Half the group’s trip ended in cairns because they didn’t choose the extra two
day cape tribulation excursion. Me and the other half said our goodbyes
and continued on. Cape trib was nothing spectacular but it was nice to
see more of Australia including zip lining high up in the canopy of one of the
oldest rainforests in the world. Many people sky dived ok this trip but
to be honest I was happy not doing anything “extreme” with the exception of zip
lining and bungy jumping - one time. My bungy would be in Queenstown.
After cape trib we ended in cairns and said our goodbyes. We finished around 330pm and I had a flight at 9pm. Raj helped me by letting me store my stuff in his room and take a shower, which we then met a couple of the guys - Izaak and Adam at the pool of the place we stayed at with the group (because we knew it was open to everyone). I brought the football I had bought and we threw the ball around. The pool was quite full with people and I kind of wished I could stay there for a couple days and relax. While catching some sun I heard someone ask when the pool was open until, a woman’s voice but had my shirt over my face and couldn’t see who it was. I responded with I think it was open pretty late and when we started talking more I took the shirt off my face to see who I was talking to and it was a lovely woman from the Netherlands with the cutest accent I’ve ever heard sitting next to me. I always truly appreciate when someone can communicate so deeply with second and even third languages, she really impressed me with the quality of conversation paired with a cute outfit, hat, personality, and looks. I told her I wished I could stay and she joked that I could stay if I wanted to, something that became ironic in about three hours.
Raj and I went to dinner at suan suan Chinese hot pot. It was my first time at a hot pot and it was delicious. I forgot my football in the restaurant and caught an Uber from Raj’s room. When I arrived at the airport it looked rather empty, but wasn’t the first time I flew out of a quiet airport so I went inside confidently. In the entire airport there was one girl sitting on the chairs, and no flights for several hours, my flight was not even listed. I got to talk to the girl sitting in the chairs as I was waiting for airlines to help me sort out my flights- she was a girl from a small city in rural Australia that had a scholarship to play rugby in Missouri- quite random and nice to talk to her.
Apparently after dealing with airlines and figuring out what happened, my flight was changed two months ago but the third party app never notified me- and even sent me the wrong times two days ago in their confirmation itinerary. This had never happened to me before. The worst part was that the third party ticket used two separate airlines, one to Melbourne domestically and another for Queenstown international. Sorting out the tickets took some change fees and loss of time, but meant I was staying in cairns one more night. I messaged Izaak and the Dutch woman to say I would be back shortly, and we decided to meet at the restaurant at the pool. I checked into a new dorm style room for the evening where I met my roommate sitting on her bed looking quite bored. I asked her what she was doing and she said waiting for the other roommate (who she didn’t know) to get back so she could go out- it was her first day and she didn’t know anything about the city. I invited her to come downstairs with my friends and she joined us. We had a fun evening; we met the Dutch woman downstairs and her friends knew my friends which worked out well, and a talent show was starting. They called out each country and the residents of that country cheered, when they got to America I yelled loudly but quickly realized in a rather large crowd I was the only American there, something I should be getting used to but still surprised me. It turns out there were two other Americans there and unfortunately they were the worst act in the entire talent show. You win some you lose some I guess. I got made fun of a bit in good spirit and accepted my country’s poor showing that evening. In Australia they have been using this term “taking a piss at someone” or “taking the piss out of someone” or other variations of it. They have many more phrases and sayings that really confuse me, but that means to “joke around” with someone, or “mess” with them.
The rest of the night went quite well I enjoyed getting to know the Dutch woman better and got some sleep before heading to the airport with Raj at 9 am. On my way down from the airport I was able to say good bye to the Dutch girl and also saw the group still left over from my group tour. Raj and I got to the airport and as we pulled up so did two others from our group, it turned out Liam and I were on the same flight to Melbourne, while Raj was headed to Singapore.
Liam and I hung out in Melbourne and checked out some local spots, we had a bit of an adventure. Liam was a mechanical engineer from Boeing who was interested in relocating from the UK to the Boeing in Melbourne. I have to admit melbourne is quite an awesome city to visit and I wouldn’t mind living there some day. Australia in general has been quite great (other than signs saying basically everything can kill you).
We had a fantastic dinner and I got to bed early, my flight to Queenstown was at 6 am.
After cape trib we ended in cairns and said our goodbyes. We finished around 330pm and I had a flight at 9pm. Raj helped me by letting me store my stuff in his room and take a shower, which we then met a couple of the guys - Izaak and Adam at the pool of the place we stayed at with the group (because we knew it was open to everyone). I brought the football I had bought and we threw the ball around. The pool was quite full with people and I kind of wished I could stay there for a couple days and relax. While catching some sun I heard someone ask when the pool was open until, a woman’s voice but had my shirt over my face and couldn’t see who it was. I responded with I think it was open pretty late and when we started talking more I took the shirt off my face to see who I was talking to and it was a lovely woman from the Netherlands with the cutest accent I’ve ever heard sitting next to me. I always truly appreciate when someone can communicate so deeply with second and even third languages, she really impressed me with the quality of conversation paired with a cute outfit, hat, personality, and looks. I told her I wished I could stay and she joked that I could stay if I wanted to, something that became ironic in about three hours.
Raj and I went to dinner at suan suan Chinese hot pot. It was my first time at a hot pot and it was delicious. I forgot my football in the restaurant and caught an Uber from Raj’s room. When I arrived at the airport it looked rather empty, but wasn’t the first time I flew out of a quiet airport so I went inside confidently. In the entire airport there was one girl sitting on the chairs, and no flights for several hours, my flight was not even listed. I got to talk to the girl sitting in the chairs as I was waiting for airlines to help me sort out my flights- she was a girl from a small city in rural Australia that had a scholarship to play rugby in Missouri- quite random and nice to talk to her.
Apparently after dealing with airlines and figuring out what happened, my flight was changed two months ago but the third party app never notified me- and even sent me the wrong times two days ago in their confirmation itinerary. This had never happened to me before. The worst part was that the third party ticket used two separate airlines, one to Melbourne domestically and another for Queenstown international. Sorting out the tickets took some change fees and loss of time, but meant I was staying in cairns one more night. I messaged Izaak and the Dutch woman to say I would be back shortly, and we decided to meet at the restaurant at the pool. I checked into a new dorm style room for the evening where I met my roommate sitting on her bed looking quite bored. I asked her what she was doing and she said waiting for the other roommate (who she didn’t know) to get back so she could go out- it was her first day and she didn’t know anything about the city. I invited her to come downstairs with my friends and she joined us. We had a fun evening; we met the Dutch woman downstairs and her friends knew my friends which worked out well, and a talent show was starting. They called out each country and the residents of that country cheered, when they got to America I yelled loudly but quickly realized in a rather large crowd I was the only American there, something I should be getting used to but still surprised me. It turns out there were two other Americans there and unfortunately they were the worst act in the entire talent show. You win some you lose some I guess. I got made fun of a bit in good spirit and accepted my country’s poor showing that evening. In Australia they have been using this term “taking a piss at someone” or “taking the piss out of someone” or other variations of it. They have many more phrases and sayings that really confuse me, but that means to “joke around” with someone, or “mess” with them.
The rest of the night went quite well I enjoyed getting to know the Dutch woman better and got some sleep before heading to the airport with Raj at 9 am. On my way down from the airport I was able to say good bye to the Dutch girl and also saw the group still left over from my group tour. Raj and I got to the airport and as we pulled up so did two others from our group, it turned out Liam and I were on the same flight to Melbourne, while Raj was headed to Singapore.
Liam and I hung out in Melbourne and checked out some local spots, we had a bit of an adventure. Liam was a mechanical engineer from Boeing who was interested in relocating from the UK to the Boeing in Melbourne. I have to admit melbourne is quite an awesome city to visit and I wouldn’t mind living there some day. Australia in general has been quite great (other than signs saying basically everything can kill you).
We had a fantastic dinner and I got to bed early, my flight to Queenstown was at 6 am.
No comments:
Post a Comment