i feel like i'm living a dream. i was sitting at dinner tonight thinking about how awful it would be to wake up and realize that this wasn't real. sydney is such an incredible city. it's full of everything i ever wanted: culture, sunshine, and a wide variety of food.
today we went to manly beach. it's about a 30 minute ferry ride from the harbor. as i said the other day, when we went to bondi beach, it was pretty crappy weather, which didn't necessarily ruin the experience, it just wasn't as awesome. so as we were boarding the ferry, we saw a girl that we typically see at the breakfast table at the hostel by herself. we didn't know her at all, so we asked her if she wanted to hang out with us at the beach. her name is fredrica (i probably butchered that spelling) and she is from germany. and oh my gosh. the beach was amazing. fredrica fit right in with us. she went out and started crashing through the waves. kristan and i followed. that's right, i faced the ocean. and it was scary, but SO fun. but i'm not so good at having salt water in my eyes, so i went back to the towel a bit early. we decided it was time to leave the beach after an abnormally large wave came spilling up the beach and drowned all of our belongings as we scrambled to pull as much away as possible. my sandals went floating out to sea, however. BUT kristan saved the day and went bombing out into the frothy water and sloshed around until she found both of them.
*break*
this is now two days later. we've gone from sydney (the greatest town on earth) and made it to cairns. after the beach we went to mardi gras. mardi gras is nothing like you think it is in the states. i didn't see any boobs and i didn't see any beads. but what i did see, were many drag queens and close to 1 million people stuffed within about a 4 block radius. there was such good energy in the air. it was simply a pride festival. and we spent it with three other amazing ladies from around the globe. the only crappy thing is that we arrived a little late. the parade starts at 8 pm and people apparently had camped out to get good seats. we didn't get there until about...8. there were about 4 rows of people back on each street, the last row standing on stools. past that there was simply a gigantic MOB of people, shoulder to shoulder, with no breathing room. i brushed bodies with many a half-naked boys who were with a dozen other half-naky boys. on the prowl for mostly naky boys. it was great. eventually, we found an alley that, even though still stuffed with people, miraculously had a window about 3 and a half feet up. so i had kristan boost me up there where i could see the parade, above everyone's heads. the police told me to move. i didn't. but they moved on anyway, so what do i care? it was a really great experience and i'm glad i didn't fall and break my neck off the windowsill.
so like i said, we're now in cairns. the day before we got here, a cyclone ripped through. apparently it was only a category 2 and moved up the coast. it's now a category 5. i'm glad we're not there. it's ridiculously hot here. thank GOD for a/c. i wouldn't make it without it. cairns is pretty small, probably the size of boise. today we went to a beach, thinking that it would save us from this heat and humidity. after a 40 minute bus ride, we got to the beach and it was CLOSED. the whole fucking thing. jelly season. they usually have nets up, but i guess they were extra bad today. so we cut our losses and bussed back. when i got extra car-sick. after my bout of nausea, we made it down to this pool/lagoon thing in the city and swam around. that was nice. but now it's dinner time and i'm running out of money on my internet. i'll write more soon.
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