*deep breath* I’ve been putting off writing about Australia because the thought intimidates me. We spent a week and a half there, did something incredible almost every day, and I want to tell you wonderful blog readers ALLLLLLLL about our adventures. I have a long list of highlights from our trip that I want to write about, so this might take a while…but here goes:
We landed in Cairns on December 26th…..which is a holiday that I have never celebrated. I remember seeing “Boxing Day” printed on the calendars that we had at home growing up as a child, but never really gave it much thought. Boxing Day is a national holiday in several English speaking places around the world—the UK, South Africa, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, etc. While it means that most full time employees have the day off, it’s also kind of like a Black Friday. TONS of people go shopping, and there are lots of sales that day. We witnessed the madness of the mall when we went there that afternoon.
From the airport, we immediately went to our hostel to check in, drop off our luggage, and change into shorts and flip flops. The atmosphere of our hostel was incredible. Both desk workers were extremely helpful with ANY questions we had (the ENTIRE time we were there) from how the buses work to if going to the zoo was really worth it (YES!). Plus, the entire walls of the entrance were full of brochures for location attractions. We spent a bit of time combing through them and seeing what would be interesting to do/see within our budget. I really, really enjoyed the layout of our hostel. The inside was hostel rooms, showers, a kitchen, couches, etc….typical hostel stuff, but the outside really made it. There was all kinds of foliage and palm trees around, a cabana area, BBQ area, hammock, and small swimming pool. We enjoyed many meals and downtime by the hammock and pool. 
Our room was just so-so. I mean….generally you get what you pay for with a hostel. It was five beds in one room—dormitory style—nothing to write home about.
Once we we set up, we went out to explore. We had reserved three bikes for our time in Cairns and picked those up from the bike shop. We immediately went to the seaside. Unfortunately, there is no beach in Cairns. When the tide is in, the water comes all the way up to the concrete dike along the boardwalk (picture below). When it goes out, it reveals a disgusting muddy sand beach that no one in their right mind would swim in. (The nicer beaches are about thirty minutes north of Cairns in Palm Cove.) Since the residents of Cairns know this, there is an impressive swimming pool (known as the lagoon) right on the water’s edge. The lagoon is probably the size of a football field and shaped like the Australian state of Queensland. It had varying depths—from a few inches to 1.5 meters—for swimmers of all ages. What made the lagoon even better was that it was right next to the boardwalk, so once you got finished swimming, you could go for a walk.
After exploring all afternoon, we were getting hungry, so we headed back to the mall to grab some dinner at the food court. It being our first day, we were surprised at the prices of our food. I had a piece of lasagna and a Coke, and the meal cost me over $10. I couldn’t believe it! However, the real kicker came after we ate. Ian wanted to go see a movie, and The Hobbit was playing. While I don’t give a darn about ANY of the LOTR books or movies, I was outvoted 2:1. In Australia there are no ticket prices listed. Instead, you wait in the long concession line with everyone else for your tickets. When we finally got up to the counter and ordered three tickets and one medium Coke, we were BLOWN AWAY by the price. Would anyone like to guess? Mind you it was a 3D movie, so we knew that it would be a little more expensive. However, the total came up to a WHOPPING $78!!! 
We couldn’t believe it. I was incredibly angry at that point, and to add insult to injury I HATED the movie.
Throughout our time in Cairns, we would realize that Australia is very, VERY expensive. Whenever I went to Europe, I thought Wow, stuff is expensive here. Then I went to Japan and though Wow, stuff is really expensive here. Finally I went to Australia and thought *%$#@!! STUFF IS SUPER EXPENSIVE HERE!! Whenever we’d go out to eat, Ian and I would easily spend $30-40. It’s not because we would go to fancy places or order the most expensive thing on the menu—far from it!! We were lucky if we could find an entrée on the menu for $10. Add drinks, and our wallet was crying by the end of the meal. 
One night we went to the grocery store for some basic supplies—bread, meat, and cheese for sandwiches, eggs for breakfast, cookies and granola for snacks, and Melissa bought some aloe for her burns, and our total came up to about $70! We walked out of the store with only three (not even full) bags of food. We complained amongst ourselves and said that for that price, we could get a WHOLE SHOPPING CART of food in the States! Just to give you an idea of how expensive things were in Australia, here’s common grocery item prices.
fresh pineapple: $4-5
dozen eggs: (the CHEAPEST) $3
loaf of bread: (the CHEAPEST) $2.50
24 pack of Coke: $25
Yes, food was definitely what we spent the most money on. Even buying a Coke to drink was expensive! A typical 20 ounce bottle would easily cost $3-5. With prices being so high, we were confused as to how the common Joe could afford to live in Australia! However, we learned that minimum wage is $16. Meaning…..skilled labor is at least double that. My goodness!
One thing that I wasn’t counting on while being there was culture shock. I’ve never been to Australia, but I was assuming that it would be just like any other westernized nation. For the most part it was, but there were still a few things….. For example, there were SEVERAL people walking around barefoot. I understand walking barefoot around the lagoon area or in the grass at the park. However, we’d see barefoot people walking down sidewalks, at the mall, etc. These people weren’t lower class or anything. It just seemed…..normal. Another thing was clothing choices. While Cairns is a tropical touristy town and many people wear cute summer dresses, linen shirts, and flip-flops, some of the fashion trends blew our minds. We saw many belly shirts—BELLY SHIRTS! Those haven’t been in style since…….. Another unfortunate trend was the short-short-SHORT shorts. These were so short that the lower bum of the wearer showed. We asked our Australian friend, Amanda, about them, and she said that unfortunately they were a trend. 
The last culture shocking thing was actually reverse culture shock. I’m so used to NOT speaking English in a public setting that speaking English EVERYWHERE actually intimidated me. I don’t remember having this feeling whenever we went home last summer. I feel like it was this way because at home, everyone else sounds like me whereas in Australia, I WAS the one with the accent. There were a few occasions when I had to repeat myself because store clerks or servers couldn’t understand me.
Well, that’s all for now! I’ve got loads more to discuss, so keep reading!
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