Early morning, early morning, around 4 a.m. We left a little late, so we walked briskly to the train, with a bit of a sprint at the end. We made it, though it wouldn't have been a disaster if we'd caught the next train 10 minutes later. We went through the exorbitantly expensive airport gates where you pay around $18 to get in and out of the airport from the train. We went through security and all that, and waited for our plane. I didn't have to show my passport anywhere, which felt strange, but hey, it's a domestic flight. Boarding went pretty smoothly. I had a window seat, so I took quite a few pictures of the beautiful sea/coast/clouds. I tried to get some sleep, but I loved the view so much, so I only slept for about fifteen minutes, oops. Cynthia and Angela had apparently never experienced having to walk outside to the stairs to board the plane from the back. Cultural difference. Do they have those kinds of security gates for the back in the US too? In Brisbane, I transferred to the next plane after quickly grabbing a slightly disappointing breakfast somewhere. On the second plane, I sat next to an Australian man who was curious about where we were going and where we came from. He'd lived in Sydney and Brisbane himself and preferred Brisbane :(. I did get a fair amount of sleep on the second flight (I was in the middle seat this time, so I didn't get much window viewing). As usual, sleeping photos of each other were circulating in our group chat, hahaha.
We took an Uber from the airport to our hostel, where we stored our things (the room wasn't ready yet) and quickly changed before walking to the pier, because we were going snorkeling! The snorkel boat took us to Upolu Reef, about 50 minutes, accompanied by cheerful music. It was a great sight! I was asked for my shoe size for the flippers, uh, then I realized European sizes are probably different, because the people before me said "size 6," oh. Luckily, they understood the European sizes, as it was right there on the label. The snorkeling (about 1.5 hours) was fun!!! It took a little getting used to not breathing through my nose at first, as there's no air in that eye-nose mask, so there's not much to breathe. I did take a few gulps of saltwater, which seemed to come through a valve on the snorkel tube itself. A mistake? Everyone also got one of those floating things—I don't know what they're called, a noodle, handy. We saw some beautiful coral! I thought it was cool how you can just swim in a spot with little to see, and then a few meters away, a reef suddenly appears! Very beautiful, although I have to say, the photos make it look much more colorful than your eyes see. It actually looked more of a faded green and brown. We also saw many different kinds of fish and other creatures: nemo fish, rainbowfish, sea cucumbers, and some larger fish whose names I don't remember. At one point, I suddenly found myself half-swimming in a school of small fish—cool! I even saw a great white shark (he was friendly) and green sea turtles! :D We also tried diving to the reef, but I have no idea how people get that deep; I didn't get very far anyway. After snorkeling in Cairns, we had a quick swim in a free pool and then went back to the hostel to freshen up. We had a delicious burger at the restaurant next door (and some people also had mac and cheese, which they all rave about) and then went to the Ferris wheel. The driver gave us a few extra pushes to make us spin around, haha, and of course, we did the same from the cab to drive each other crazy. We ended the evening at a nearby bar. We gave Cailene all free drinks because it's her birthday tomorrow! Back at the hostel, we surprised her with a cake. She was thrilled :D. We played a bit of chess with Sunny and then went to bed.
