Had a nice relaxed day in Townsville today and it was absolutely baking outside!! I just went for a walk around the town and did intend to walk up Castle Hill, but it was too darn hot to go up a mini mountain for the view of the city and Magnetic Island!! I did have a nice sit down by the sea though, which was really nice. It was really lovely, until some Christians came along and tried to talk to me about religion. This man and his daughter - I forget their names even though they told me. Do I believe in God? Do I believe in miricles? Blah, blah, blah. They asked me if I was a Christian and I told them I was a Roman Catholic, hoping that would get them to go away (I've been baptised RC, but have I gone to my church apart from for my RE coursework at High School? No) but they just carried on and on talking at me. How boring. They didn't even get the message when I started reading my book....flippin' zealots!! They also started yammering on about how their are only two churches - the church of God and the church of Satan. I did want to ask them about other religions, but I was really too tired of listening to this guy's voice that I just didn't want to start anything that would keep him babbling on. They did also ask me if I had a few minutes to discuss miricles and when I politely said no (because I didn't want to talk to them, nor did I want to discuss miricles) they still kept talking at me!! Honestly, talk about not listening to a word I was saying!!

I probably should just have asked them what church they go to, and then told them that I sacrifice goats and small children there on Wednesday evenings, and did they want to join me? Why do I think of this now, and not then!!!

There are a few things to do in Townsville, but I wasn't really interested. They had an aquarium there and Tomas was telling me yesterday that it has the largest coral reef exhibit in the world. I did think about going in, but the $21 price ticket put me off! I'd also really enjoyed the Sydney Aquarium so I think that's enough aquariums for one holiday really! There's also a maritime museum, but that doesn't interest me either! I think I was just happy wandering about, using my legs!
I also went on a mission to find ice cream! Diane - the girl from the train the other day - had told me about a place called Juliette's which does the best ice cream in Townsville. So, I made it my mission today to find it! She had told me it was on the Esplanade, and I wanted to have a walk by the water in any case. I found the place after having a good wander and their ice cream was delicious! Especially good on such a hot day. Diane had said they did the best pistachio ice cream she'd tasted for ages (and I now have a thing about pistachio ice cream, I hope I can get it at home! Macadamia ice cream seems to be popular in Oz, but I don't like it as much as pistachio) and so of course I had to have pistachio. I got a MASSIVE scoop and I must have looked like a right mucky pup as it just dripped all over my hand and melted almost quicker than I could eat it!

Townsville doesn't seem to be the the most affluent town either. I saw a fair few guys sleeping in the streets, and there did seem to be quite a few drunk guys wandering around at 2 in the afternoon!! Some parts of town seem pretty run down too, so I'm kind of glad I'm only staying one night.
The guest house where I'm staying too, isn't the nicest place either. They have a few dorm rooms but also a fair few single and double rooms. Nice big room that I'm in, with only a couple of other girls (one from Taiwan, the other is Oriental but I have no idea where she's from as she doesn't seem to want to talk to strangers but she does speak english as I heard her on her phone) and as the rooom can sleep 6, that's quite nice to only be half full. Also, I'm not in a bunk bed - yay! However, it's a pretty old place and the kitchen is a bit horrid. Not many bowls, not a lot of cutlery, hardly any mugs, lots of dirty dishes in the sink, only two electric hobs, and no recycling bins!! I did ask at reception about recycling, but she said they had no space for other bins!
The bathroom attached to our room is really old and quite mouldy too!! The hot tap leaks really badly and also gets super hot when you turn it on, so turning it off is interesting when you think you might get third degree burns!!
I'm only here for a night though, so I can put up with it for that long! The two managers - husband and wife - are really friendly though, which is really nice. Steve - the husband - said he'll also give me a lift to the train station in the morning too, yay! My train is at 9am, which means I get to Cairns mid-afternoon, which is cool.