I’ve had horrible allergies most of my life. I had to take allergy medicine every day of my life from 2nd grade until about 4 years ago. I was allergic to all grasses, pine trees, dust, anything that blooms, citrus, tomatoes, all green vegetables, all melon, cats and dogs. With all the investigation I’ve done and the awakening work, I discovered that I had a belief that life is not safe. I was adopted. I have a deep fear from this, from whatever I experienced in my first days, weeks, months of life. Because this is long before the cognitive part of my brain existed, it is stuck in my nervous system, my blood system and in the deep parts of the brain. Because this belief is so deeply rooted, I cannot talk, reason or think it away. Because it’s so basic to who I am, I actually created a world that is not safe by being allergic to everything. I created a world to match this belief. After much work on this through movement and letting the fear and loss be expressed, my allergies disappeared. The past 4 years I’ve been able to live with only taking allergy medicine once a month or less. Since I’ve been on this tour, I’ve been sick with a sinus infection and now that is better, my allergies are horrible. My nose and eyes are so itchy that I think I may go insane. I’m sneezing a lot. Ah ha – this is completely connected to the “not enough for me” I was feeling earlier in the trip. This is just a different manifestation of the same issue. Then I also have an issue where I get so tired of people not listening to me. I get interrupted. I have to say things 2 or 3 times because the person wasn’t listening. Or I just get ignored. I try to be understanding, but it just makes me not want to talk, not want to connect with people. (My magic tattoo isn’t working). I had a minor meltdown yesterday because of this. This is the same issue too. Add on that I’m scared about going home. I’m scared of reverse culture shock. I’m scared of finding how I fit when I’ve changed so much. Life is not safe = Not enough for me = I’m small, insignificant, unimportant, unloved, unwanted = back hurts = feet hurt = allergies = fear.
Last night and tonight I have a new airbnb. There is a delightful couple living there. She didn’t speak a lot of English, but was excited to show me all around. It was kind of like a hostel with only single rooms. The husband was very excited to meet me and find out what I thought about Trump. No one can understand why we would have elected him president. They all look at either like we are crazy or like it’s some bad reality tv show.
Today I went to look for breakfast and had a heck of a time finding a restaurant that was open. Even though I like the new airbnb better than the last one, it’s far enough from “downtown” to be a hassle. I did finally find a coffee shop. After that, I navigated the bus system and finally got to the skyrail station. The skyrail is a gondola that goes up to Kuranda, an aboriginal village in the mountains near Cairns. The gondola was so expensive, but it looked awesome from everything I had researched. The views were great. They gave you information on the different rainforest ecosystems you would go through so it was educational too. There were two stops on the way. One was a boardwalk through the forest and the other was waterfall viewing of Barron Falls. There is nothing aboriginal looking or feeling about the village. It’s a tourist mountain village. I had lunch, did a little shopping and went to another wildlife park. I am now convinced I am on the animal tour of the world. I keep wanting to go to zoos and wildlife parks. So, you will get to see more animal photos today. The wildlife park in Kuranda has indigenous rescue animals. They let you take pictures holding the koalas, but I didn’t do that. You can feed the kangaroos. I was sooooo excited about feeding kangaroos. The wallabies were not interested and hid under the boardwalk. I think they were hiding from the sun, but maybe they were hiding from the people. One of the kangaroos would let me feed him. It was very anticlimactic. But I got to see a baby wombat so that almost made up for the ho hum kangaroo feeding.
Early morning pick up again. Why do I have to get up early more often on vacation than when working? The people on the shuttle van were so excited to meet me and wanted to know where I was from and how long I had been diving. They were from Singapore. What a wonderful way to start my day with smiling people that were so excited to go diving! They did the same with everyone we picked up and by the time we got to the boat, it was a van full of very excited happy people. It seems like everyone on the boat are new divers. The boat has 40+ people. I wonder how this will ever go smoothly. It’s a bit chaotic. The last few times I’ve been diving, they divided the divers up by skill level, but this was more a free-for all. They obviously took the students in a different group and those that were brand new divers or hadn’t been in a long time in another group, but the rest was left to divide out own selves up. I managed to find two dive buddies that were a pretty good match for me though. We dove from that boat twice and then those of staying on the live aboard boat switched boats and did all the boat briefing. One more dive in the afternoon. I was going to do a night dive, but I had equipment issues and was having trouble catching my breath. I decided that pushing through was a bad idea. That’s when bad things happen so I got back on the boat. I was very disappointed. There’s a new trend in night diving. A lot of corals and fish are fluorescent. They give off florescent light that can only be seen if you use a blue torch. I really wanted to try this. I have one more night on the boat so I can still do it. I had heard that much of the Great Barrier Reef is damaged, bleached or dying. It’s not as bad as I had feared, but it’s definitely no longer the best diving in the world.
They make rum and coke in a can. What?
Second day of diving – dive – eat – dive – eat – dive – eat. You can do 5 dives a day. I skipped the 3rd dive because I want to make sure I’m not too tired to do the night dive. I did the Fluoro Diving. It would have been wonderful except we had to go with a guide and the group was too big and not very good divers. They kicked up a lot of sand, making it difficult to see. You had to be really close to the corals and fish to see them fluoresce. The spot the guide picked to dive is known for its lion fish. There were so many lion fish and they are highly poisonous. So, it was difficult to get close to the corals because I couldn’t see if there were lion fish because everyone was kicking up so much sand. What I did see was wonderful and I’d love to do it again with a small, more experienced group sometime. I left some of Scott’s ashes with the lion fish and florescent corals.
Today, I woke up with a sore throat. I could have done 3 dives, but I only did one. I felt taking it easy so my body could use energy to get healthy was more important than diving.
I had to make the 15 minute walk from the apartment to the warf with my suitcase, but it was mostly downhill so it wasn’t too bad. I took the ferry and then a train. It only took an hour and was way cheaper than a taxi. At the airport, not one person checked my id, but cuticle cutters are dangerous and needed to be confiscated. Wouldn’t want some unidentified person keeping their cuticles well maintained.
Cairns is pronounced Cans. So, the I and R are silent. This bothers me. I don’t know why.
After I found my airbnb, I headed into town to find a tour company. The first one I went into was very unhelpful. I showed her pictures of what I wanted to do and she kept saying she could only book transport tickets, no tours. I said I wanted a tour and she showed me something completely different. I know there are tours for what I wanted to do because I had found them on line. We went back and forth between no tours, yes we have tours, no tours. I told her we were just not communicating so I was going to leave. There are so many tour companies in Cairns. There’s 2 to 8 on every block so I walked a half a block and picked Peter Pans. They were so much more helpful. They checked on what I wanted to do and found that the train wasn’t running for the next couple of days so I couldn’t do that. They suggested a few other options. They told me of a random field north of town where I can see more kangaroos than I care to see so I don’t need to pay to go to the wildlife park. They recommended a tour called Uncle Brian’s. It went to some waterfalls and was supposed to be full of silly fun. Then we talked about New Zealand. They have offices in New Zealand and they have three tours they recommend there. I got the last spot on one of the 18 day tours. Awesome – One stop shopping. Now I have a lot less research to do.
Cairns is right on the ocean, on the Great Barrier Reef, but there is no beach in town and I’m told that the water is full of crocodiles and jelly fish. So, the town built a giant public pool called the Lagoon. It has sand beaches, a shallow kiddie area, changing rooms, snack bar, and a park next to it. There is a boardwalk that goes along the shore too. The boardwalk has grills, picnic tables, tennis, a skate park, volleyball, rock climbing, and exercise classes. There were Christmas Carolers too.
After dinner I went to an ice cream shop called Nitrolato. They make ice cream for you while you wait using liquid nitrogen to cool it. It is supposed to be fresher and creamier. They were all dressed in lab coats and it was fun to watch the fog come off my ice cream while they were making it. It did seem creamier, but I’m not sure it’s worth the extra cost.
Uncle Brian’s tour was fun. It was all young backpackers on my van and the other van. My group was relatively unfriendly to me. I guess it’s uncool to hang with the older lady. The people on the other van were slightly more friendly. When did 30 year olds become so young? Our guide was phenomenal. His energy was over the top all day long. While in the van going from place to place, he was telling us stories, having us play games or having us sing and dance. No second were we left unentertained. If we drove by road workers or towns people, he’d honk and we’d all wave. Everyone must be use to this, because they would have a huge grin on their faces and would wave back. He told us he’d give us information along the way – some of it true and some of it not. We were welcome to call Bullshit anytime we thought it was false information. We drove through a lot of sugarcane fields up into the mountains. The wet season was about to start and this will be one of the wettest places in Australia soon. Two towns always compete for the most rainfall each year. The winner gets a golden gum boot (rubber rain boot) as a prize. We stopped at the post office in Babinda to view the golden boot as it is proudly displayed there. We went through the forest to see the electrici trees (electrical towers) – everyone called Bullshit on that one. Babinda is a tiny town. It has a u turn area off the road where one is obviously not needed. But, in good fun we toured Babinda’s u turn facility – round and round a few times. The first waterfall was Babinda Rocks. We walked to an overlook, then had tea and snacks and then swam in the river. The next water fall had a rock you could slide down so there was much sliding. Then lunch. This should have been called Uncle Brian’s Eat and Swim Tour. The next waterfall was Millaa Millaa falls which has been featured in some ad campaigns most notably an Herbal Essences Shampoo commercial. So we all too turns practicing the water hair flip and trying to get a good photo. The last stop was a crater lake with a snack. It was a long day so when I got back I just went to the Holiday Inn across the street for dinner as I didn’t think I could find the energy to walk anywhere farther than across the street. I stood at the hostess stand for a while. Someone finally came up and asked if I needed something. Really? Why do you think I’m standing here? I asked if I could eat and she seated me. Again, three waiters zoomed back and forth around the restaurant and completely ignored me. After 15 minutes, I got up to leave and someone finally asked me if I was ok. No, I’m very hungry. What is going on? Is every restaurant like this or am I invisible or is it that unfathomable that someone might eat dinner alone so they assume (without asking) that I want to be ignored until my friend arrives?
The next day I slept in a little later. I headed out for lunch. The place I picked to eat was more because it was the first restaurant I found. It was so hot that I thought I might have heat stroke if I didn’t get inside soon. I spent some time in the Lagoon. I stayed in until my core temperature finally came down and I felt comfortable. The Lagoon is awesome. I decided to get a foot massage. It was a tiny Thai lady who proceeded to beat me up. She stood on my back and cracked it. She stood on my arms, my legs, and my hands. She beat my feet with some pointy thing. About the time I was going to cry mercy and beg to leave she was done. My feet did feel better after. For dinner I picked a steak place. I think you are supposed to eat steak while in Australia. I waited forever, again. I finally got up and asked the bartender how to get served. He handed me a menu. A menu doesn’t do much good if no one takes your order. After 20+ minutes, I walked out. There were more waitresses than customers, but no one would look at me so I couldn’t get anyone’s attention. What do they think I’m sitting there for? I told the bartender on the way out that no one would serve me. He said, “Oh too bad” with no motivation to fix the problem. There was a waitress out front handing out flyers, trying to get people to come in and eat. I don’t understand.
Cairns reminds me of South Florida when I was growing up. The buildings look the same, the hot, humid weather.
It’s chilly in Sydney. People are wearing way too little for the weather. They are running around in tank tops or really short shorts. I wonder if it’s like the phenomenon that happens in Denver in Spring where it’s warmer than it’s been so people want it to be summer and they dress for summer and then pretend that they don’t notice that it’s still too cold for what they are wearing. I went on a whale watching tour on Sunday. It was the very last tour of the season. It was freaking cold. No whales. I met James though. We had great conversation on the boat and it was nice to have someone to have dinner with afterward. Sunday evening, the girls at the house invited me to go to a local bar for live music. I kind of just wanted to stay in, but, hey, I’m not going to get this opportunity again, so I went. The band was good and it was fun for a while. I went home early though.
On Monday I rented a bike and rode around Manly. You know that story about having to walk to school in horrible weather uphill both ways? I think that story was invented in Sydney. Everything is up hill in all directions. It was a real challenge on a bike, but great exercise. There is park called North Head where you can go out to the ocean cliffs. I rode around there and had a very expensive lunch with bad service. I rode down to the beach. There were so many people enjoying the beach and it was actually warm today. I almost went in the beach but decided not to since I wanted to buy a new bathing suit and I remember all the shops closed early. I went in every store. No one sells board shorts for girls that aren’t unreasonably short – it kind of defeats the point of having shorts. I noticed that all the stores have more men’s clothing than women’s. Most of the stores, the men’s clothes were featured in the front of the store and the women’s were in the back. The complete opposite of the US.
My last full day in Sydney I went and had my hair colored. The “red” I got in Thailand has turned to an ugly brown so I just went back to all black. I ate, worked on the computer, had coffee and then went to the Manly Sea Life Aquarium. It’s smaller than the one in downtown Sydney, but features things found in Manly so the highlight was the tiny penguins. Manly has the smallest penguins. They come up and nest under the warf. They are endangered. The aquarium has some of the ones that were rescued and they also have a successful breeding program. I love penguins. I think I was more excited about these than the koalas the other day. Then I had a completely useless massage and dinner with bad service.
There is always one fly on you at all times in Sydney. I thought maybe I brought him from Thailand until my new friend, James asked if I had noticed that there is constantly a fly. I thought I would be rid of constantly having bugs on me. Not yet.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Rental Bike
Sydney from North Head
From The Great Gatsby FilmManly Beach in the Distance
I got to Sydney exhausted. I guess paying so much for my baggage is just like “Welcome to Australia! Your days of paying reasonable prices for things are over”. My taxi cost $100. I’m staying in an Airbnb because there are no hotels for under $150 a night. Hostels were over $50 a night. I’m staying in some girl’s room while she sleeps on a spare mattress in the laundry room. I got there and she was at work and she failed to tell me she had roommates. I woke one up. She scared the crap out of me because I assumed I was in the house alone. I was so tired from the overnight flight, that I took a nap for a few hours. I got up only to meet another roommate. She has 3 or 4 roommates – I can’t even tell how many. This is really not ideal, but I kind of have no choice at this point. They all seem friendly enough. I spent the rest of the first day wandering around Manly Beach, checking out the visitor’s center and getting food. All the shops closed at 6:00pm. That seems weird. It’s chilly here which I didn’t expect. I have no warm clothes – one hoodie will have to do. Still the chilly air and bright sun is a delightful combination.
Today I decided to do ALL the things in the city. It’s a half hour ferry ride to the central part of Sydney from Manly beach. The ferry ride is beautiful. Firs I went to the Wild Life Sydney Zoo. It’s not Sydney’s main zoo. I kind of wish I had done the main zoo. This place was so small I’m amazed how they fit everything in. But, I had bought tickets on line for a back stage tour. I’m glad I got the back stage tour. It was fascinating to see how they made everything work in such a small space. We went through the kitchens which they share with the aquarium next door. They have half a walk in refrigerator full of eucalyptus for the koalas. We got to see the quarantine areas, the areas where they housed the butterfly chrysalis, the bird cages on the roof where they keep the juvenile birds before they are ready to be released. Many of the animals there are rescue animals. They don’t let you touch the koalas, but you can get close to them. I got to pet a wombat, but only because he was a rescue hand raised there and use to people. The wombat might be my new favorite animal. He’s so much bigger than I expected. They have koalas, wallabies, kangaroos, snakes, lizards, birds, a cassowary, and Tasmanian devils. Everything there was indigenous to Australia. I didn’t get to see the devils as they never came out of their hiding place.
After the zoo, I had lunch. So far this is the 2nd meal I’ve had at a restaurant here and the service was horrible both times. They seat you, but then no one comes to take your order, say hi, bring you water or anything. I almost walked out. After lunch I walked over the Sydney Harbor Bridge. Well, half way over, took some pictures and went back. I walked around the rocks – a shopping, dining area near the bridge. I had seen an ad for a special exhibit at the Museum of Contemporary Art. The artist does pieces with led number counters. It looked beautiful. So I went to the museum. Apparently, I don’t like contemporary art. I don’t like it at all. I didn’t like the special exhibit or any of the other exhibits in the museum. How is any of this art? I watched a contortionist street performer outside the museum. Compared to contemporary art, she was fabulous. Then I walked down to the Opera house. There is an outdoor patio bar, the Opera Bar. This must be the busiest bar on the planet. There had to be hundreds of people there. It was fabulous to see, but didn’t make me want to eat or drink there. It was a zoo. I went to the botanic gardens for about a half hour. It was more like a park than a botanic garden. There was some cool building and a lot of fences. The park is huge and I didn’t go far because I had tickets for a movie. I have so missed being able to see movies so I was excited about it.
I have decided that Sydney must have a City ordinance or regulation that only attractive people can live there. Everyone seems fit, young, and pretty.
(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore
Manly Beach
Manly BeachBeach HairSydney HarborSydney HarborSydney HarborSydney HarborSydneySydneyOpera House
Tiny CrocodileGreen FrogWallabyFood for animalsFood for KoalasEnter a captionBearded Dragon?Dinosaur?Babies
WombatWombatKookaburra
EchidnaTwo Headed LizzardQuokkaQuollBecause Toilets are DifficultThanks GoogleMaps
Rraine Drops 