Rainforest and Great Barrier Reef

Sorry that I haven't blogged in a while! I'm busy here in Cairns, there's so much to see and do.

Some days ago I went on a rainforest tour. We swam in waterfalls and a volcanic lake, walked in the rainforest, saw big spiders and colorful butterflies and looked for the Australian animal platypus. Platypus is not only the name of a Green Day song, it's also a strange and rare animal. I saw one, but sadly I didn't manage to take a picture. It was nice to swim in waterfalls even though the water was cold, not something you do everyday. Nice day overall, nice experiences and nice people. Nice is the word.

The three most common things people ask to me here in Australia:
1. Nice earrings, did you make them yourself? (No, I bought them, I'm not that creative)
2. Nice tattoo, it's something with a band, isn't it? (Yeah, and the band is called Green Fucking Day)
3. Are you from Germany? (No, 100 people have asked me before you did, but I'm actually from Sweden)

There are lots of Swedish people here in Cairns, much more than in any other place in Australia. I almost hear more Swedish than English. I met two Swedish girls in the beginning of this week and one of them came from my hometown! Not only my hometown, but my neighborhood too. I also randomly met one of the girls I shared a room with at Surf Camp 2 months ago. It's a small world.

Today I went on a snorkel trip to the Great Barrier Reef. To snorkel or dive was a must-do for me when I went here. I was going to do a diving course at first, but I'll do that some other time instead. You can't have time and money to do everything. Snorkelling there was so awesome, it was like swimming in a huge aquarium. So many fishes and corals in different colors. I was lucky enough to see a turtle and a little shark too! I got close to the shark, but it was a harmless one, so it wasn't scary. Most sharks are more afraid of us than we are of them. Anyway, you have to go and visit the Great Barrier Reef sometime in your life. It was exactly like people told me it would be, amazing.

Bungy jump

Today I've probably done the craziest thing I've ever done. A bungy jump! It was the first point on my must-do-list when I went to Australia, actually one of the reasons why I decided to go here. I did it very spontaneously, just like everything else I've done in this country. I think that's the best way, cause I didn't have much time to get nervous. 

Here in Cairns they have the only bungy jump in Australia and it's 50 meters high. It felt good to "only" jump 50 meters the first time. In New Zealand and other places you can jump 100 meters or even more, but that would have been too extreme I think. 

I got really nervous before I did it. I think the worst thing was to walk up the stairs to the platform, then you could see how high it was. 50 meters look higher when you're looking down than when you're standing down on the ground. At least it was a beautiful view over the rain forest. 

My strategy to manage to do it was to not think too much about it. The only things I thought were:

1. You know how much you wanna do it. 

2. You'll regret this if you don't do it.

3. You better do this now so you have it done.

Just like skydiving, the worst part of it was to jump. When you had managed to jump off the edge it was an amazing feeling. Scary, but amazing. I almost get an adrenaline rush just by thinking about it. It was scarier than skydiving, but not as scary as I expected it to be. Even if I was screaming so loud that whole Cairns could hear me it was so much fun. One of the guys that were working there called me extreme Emma, haha. He also said that I jumped so naturally that it seemed like I had done it before. 

I enjoyed it, I really did. I recommend everyone to do it once in a lifetime. Of course it's scary, but if you don't do things just because you're scared you'll get a pretty boring life. 

Here you have some pictures and a video! I have a video of the skydiving as well, but haven't been able to upload it. I'll show you guys when I come home. 

The lagoon and a piece of Sweden

My first day in Cairns has turned out good. The first thing that happened when I walked out on the street was that I found a Swedish shop. They sold Swedish candy and food and the staff spoke Swedish. I felt like I was at home for a while. I've missed Swedish stuff. It felt strange to speak Swedish though. Even if I can find words and expressions easier in Swedish it feels more natural to speak English now. It's weird. After I had bought some candy I found a sign which said "Bolands centre". It's funny, cause one of my old schools is called Boland.

In the afternoon I went on a walk along the coast line and then I went to the lagoon. It's a big pool area outdoors here in Cairns. I spent some time there swimming, sunbathing and chilling. It has been 32 degrees here today, not bad for an autumn day.

I think Cairns is my favorite city in Australia so far. It's not too big or too small, the surroundings are nice and I like it here. You know, you just like some cities more than others.

Cairns calling

I left Alice Springs yesterday, I spent my last day there going to the reptile center. There's not very much to do in Alice Springs, so I felt like I had to do what there is to do. They had a lot of lizards and snakes and even a crocodile. You could hold a snake if you wanted to, I did. I've never touched a snake that big before. It was an olive python and of course it wasn't venomous. Quite interesting to learn more about reptiles and to see many different kinds of them.

A thing that really made my day yesterday was that I found the Rolling Stone paper with the interview with Billie Joe about his stay at rehab. It's nice to have the paper even though I've read the article on internet before. You can read it here if you want to: http://www.greendayauthority.com/articles/176/1/ It's a really good interview. One of the reasons why I like Billie Joe so much is that he seems so wise and honest. He has made mistakes, but who hasn't? I admire him because he deals with his problems. I admire him even more because he has gone through so much shit and he never gives up. He's still an awesome person in an awesome band. He shows everyone that you can accomplish great things even if your life hasn't been easy. I hope he knows how much he inspires me and other people.

Now I've spent my first night in Cairns and I've got a good impression of this place so far. All the people I've met here are nice, the city seems nice and there are exciting things to do. I'm in a good mood right now. I've found some job opportunities too, feels like I'm going to have a great time here. I hope I will, because the last days haven't been easy for me. I think they have been the toughest ones so far on this trip. I've been away from home for a long time now and even if it's great to be here it isn't always easy. But even if I feel a little bit homesick and miss some people at home very much I can't give up now. I still have things I wanna do before I'm finished here. After all I've managed to be here two months already and I've managed to do this all on my own.

Big blog post

I’m finally in Alice Springs after an adventurous and amazing week. I’ve seen and done so much cool things. Some things I’ve never done before and some things on my must-do-list here in Australia. I went on a tour from Adelaide to Alice Springs together with about 15 other people. Most of us were from Europe, but some were from Australia too. We went through South Australia and Northern Territory and saw much of the Australian outback. Never been travelling so much by bus in my entire life. I took about 500 pictures and have lots to tell you, so be prepared for a long post!

Our first stop on the trip was a pub in the country side where we were going to do wine tasting. There were grape fields everywhere around. I don’t usually like wine, but the wines we tasted were good. On the first evening we stayed in a village with a population of 7 people, a big difference when you’re used to living in places like Sydney and Melbourne. But it was nice to get to a more calm and quiet place. We had emu burger, camel sausage and kangaroo for dinner. It tasted good, not strange or anything. The camel sausage tasted pretty much like a usual sausage. The kangaroo meat was almost everyone’s favorite.

I like the Australian outback, the people, the pubs and the atmosphere are nice. There is always a pub, no matter how small the village is. The only thing that isn’t nice is the flies. So many flies everywhere, and they try to fly into your eyes, nose and mouth all the time. After this week I can say that there aren’t as many spiders here as you might expect. Of course there are spiders, but I only saw two quite big ones during the week.

We went to Flinders Rangers the second day to do some hiking. We walked several kilometers and the mountain was 900 meters high. It was the hardest walk we did during the week and everyone was exhausted after we had done that. The view was really stunning though. I hiked in my converse because I didn’t have any other shoes. You can do anything in converse, I’ve proved that. We saw many wild animals that day, kangaroos, emus and an unusual lizard our guide had never seen before. We also went to a cave with aboriginal rock art and to some old ruins.

The third day was one of the best ones. First we went to a salt lake (not a real lake anymore, just salt) where we took funny pictures. The area was really flat and you could easily take pictures where you pretended to lift people in your hands or to stamp on them. On our way to Coober Pedy we found the Australian Abbey Road and took one of our many group pictures. When we arrived that afternoon we went to a kangaroo orphanage where they took care of hurt or ill kangaroos. It was the best thing during the whole trip if you ask me. The kangaroos were so cute and funny and we even got to feed them! There was a baby kangaroo which was the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. Wish I could have brought him/her with me! In the evening we went to an underground bar. Everything is underground in Coober Pedy, people even live underground.

Coober Pedy is a mine village where they have found lots of opals. On the fourth day we visited the old mine and learned more about opals. We even went out to look for opals, but I did only find usual stones. Then we continued our trip and at the end of the day we crossed the border to Northern Territory. We saw a wild dingo (an Australian wild dog). This night was the first night we slept under the stars. We sat by a fire and grilled marshmallows, the only thing that was missing was a guitar. The night sky was the most beautiful sky I’ve ever seen, so many stars! We slept in swags. The word swag probably has a completely different meaning to you, but in Australia it’s something you put your sleeping bag into to keep yourself warm.

We went to Kings Canyon the fifth day. The walk in the mountains felt like nothing compared to the one we did in Flinders Rangers. Amazing landscape and views, everything is big in Australia. No wonder why Australian people have told me that they like big things in Australia.

On the sixth day we finally got to Uluru, or Ayers Rock as it also is called. The big rock. It feels like you have to go and visit it when you’re in Australia. It was cool to see it in real life. We also visited an Aboriginal museum where we learned more about Aboriginals and their culture. It’s strange that they are a minority in their own country.

On the last day we had to go up at 4.30 am to watch the sunrise over Uluru. Totally worth it though, it was one of the best moments on the trip. It was incredibly beautiful to slowly see the sun rise over the rock. I think I like sunrises more than sunsets, because you don’t get to see them often. Afterwards we walked around Kata Tjuta and saw even more rock formations. Then we went on the final trip to Alice Springs and the tour was finished.