Life in a share house

Mid June- Mid July

Life in a share house

         Our share house is a two story house that is broken down into three separate apartments. Each apartment has either 5 or 6 rooms, 2 bathrooms, a living room and a kitchen. We all share a big backyard that has a hammock, hot tub and BBQ grill. The only commitment required to live there is that you will stay for at least 4 weeks, so there are people moving in and out regularly. When we moved in everyone else in our apartment was British and when we moved there were was an Australian, two Americans and two Argentinians. It was a fairly diverse group of people in the house, but most were young travelers stopping for a while in Cairns either to work or study English. We really liked most of our room mates and overall it was a fun place to live. Cairns as a town however is rather boring.

         Thank goodness three of the girls I met on the sailing trip were also in Cairns for the month that Pat and I were there. I spent a lot of days with the girls laying in the sun down at the lagoon. In general we lacked creativity so when it rained (which happened for about 1 week straight) we were cooped up in the house. We looked for jobs for the first week but then we decided that we would prefer not to work and just try really hard not to spend money so that we could leave for Asia as soon as the month was up. We probably would have been ready to leave after 2 weeks but we had already paid for 4 so we decided to stick it out. I had to keep reminding myself that being bored is actually a luxury because many people have to work so much that they rarely get bored.

         In the house we had frequent backyard BBQs with different people and spent a lot of evenings in the hot tub, before it broke a week before we left :( Pat read in the hammock often, which was ridiculously picturesque because it was hung in the middle of a bunch of palm trees so when you looked up you were covered in palms. When Diego and Karen from Argentina moved in to the room next to us we spent a lot of time talking with them and explaining funny English words and expressions with them. They were a really nice couple and one night they made everyone in the apartment 4 different types of handmade empanadas. In return I made an apple pie for dessert one night and cupcakes for Karen's birthday. They had never had cupcakes before so that was fun. Simon, a British guy who was there the whole time we were there made us all a beef and ale stew on our last night there. It was fun to share our “comfort foods” with people from different countries.

On our last day in Cairns Karen, Diego, Simon, Pat and I rented a car and drove up so an area nearby called Crystal Cascades. Instead of it being just one big waterfall, it was a really big, long stream that flowed down a hill and had many small waterfalls and swimming holes in it. We hiked down to a swimming area at the foot on the biggest falls and the guys swam in the cold water. It was very pretty and it was fun to get out of the house and so something different, and it was nice to have some new friends to do it with.

           Cairns wasn't a bad place but we are definitely feeling ready to move on. On the one hand I feel like it would be nice to go home and have a break from traveling for a little while. Yet on the other hand and I super excited for SE Asia. I can't wait to see the islands, eat the street food, buy cheap clothing and see a very different culture than I am used to. It certainly will be an adventure and I am just a little bit nervous about the unknowns, but I know it will be so good. So ends our nearly 8 months in Australia and a large part of our year out traveling the world. It's a pretty good life :)