Monday, July 9, 2012

7/1: BrisVegas

Okay getting sick and being sick is the reason for me not being current with this blog...kind of. Also, I kind of forget about it. But mostly, it's because I'm sick.

Friday: Finally, we slept in. Until like 10, but still. That's way later than we normally sleep in. So we got up, lazed around Minto for a while, and decided to figure out our plans for the weekend, mostly dealing with trying to go dolphin kayaking in Byron Bay (spoiler alert: we finally figured it out and went on Sunday). So after finally getting dressed and moving around 12, we decided to go grab lunch and walk around until 5, which we had booked to go rock climbing on the Kangaroo Point Cliffs, right off the Brisbane River. Of course, by 5, the sun had set. They had lights on the rocks but still. Rock climbing is difficult by itself without also being in the dark. Now, I've never been rock climbing before. Not even on like a climbing wall. And now, I know that for the most part, I don't really want to do it again. Our "instructor's" name was Proud and he looked like Crocodile Dundee. He had the hair, the hat, and I'm pretty sure he had a knife. He kept showing me "handholds" which were really just cracks in the rock. I was like, "Are you serious? A crack in the rock which I can barely fit a finger into is not a handhold, it's a hazard!!" So I didn't make it up too high, but high enough that I feel proud of myself. After that, we were all pretty tired and beat up but after a refreshing dinner of pizza and fries, we decided to man up and go out. We eventually found ourselves at this really nice bar that overlooked the river and had awesome music, including a Grease medley and Thriller. So we're definitely going back there again.

Saturday: So we decided to sleep in again. What a surprise!! We then decided to get up, grab lunch, and go see a movie. Rock of Ages to be exact. It was pretty good actually. Tom Cruise was perfect in that role and the cast was pretty flawless. Plus it reminded me of some great songs. Then it was time to get ready for the Carrie Underwood concert. We got back, showered, got dressed, and grabbed dinner at an Asian restaurant on South Bank before me, Kristi, and Taylor went to the concert. It was actually really good. The opening act was this Irish guy who had a great voice and funny dance moves and Carrie was really good because she's actually a singer. After the concert, we were all pretty tired and we knew we had to get up early tomorrow so we just went back and went to sleep.

Sunday: The big day. Got up at 5:30 to catch the bus at 6 to get the Greyhound at 7. Yeah you read that right. We didn't realise Byron Bay was so far away - 4 hours by Greyhound. Whatever. After a nice nap on the bus, we got into Byron and it was beautiful. Total beach town but not as crazy and touristy as Cairns. We got lunch and ate it on the beach - amazing. After laying on the beach for a while, we lazily walked over to where we would go kayaking with the dolphins. After debating the merits of wetsuit vs. no wetsuit (went without - cold water doesn't bother me so much) and Kristi almost freaking out when the guides started joking about shark repellent, we grabbed our kayaks and headed for the ocean. Now, in these kayaks, you're in pairs and naturally, I drew the short straw when deciding pairs and ended up going with one of the guides. Which was fine actually. Didn't have to do much and he was super nice. Until some lady, who had flipped her kayak trying to get out past the breaking point, freaked out and decided she didn't want to be there anymore. So the guide I was with had to take her in and I got stuck paired with her daughter. Who couldn't really speak English and was a horrible kayaker. So essentially, I kayaked by myself. She would try to help, really, but she just kept messing up my steering. Even with all her "help" though, I managed to keep us heading in the right direction and I didn't flip us coming in, one of the only kayaks to stay upright. And the dolphins we saw were well worth the trouble. They were jumping and swimming right by the kayaks, it was really cool. After we got done with that, we caught our 4 hr Greyhound back to Brisbane and quickly went to sleep.

All in all, good weekend.

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