Most important thing to know about buying groceries in Oz is: They are eeexpensive here! Being used to the subsidised prices in the European Union, the first visit to an Australian supermarket kind of made my eyes water. Here are some examples for the cost of every day products. - Mushrooms (1kg) $10 - Onions (1kg) $2.5 - $3 - Capsicum (1kg) $5 - Apples (1kg) $3 - $5 - Bananas (1kg) $2.

Over the last weeks I took a couple of pictures in Cairns. Here’s a few of them. First comes the Cairns beach. Or as the locals call it: Crocodile infested mudland. That’s not too far from the truth, no one actually calls that sorry piece of sand a beach. The nice beaches are north and south of the city, for example Trinity Beach or Palm Cove. Close to the beach is the lagoon, basically an open air swimming pool.

When I was still in Port Douglas I booked a tour to Mossman Gorge which is located about 20 minutes north-west of Port Douglas. Cost me $20 just for the return ticket on a bus, life is really expensive north of Cairns. The gorge was formed by a river that still flows through it today and supplies the towns of Mossman and Port Douglas with freshwater. There is a walking track about 3-4km long that leads through an impressive wet tropics rainforest.

Since of last Thursday I work as a car detailer for a small car rental company here in Cairns. Getting the job was quite easy in the end. On Tuesday I spread my CV over the car rental companies in the city, on Wednesday they called me and the next day I started. Working as a car detailer means I clean up the cars that customers return, drive cars from the airport back to the shop, pick up customers at their hotel and the like.

After one week in Port Douglas I came back to Cairns on Monday. My job hunt was not successful unfortunately. The restaurants in Port Douglas are quite expensive and looking for experienced staff. I’ll probably not hear back from the restaurants where I dropped off my CV but you never know. Port Douglas ist definitely too expensive to spend more time there so I returned to the Tropic Days hostel.

Just some pictures from Port Douglas. [caption id=“attachment_132” align=“aligncenter” width=“380” caption=“Four Mile Beach as seen on many picture postcards”][/caption] [caption id=“attachment_134” align=“aligncenter” width=“380” caption=“Kite Surfer on Four Mile Beach”][/caption] [caption id=“attachment_135” align=“aligncenter” width=“380” caption=“Sunrise on Four Mile Beach, about 6:30am”][/caption] [caption id=“attachment_136” align=“aligncenter” width=“380” caption=“Common sign on beaches in Far North Queensland”][/caption] [caption id=“attachment_138” align=“aligncenter” width=“380” caption=“Typical aussie humor”][/caption] Hope you enjoyed the pictures!

There are quite a lot of things here in Australia that are different compared to Germany. I’ll write about a couple of them in a series of posts. First thing you notice is the different attitude of people. Imagine you’re walking down a street in Germany where other people come along your way only once or twice a minute. When you look at them, they usually either ignore you or look away.

Leaving Cairns and the Tropic Days hostel made me a little sad. I only stayed there for 10 days but I really got to like the people and the place. Here in Port Douglas the hostel is more average. The whole place is several years behind on the maintenance schedule. Think of a desert motel in an 80s road movie. The rooms are clean and tidy though and it’s quiet so staying here is still ok.

On Tuesday Diana and I went to do a river cruise on the Daintree. The river ist located about 1 1/2 hours north of Cairns and famous for it’s wildlife (including crocodiles). The girls have a car so we didn’t have to take a bus to get up there. The ocean road north of Cairns is a dream by the way, one corner after another, I wished I had my motorcycle with me.

When I left Adelaide I was a little concerned about staying at a hostel. It has been ages since I shared a room with someone who wasn’t a close friend. Fortunately the hostel is just great and no drunken 18-year-olds around. Quiet sleep is not guaranteed still. The second night I woke up because one of the roommates (it’s a three bed room) stumbled over my bed when she was searching for her mobile at 2am.