Just arrived on the party plane....

So we flew on Friday the 13th and we're still here. One big HAHAHAHA to all the suckers who pay more to fly on "luckier" days. Ha! We even got to sit in the VERY front row of the plane (the check-in chick said we had to be "able-bodied" to help people out of the plane if there was an emergency. And since we've seen Bruce Willis in The Guardian a bunch of times in the last few weeks, we thought we'd get into hero-mode as well. Luckily we didn't have to flex our lifesaver muscles...)

And we're in Cairns! It was 26 degrees today and rained in tropical spurts. We were surprised to see green mountains surrounding the town, and that there's no beach whatsoever (because you can't swim where there's crocs!). But it's pretty and we finally have a break from bunk beds in a cute hostel called Traveller's Oasis. We're learning again what it's like to be tourists, a pretty hard task after working our butts off the past 6 weeks in Echuca.

What else? We had a great few days (Wed, Thurs) in Melbourne, where we stayed with our pear-picking comrade, Andreas. He taught us more German words and we said "prost" many times. He lives in Fitzroy, our favourite Melbourne neighbourhood, and so we explored some pubs, found great shoe shopping (we both came out with wicked new pairs of Converse! Adrian got ones with tattoos, and I got ones with chairs all over them, though I almost bought the amazing rainbow ones you'll also see on the blog. but what backpacker travles with 7 pairs of shoes?? Sheesh!). And we ran into random Echuca people in downtown Melbourne... this world is getting smaller all the time! Virtually all memories of sorting tomatoes and picking pears are gone now (thank god), though I do admit it was shocking to see druggies begging for change, and to listen to good music at an endless selection of bars (they really liked Bryan Adams ans Scissor Sisters in Echuca). Hopefully we'll be shedding our country-bumpkin-ness soon!
We also saw some strange animals in a Melbourne park last night, with a drunk guy feeding them. They don't have raccoons here, but I'm guessing it was something along those lines (check the weird creatures on our photos!). Today in Cairns we passed a shop with a huge standing taxidermied kangaroo that seemed to stare at us no matter where we turned... eek! But it's just unbelievably great to be back on "vacation", even if just for a tiny bit, and to experience cities again. Fingers crossed now about the beach! (I think surfing will have to wait a few more months, when we head further down the coast in the hippie van we plan to buy!)

Hope all is well in Canada, and things are thawing out.... we're thawing a little here too from the chilly Melbourne temps as well. Hope everyone had a great easter weekend (we're still eating chocolate over here). Tell us what's new!
love, D & A xoxoxoxo
PS. A not-so-wise man once said, "When the wolf comes out, the wolf comes out..."