I made it up to Darwin, and surprisingly, the train ride coming up wasn't that bad. I normally like train rides, but the one from Melbourne to Adelaide was a bit boring at points. I managed to get some good sleep on the train actually, and you get much more space than you would on a plane. I finished my book from the hostel way too quickly again, but I had some Stuff You Should Know podcasts to keep myself entertained.
It was back into the land of warmth and humidity when I got off the train. Darwin is further north than Cairns, so it's a little bit warmer here than my old home. It is very similar to Cairns in other respects as well. They have a little lagoon type area by the wharf for people to swim at, they have the Esplanade, a botanical gardens and an abundance of clubs, pubs, and bars catering to the backpacker culture. I didn't do much in the way of exploring my first day in. I only had the afternoon, so I tried to get myself settled. I have been booking so many different hostels along my journey that I have forgotten which one had which amenities. It's been awhile since I've had to pay for internet like at this hostel, and I had also gotten used to free breakfast, which is another thing not included here, but, at cheap rent, it's fine. Also, there is a Coles right across the road so I can easily get my sustenance. Instead of peanut butter and jellys, it's back to Wheat Bix and peanut butter and instant noodles. Living like a queen, right?
The next day, I basically took off down the road and wandered along. I made it to the Wharf precinct and got to check out some of the shopping areas and pool area. They have a wave pool area as well that people can chill out in. I haven't had much need for it since there is a pretty nice pool here at the hostel, and I'm too lazy to walk that far for a swim... yet I'll walk like 10 kms with no destination in sight. There is a small little Chinese Temple in town that was nice to visit. There weren't a lot of people there, but it was the middle of the week, so it didn't seem too out of the ordinary. I found myself at the library for a bit. It was nice and small and I discovered that they had music on in a few days, so I made a note to come back and visit it. Along the Esplanade is Bicentennial Park that goes along the coast line. There are many plaques and statues commemorating all the servicemen and women for their commitments. It was getting to be later afternoon and I thought I would try to make it to a free boxing class. I made it up the road to where I thought it was supposed to be held, but I didn't see anyone or anything set up, so I wandered down the path a bit and had a walk on the beach. The tide had come in when I finally turned around, so I had to scale some rocks up to the bridge to make my way back to the hostel. That was basically my big day of exploring around the area. The main part of Darwin seems smaller than Cairns, so you could get all your exploring done fairly quickly. At night, I managed to find a bar with some live music that was a literal 30 second walk from my hostel. It was an acoustic guy with a looper pedal and he was just mixing himself on a little mix wiz unit. I parked myself in the corner for the night. At one point a couple came in and the girl invited me to come sit with them. Apparently they were on their second date. They had met in Melbourne and decided to travel to Darwin for a week. Bold. It was interesting talking to them, I mainly talked about the production company and that stuff. After a bit, it seemed like I was this strange third wheel, so I took my leave. I ended up chatting up the bouncer a bit, who apparently is in a band, and then knocked off to bed.
The next day I made the trek to the Museum and Art Gallery of The Northern Territory. I ended up spending most of the day here. It was a bit of a smaller museum, which was nice for me. I was a bit overwhelmed by the one in Adelaide, so having a little bit of a smaller building was nice. They had a great exhibit on Cyclone Tracy. It devastated Darwin when it hit, and there were many personal anecdotes and photos from the wreckage and rebuild. They even had a small room to simulate what it sounded like when the cyclone hit. That was actually really scary. It's in a completely black maybe 2 meter by 2 meter room with just the audio playing. As soon as I went in, I immediately clutched my bag without realizing it. It was quite freaky. They even had a warning outside the door saying that survivors of the cyclone might be disturbed by the noise. They also had some art on display from local high school and college kids that was pretty cool. There were some great views of the ocean from up there as well. I wanted to listen to more music at night, so I went back to Wisdom for a bit, but also wanted to check out the club next door, Monsoons, because they had ladies night and were apparently going to have a drag show that night. I ended up going early to get my free champagne, but I wasn't going to sit around there alone for three hours waiting for the drag queens so I took care of some stuff at the hostel before heading back. It was a bit disappointing actually, I thought it would be a proper drag show, but they just paraded them out for one song then had the shirtless guys dance. A bit of a let down. Though I may be one of the only girls that gets disappointed when I have to watch shirtless men dance instead of drag queens. We have Priscilla to thank for that. The next day was pretty chill. There was going to be music at the library, so I headed over there. It was just an acoustic guy inside and it was mainly for kids, but it was nice to have something to listen to while I got some work done.
Saturday was ANZAC day. There weren't a lot of things going on for it, but they did have a parade that I managed to go see. It's sort of like memorial day or veteran's day back home. There were some cool fly overs with helicopters and jets. A lot of places were closed early for the day, but there were a ton of bars still open. I ended up getting to know the girls in my room. Two are from England, two from Germany, and the other one is from Canada. We all hung out by the pool in the afternoon and decided to go out together. We split ways halfway through the night, the German's deciding to go to the clubs and us deciding to go to an Irish bar with a live band. It was packed, a few people got thrown out, but the band was alright. We ended up chatting with some people. We had a few more drinks and sat outside for a bit chatting. This particular bar actually closed quite early by Australian standards, 2 am, so we took our leave and went for kebabs and pies. The kebabs are quite expensive here, much more so in Cairns, so I'm happy that I went for a pie instead. A Ned Kelly. It had bacon and egg and cheese in it as well. It was delicious. Our conversations got very strange. At one point we started talking about movies, especially Australian horror films, then we got on terrorism, 9/11, and the state of Aboriginals in Australia. You always find interesting things to talk about early in the morning. By 3 am we called it a night and returned to the hostel.
The next morning there wasn't much movement in our room until after noon. I kept constantly waking up, but I didn't make myself mobile until 12:30 or so. I don't remember the last time I've slept in that long. Especially considering when I would go out in Cairns I would get a few hours of sleep and then wake up for work, it was a bit of a switch. We all hung out again during the day and got our tan on in the pool. At night, I went with Amelia, the Canadian to Deckchair Cinema down by the water. We watched "God Help The Girl" and it was a decent movie. I got freaked out part way through because I saw a critter walk by my chair. I went to pet it thinking that it was small dog, then I realized it was a possum and thought better about it. We all called it an early night.
Today it's just been chilling by the pool and reading. Tomorrow is my last day in Darwin and I'm using it to pack up and figure out where to catch the bus back to the train station. I'm actually quite surprised that I'm not more homesick for Cairns since being here. I mean, I am still terribly homesick for it and am going back in about 2 and a half weeks, but I thought that Darwin being so close would make me hate the city and want to catch a plane back right now. Thankfully I've managed to enjoy Darwin a bit. I was able to get my flight for Auckland booked as well! That will be really fun. I'm catching up with an old college buddy who is taking me to an island for some wine tasting and I'll probably go see Hobbiton and check out the views. After that, it's a long train ride to Perth then a short plane ride to Cairns so I can see my friends, get my open water diving card, then go back home for the crazy summer season. It's going to be a lot of travel this week, but I'll let you kids know the highlights along the way.
Cheers,
-Celina
