Happy Australia Day!!

Today we woke up and both had showers after a very hot night. At one point I'd woken up cold, presumably due to the air conditioning, which automatically turns itself off after three hours, and at another point I'd woken up too hot.

We went and checked into the hostel now the reception was open and he told us some basic stuff about Cairns. Then we wandered down towards the esplanade to see what was going on. It was about 11am by this point and we expected it to be busy as Australia Day is a public holiday. It was raining on and off but it was very hot. We walked past a lagoon which was on the seafront and made a mental note visit if the weather improved on a future day. We were surprised by the distinct lack of people hanging around. There was a stage with some kids entertainers on, facepainting, bouncy castles and some food stalls. We got our faces painted and wandered along the esplanade for a while. The beach at Cairns is not picturesque at all. I'm not sure if it was just because the tide was out but it was pretty much a whole load of mud, with the sea far away. But there was some nice surrounding mountains and forests.

After this, we went to a shop called the reject shop, via St Monika's cathedral. The building from the outside wasn't impressive at all but it has really beautiful windows. At the shop we bought a few little things, including a big beach bag for myself, as the prices were really cheap.   

After this we headed back towards the esplanade and sat on a grass area in front of the stage listening to the bands. There was one pretty decent one called The Night Shift. They provoked some pretty interesting dance moves from some older gentlemen on attendance. A lot more people had turned up by this point.

We got the free pick up bus back to the hostel at 7pm, quickly cooked some pasta with carbonara sauce, showered and got the free bus back into town again. We went to a bar/club called the woodshed which we had been told by multiple was pretty good. It was ladies night and we had VIP wristbands which were apparently useless. We did however receive a card on entry which entitled us to 5 free cocktails. Although it soon turned out that the cocktail was champagne and juice. Neither me or Lauren like champagne, although the first glass didn't taste of it too strongly. We left around half 11 and walked back to the hostel to go to bed.