I guess we were supposed to be psychic to know that it was international. Whatever. The other lady at the counter was saying how there are always empty seats on this flight b/c people go to the internal terminal (a whole train station away, Sydney is not a small airport!) So clearly there's a flaw in there system and maybe Qantas should inform people of this!!
Anyways, we made our flight, others didn't. We arrived in Cairns 2 1/2 hours later and an hour behind- Cairns thinks daylight savings is stupid- smart people!! We called the hostel to be picked up, they asked what terminal we were in so I said international, she asked where we flew from, so I said Sydney and we stood outside to wait. We waited and waited, eventually the shuttle showed up, she had been at the internal terminal!! No shit!! That's what we thought too!! Damn Qantas!! Although the food they served was amazing!! So we finally made it to the hostel and its amazing!! We're currently sitting by the pool!!! A pool at a hostel?! Sweet!! Its 28degrees C and beautiful!!
So there ya go!! I'm all caught up and we're ready to embark on a whirlwind tour of Queensland, OZ. :)
...Makesure you read below b/c I posted all of Prague earlier today!
P.S. I'm 15 hours ahead of FL, and 10hours ahead of England :) its going to be xmas and new year for me before allll of you!! Muhahahaha :)
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posted by Kirby @ 8:37 PM
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