C and J Down Under: Cairns

Cairns was city 2 of 4. Cairns was a must. Hello, Great Barrier Reef! 

Tuesday afternoon we hopped on a flight two hours north to Cairns. Their north is our south, north means hotter. 60s in Sydney turned into 80s-90s in Cairns. You're so backwards, Oz!

We went from staying in someones home where they made us coffee every morning and drove us to and from the train stations, to staying in a hostel. Total 180 there as well!

We really only had one full day in Cairns, so the girl running the desk at the hostel scheduled our snorkeling excursion for us as soon as we got into town. We had to be at the pier bright and early the next morning. We ventured to the mall and the grocery that first night. Imagine our delight when we stumbled upon an Australian Target!

Australia also left me with a deep-running love for Cotton On! We laid low and lounged around by the pool at the hostel that night. Snacking on grapes and chatting about life. There's always plenty to fill the silence when you're two best friends who live on opposite ends of the country!

The next morning we boarded the Big Cat and headed out to snorkel the good ol' Great Barrier Reef.  I'll be honest. Snorkeling isn't my favorite. The mask gives you goofy indents on your face, I hate tasting salt water for hours on end, and in general I just get bored snorkeling and end up floating around soaking up the sun.

That being said, the water was gorgeous and the fish were bigger than any I had ever seen snorkeling. I'm glad that we went. It was an added bonus that there was a gorgeous beach nearby with equally as gorgeous Australian life guards (what? Just being honest... Australia has GREAT scenery. And that's before they even opened their mouths!)

We spent that night exploring Cairns, stopping for a drink or two and dinner. We had acquired some pretty gnarly sun burns and were facing another flight the next morning and kept it pretty tame though!