I woke up 1 minute
before my TARDIS alarm went off at 4.15am. So I discretely placed it
in the living room to awake my bestie Annie, who was sleeping over
due to the earliness of our flight to Sydney this morning. As I
emerged from the bathroom, Annie glared at me from the couch. “That
alarm is so bloody annoying!” She exclaimed. I love it however, as
it goes off 7 times with no way of turning it off, hence making
sleeping through the alarm almost impossible.
We had packed the night
before, so all we had to do was unplug our charging devices and
arrange a taxi. I decided to try and use an App I had recently
downloaded to arrange said taxi. “No way can it be that simple”
Annie apprehended, as we both thought the possibility of booking a
cab without having to talk to anyone was way too good to be true. The
App automatically used my phones current location, so we went to
await on the pavement outside my unit.
A few early morning
taxis had zoomed by, but no sign of our App booked one. With a minute
to go until the taxi was supposed to arrive, I double checked my
phone and realized the Location Services had pin pointed my address
incorrectly, it said we were a few houses down. I was about to call
the Taxi company when, by a happy accident, our minivan cab pulled up
in front of us anyway.
After some
misinterpretation of our flight details(first mine, then the cab
drivers), we were dropped off at the wrong terminal. But a small
morning walk never hurt anyone, so we paced it(in heels) to the
International Terminal. Once the cute guy behind the counter gave us
our tickets, we moved through the extensive international security
process. I was rather excited to be pulled out of the que and allowed
to be 'scanned for aliens' in the full Body Scanner machine, for the
first time. After I got the all clear, I also carried out my families
apparent tradition of always being bomb checked! I must have looked
way to happy, as Annie’s slightly anxious look allowed her to just
breeze through security.
I am sad to say that
the Cairns International Terminal is seriously lacking in things to
do while waiting. After finding out we were unable to buy duty free
booze, Annie and I entertained ourselves by people watching(AKA
checking out attractive guys – which airports never seem to be
lacking in) over a breakfast sandwich and coffee. After the hours
dwindled by, we were allowed to board our plane, which was fresh from
Japan, and where I had another exciting first.
My isle seat was chosen
as the “support tray table” for the Air Hostess to do her safety
demo. All those cool toys: Life jacket, Air mask, and seat belt, were
literally in my lap. After our take off, which as usual consisted of
hard flapping(another family tradition, where we flap our hands to
help the plane take off), I promptly fell asleep. I would like to add
here, that I don't sleep on planes. I mean, I easily fall asleep
anywhere, but planes are too exciting. I'm the person that fills
their carry on with books, Nintendo games, music etc. and spend the
entire flight immersed in my own entertainment. When I awoke to hear
that we had arrived, I was rather shocked I didn't get to read my
book!
Mid Saturday morning we
arrived in Sydney. Annie and I had the unique(well, unique for me, as
I normally travel with my family of 5 which consists of lots of bags)
advantage of being able to high-tail it to the taxi rank first, due
to our having only carry on luggage.
Our heavily accented,
aviator clad cabbie was new, and had to ask a fellow driver for
directions to our 'hotel'. Despite his fuel cover hanging open, and
our lack of city driving experience(which involved the liberal use of
tail gating, sudden stopping, and horns, that seemed normal in the
dense city traffic) we arrived at our destination in one piece.
I was in charge of
organizing our plane, and Annie booked our accommodation. We almost
walked straight past the narrow flight of stairs that led up off the
busy street. Judging from the person with a sign wanting money “for
hookers and booze”, it seemed much more 'budget backpacker' than we
were originally led to believe. I found our first experience in a
backpackers rather exciting, despite a small part of my brain being
irrationally concerned with getting robbed and going home covered in
beg bugs. We walked through the Common Area, where barefooted,
trackie clad people were Skyping and cooking packet soup on the
window sill. Despite my feeling slightly out of place in heels and a
fake fur trimmed jacket, we made it up the three flights of stairs to
our Penthouse room.
The room consisted of a
hard double bed, a bunk, an old TV that looked like it might short
circuit if we turned it on, and a rusty sink. The charm was completed
by the bare light globe hanging from the ceiling, and view of a
rubbish covered roof surrounded by back walls of buildings. The beds
were stripped when we arrived, with pillow-case-less pillows and
donas unceremoniously dumped in the corner of the room. Thinking we
had to make our own beds, we started to work when a knock on the door
revealed the cleaners were just running behind time. So we popped out
for an explore around the block, before coming back and passing out
on the beds in lieu of the Mardi Gras Parade.
We had bought outfits
appropriate to clubbing in Cairns, but now felt they were too dressy
for Mardi Gras, so we wore the same clothes from the plane. After a
early dinner at a local Kebab place, we meandered to Oxford street to
find a spot. Annie has wanted to see the Mardi Gras parade for about
10 years, but hadn't found anyone willing to go with her before. I'm
always up for an adventure, and the effort put into this parade
sounded promising, so last year when she mentioned that she's always
wanted to go – I said I'd be happy to go with her. So of course we
had to get a front row spot.
We turned up a good 3
hours early, with a threateningly grey sky. The Hotels surrounding
were covered in bright rainbow banners, and people cheering those on
the street. Merchants were walking around selling rainbow flags, and
“body condoms”(ponchos). While we waited and enjoyed spotting
those that had dressed all out for the parade. As the time dwindled
by, we quickly got boxed in, and volunteers spent time rallying up
the crowd with cheers of “MARDI GRAS”, the Mexican Wave, and
Cheering competitions with those on the other side of the street.
By 7pm a few groups
from the parade dwindled down the street, handing out coloured beads,
paper flags, and other assorted knick knacks. A massive flood of
vibrating bike engines announced the Dykes on Bikes, which marked the
beginning of the parade. I got a few hard punches in the back at this
point, from an unpleasant mother supposedly asking me to morph into
the Japanese lady next to me so her little daughter can stand between
myself and Annie. This frustrated me, as we were so crowded already,
and rude people like her should have shown up earlier if they wanted
to be at the front. For the entire parade I was so cramped that I
literally couldn't put both feet on the ground(one was always resting
on the barricade due to lack of floor space), and I was constantly
crouched as people had multiple cameras overhead that they would pull
or bang into my hair occasionally.
The parade itself was
enough to distract from the unpleasantness of the crowd. Full of
colour, and life, and energy. Admittedly my highlight was when life
sized, pink, Daleks paraded down, promoting signs saying “Exterminate
Homophobia”. There were some very talented dancers, interesting
sexual costumes, pretty men, and manly women. We got a surprise when
Delta Goodrem herself came along singing on a float!
After the cascade of
amazing floats ended, and the parade finished, which lasted a good 3
hours, we made a quick pit stop at the local IGA for some water(we
had gone without for at least 6 hours) and followed the rush of
crowds out. I would like to complement the police force, as they were
always present throughout the parade, and were now doing an excellent
job channeling the flow of drunks safely away from traffic.
Our hotel was a
welcomed sight, as all thoughts of going out for a Rum and Coke
vanished once we collapsed on our beds and instantly fell asleep. A
rather abrupt wakeup call sometime around 6am was coursed by a few
loud mouths still enjoying the celebrations in (what sounded like)
the room below us. But after a shower, quick pack up, and check out
at 10am, we decided to go for a walk to Darling Harbor.
An explore around China
Town, and getting lost trying to find Paddington’s Markets we opted
to catch the free Shuttle Bus to have lunch at Circular Quay. We
found a place on the waters-edge that served an amazing beef burger,
and had coffee while watching a busking Gold Man. As it started to
drizzle, Annie was impressed with the amount of gentlemen holding
umbrellas for their lady. I bought a fridge magnet for my collection,
and we decided to try and figure out the trains to get to the
Airport.
We a an uneventful trip
home. I fell asleep again, while Annie worked on her Blog: Confidence
is Key. Once we returned to our homes, the early hours of the morning
were upon us. Both our cats greeted us with loud meows, and my pet
rats happily scuttled up the the comer of the cage to get a pat. All
in all it was a fantastic adventure. One that shall be the basis for
further horizons, and further adventures of us Two Broke Girls.
