Lieven goes Australia, Part 2, The Visit

Meeting with the 12 apostels.

2008-10-01T16:47:00.000-07:00

Photo: Coffee lounge in the Docklands, Melbourne, with a plant wall !

Photo: Well, as the 11th apostel has fallen, I play the replacement :-)

Good day! Today my host Jurg has got the day off at work and proposed to drive along the Great Ocean road. That was really very kind of him to sacrifies his day off for me!

It is a wonderfull trip through the wild nature of the southern part of Australia. First we pass a kind of sea and small beach landscape, then we enter a lush green Irish looking grass landscape on hills, then we went through the rainforest bush with Eucalyptus trees and eventually, after some 6 hours of driving (with stops included), we arrive on the beautiful scenery of the 12 apostels. The landscape is comparable to the West coast of Ireland, and has awesome steep cliffs into the sea. There are some 12 freestanding rocks left in the ocean itself, although I could only count 7. Apparently one apostel already has fallen, so there are actually only 11 left. Remarkable is that the place was not at all touristic until this nature phenomenom was called "the 12 apostels". People are really weird. Along the way, we pass villages like Lorne and The Apollo Bay and Torquay, etc... mother look it up on google earth :-)

Then we drove back all the way through all these little towns and villages along the road, and finally got into a nice restaurant in the Docklands of Melbourne. That is a newly build part with very modern architecture, and becoming the new hot spot of Melbie. In one of the coffee lounge halls of the buildings I thought (seen from a distance) that they had put up an enormous poster of rainforest plants behing the bar and counter. When we got closer, I saw that they were actually real plants :-0

Pinguins in town !

2008-09-30T16:28:00.000-07:00

Photo: The pink thing on the left is actually a very fancy fish :-) :-)

Photo: Cleaning of the windows of the Ian Potter arts centre (what's in a name) must not be that easy, give me the Glassex spray !

Photo: Cute pinguin chick looking angry to my camera flash ;-o

Hello everybody, thanks for your funny comments :-).Today was not the best day to go to the aquarium... apparently it was a school holiday, so the place was crowded with hundreds of screaming, yelling and running little children *zucht*. The aquarium houses some very nice awkward fishes, but is not that great as the one in Sydney. It is a bit old and tacky and it could use a lift. Also it was quite expensive, about 28 dollars. Anyway, it is quite cold today here, some 10 degrees but that is good to adapt to the weather when I will be back in BE and NL :-)

In the afternoon I visit the art galleries of the Ian Potter centre in the Federation Square. There is some fine art, but the real great thing is the building itself. I would not like to clean this windows :-)

Then weather clears out a bit in the afternoon. Indeed Melbie has four seasons in just one day. I take a quick walk in the botanical gardens. They close at 6pm and it is already 5pm when I arrive there. The gardens are lovely but again the Sydney counterpart is nicer I think.

Because it is close to sun set, I decide to go back to St Kilda quay. Jurg told me that after sunset, there is a whole colony of pinguins which is living overthere, and the chicks come out then. I had to wait for about an hour in the dark, but indeed eventually they started to make a lot of noise, and came out of their hideabouts. They are very cute and although I had no idea of pointing my camera in the dark, I was able to shoot some nice pictures of them... sorry pinguins for the flashes :-0

I had also to explain to a gentlemen in a suit that actually he was looking at a waterrat instead of a pinguin, though he found it cute as well .... laugh

Eureka ! Standing on glass 285m above the ground.

2008-09-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

Photo: One of the massive halls in the NGV building.

Photo: The Eureka building.

Hello hello, I started the day off quite late. An unexpected problem is that my knees are becoming wrecked. I should be careful with my *kruisbanden*. I estimate that I must have been walking for about 20 km per day, 22 days on a row now ... So we take it easy the coming days.

By lunch time I arrived at the cafetaria of the NGV, the National art Gallery of Victoria. During the lunch I got into a conversation with a lady who had lived in London for 5 years. She and her husband even invited me to stay over at the countryside that afternoon and night, but the timing was a bit bad because her children were coming over to spend holidays. Anyway, I got their contact info if I return here... Australian people are really really nice ! And another lady passed her journal to me also ...

The NGV building is quite amazing architecture. There are glass walls with water running over it, and the size of the building is gigantic. Although they are no match for Europe's galleries, they have quite a fine art collection.

In the late afternoon I go to the highest building in the southern hemisphere: The Eureka building. Some facts: it's over 300 meters (I should look up how tall exactly), 450 people worked on it daily to build it, it swings up to 3 meters at the top, it has 40 000 square meters of glass of which some is gold plated at the top. A massive water tank at the top keeps it into balance... The lift which travels at 9 m/s takes us to the 88th floor in just about 35 seconds. A nice tourist attraction is the Edge. Basically you enter a clear glass cube together with 7 other people, and they roll the thing outside the building 285 meter above ground level. Well, it is a bit of an adrenaline shot :-)

Melbourne is mindblowing

2008-09-28T16:27:00.000-07:00

Photo: The atrium of the casino, the ceiling is full of crystal, everything in marble and the stairs flanked by waterfalls.

Photo: the casino complex is about 4 blocks wide, you can only see 2 on this picture, besides the flank of the tower on the left.

Photo: the casino tower itself, the complex houses a hotel, tons of restaurants and outdoor roof gardens, top level tennis courts, spa, etc etc ...

Photo: The inside of the Melbourne Cricket Ground stadion. Yesterday some 100 000 people were here to watch the football Grand Final, everything is yet cleaned up again the day after !!!

Photo: the MCG from the outside. The infrastructure is massive to bring all the people overhere.

Photo: The view on the CBD from south bank.

Okay guys, this morning I just do my laundry and ironing. I keep words short: today I visited the Melbourne Cricket Ground or MGC, where they play the Australian Open tennis, the cricket and yesterday the football Grand Final. It is amazing that yesterday there were here 100 000 people and really *everything* has been cleaned up just the day after !!! amazing. PS we went on the guided tour also into the showers and change rooms hihi...

After the tour, I do a good walk around the South bank of Melbie, and then get in the casino in the night. I did not loose a penny because I did not play. It is amazing that 95% percent of the people inside the casino is Asian. And more amazing is how fast people drain there money, they just put like 300 euro on the table like it is nothing... it is totally crazy. The casino spans some 5 blocks.. and has been the biggest casino in the world for a while..... The Bellagio in the film Oceans 11 is nothing compared to this thing here... The entrance oval building has a 3 story heigh atrium with the ceiling full of crystal... The main marble stairs in the marble hall is flanked on both sides with a waterfall.. say no more. Have a look at the photos.

Discovering St. Kilda

2008-09-27T17:08:00.000-07:00

Photo: Federation Square: some like it some not, modern architecture !

Photo: view on the Melbourne skyline from St. Kilda beach. The biggest tower is the Eureka, which I will visit later.

Good day ! As this will be the last day of very good weather in Melbourne, we are having 30 degrees, I decide to stay along the St Kilda beach and to make the same tour as yesterday night. Well also to take some pictures... Today it is less crowded, and I walk up the peer to have a nice coffee. Unfortunately the weather turns a bit chilly around lunch time, so we forget about laying on the beach to get a sun-tan. It is a common saying in Australia that Melbourne has four seasons in just one day.

So I decide to change plans and to find out how the trams work here to get to Federation square again. I arrive in CBD and then have a nice afternoon walk to the Carlton gardens. At Fed square there are thousands of people to follow the football Grand Final at 14:30

I skip a walk to South bank, because that is for tomorrow afternoon.

I return after sunset to the St Kilda beach, to dine out in Ackland street, and to have a nice evening walk to see the lit skyline of Melbourne. I heard saying that there is also a Penguin colony overhere and you can see them at the peer after sun set. I will try that out later.

Flight to Melbourne !

2008-09-26T16:41:00.000-07:00

Photo: St Kilda beach promenade and peer.

Photo: The oldest Luna Park in the world. The roller coaster is still completely in wood ! The park dates back from the 20's and must have been very modern then !

Yippie, today we fly to Melbourne ! I was becoming a bit bored with Brisbane anyway. The flight takes about 2 hours and I arrive in Melbourne at about 14:30. Luckily Jurg Gehrig my host is there to pick me up from the airport. Again we had clear skies, so I could see how big and outstretched Melbourne is really. Saint Kilda is on the other side of the city, and it takes about an hour driving to get there.

St. Kilda is known to be a more culture, alternative and gay venue. As it is one of the only beaches close to town, they renovated the promenade and peer. They did really a good job with wood platforms. I am actually staying in St Kilda East, some blocks futher away.

Jurg takes me on a afternoon walk to the beach, since it is his day off in the week. Distances here are enormous. To walk just two blocks it takes about half an hour ! Luckily there are trains and trams into the city but not after 00:00. We walk through St Kilda East to the beach. It is a refurbished promenade and actually it is really crowded because the Grand Final of the Ozzie football is in the centre tomorrow. Melbourne is full of beautiful men, you really don't know where to look first...

We get a coffee together at the St Kilda peer, with a lovely view on the skyline of Melbourne. Then we take the tram into the city centre and we get of at Federation Square, which is more or less the heart of the city. It is packed with people for the grand final between two Melbourne football teams : the cats and the hawks.

We then walk further down to the South bank, which is really GREAT ! Finally we even get into the casina, a marble palace, it surprises me that you just can walk in... The hall is fabulous to say the least, I will come back here later and take some pictures as I forgot totake my camera with me.

Back in St Kilda, we pass the dining and shopping streets and we also get a nice view on the Theathre, and the oldest Luna park in the world !

Visit of Brisbane Manly

2008-09-25T16:02:00.000-07:00

Photo: The Manly Harbour in Brisbane is quite big, but no nice beaches here !

Photo: Queen street is very busy and cosy with shopping and dining people.

The last day in Brisbane today ! I go with Manuel to his work in CBD, and then I get myself a good strawberry muffing and coffee. I spend most of the morning in the internet cafe, to update some things and to see what is going on in Belgium and the stock market.

As I am hungry again, I take a wonderful Sushi box. Prices in Brisbane are much lower ! For the same foodbox I only pay here 10AUD (about 6 Euro) instead of 15 AUD in Sydney... Then I take the train to Manly. It is quite a trip because the train has to follow the banks of the river, until we get to the coastline. It takes about 1 hour to get there, and about 10 minutes walk to the harbour, which is very big. My instinct leads me to the East Coast Marina cafe, which was recommended by Manuel for its very fine food. Indeed the sardines were very tastful !

There I also find a map of the neighbourhood, and I see that I went the wrong way to find the beach. The beach there is not a big deal and artificial. Nobody is there. It is more a -slik en schorre- landscape, with a muddy look. Therefore I decide to take a an hour walk along the coastline. Finally I reach some kind of concrete very big seawater pool with loads of children. Luckily it is very warm but also very windy.

I go back after 16h, (sunset) to do some window shopping in Queen street. Louis Vuitton has an enormous store there on the corner. Australians are very fond of European brands !

Surfer's Paradise !!!

2008-09-24T17:25:00.000-07:00

Photo: Side of Surfers Paradise, reaching up to the Goldcoast side. Hundreds and hundreds of kilometers of fine sand and surfing waves...

Photo: Part of Surfers Paradise, reaching up to the Brisbane side. View taken from the Q tower, some 320 meters above ground level.

Photo: There are some surfing hotties around :-) ... where's the underwear anyway ?!?

Photo: Lieven sitting on his Sufers Paradise Throne :-)

Hi mates, today we make it all the way up to the Goldcoast. I am getting up at 5:30 am because the trip will take me about 4 hours to get there with the public transport. Distances in Australia are enormous ! First I have to catch the 680 bus, then change on the next block to the 690 bus, which takes me to Sandgate train station. From there it goes to Central station. From central station we take the Goldcoast Express train to Nerang station. From there the bus to Surfers Paradise bus station. .....And all the way back on the same day, pwoe ....

Anyway, it is worth the trip. The train trip to the Goldcoast is really not interesting, just riding through the bush. The bus trip from Nerang station is quite nice because you see all the different neighbourhoods. It is a bit like the Las Vegas of Australia. Villa neighbourhood on the banks of the river there, eventually leading to the skyscrapers located at the beach side.

Before I visit surfers paradise beach, I accidentally get of at the highest skyscraper there, which features the Q-deck. The Q-deck is an observation deck on the 77th and 78th floor. The elevator takes us up in just about 40 seconds !!! The view on surfers paradise and the gold coast is awesome. You can have a look in the pictures above. It gives also a good impression where I am because I do not have a map.

In the afternoon, I go to the main street of surfers paradise. It is really a commercial centre and full of people. It has a quite American atmosphere. There are a lot of people, even with the bad weather and the off-season. People are also a bit more hot and fashionable over here. It is really a hot spot for the young cool surfing people. Pfff, indeed it must be paradise here in summer time ! :-)

After some time on the beach, and the sunset, it is time to go home. Unfortunately the weather has changed into grey overcast with some strong wind. It is also a bit chilly, lets say 18 degrees feels cold overhere haha, but spring has just begun...

This is probably also a nice place to live. Appartments of 90 square meters go away with 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, living and kitchen and private parking space for about 500 000 AUD, which is about 260 000 Euro. That is quite reasonable for having the parking space, and shared pool and spa and a lovely view on the beach and coastline... who knows... who knows...

Tourist tour to Moreton Island !

2008-09-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

Photo: Picture taken from the top of the sand hill. The smaller boat is our guiding tour boat, the big one is the ferry which departs from Brisbane and which brings the 4x4 jeeps on the island. If you want you can drive around the island on the beach with your 4x4.

Photo: snorkelling tour around the ship wrecks of Moretone Island.

Hi, this morning I embarked a small boat with another 40 people, to have a tourist day trip to Moreton Island. The island is about the size of Flanders, and harvest a wealth of nature and huge sand dunes, lovely beaches, a desert and a blue lagoon. Unfortunately we will only have a trip around the coast today.

We take off at about 9:00 o'clock and over a coffee and a breakfast I have a nice chat with one of the boatsmen, who has lived in Sweden for one year. The island is about 30 kilometer off from the mainland, so it takes a while before we get there. Today I have taken off my watch, I do not keep track of the time.

The first thing we do is getting on a wet suite, and have a snorkelling session in the sea around some six ship wrecks. There are put there on purpose by the government for creating a tourist attraction, and to build a kind of artificial coral reef. In fact it is a marvellous snorkelling tour. We see hundreds of tropical fishes. Because of the tide we drift through the ship wrecks and are then picked up again by the boat.

We have a lovely lunch on the boat with all sorts of sea food: REAL crab, yummie !!!, prawns, etc...

Then we continue to the top smaller end of the island, and in the meanwhile we see some kind of young whale mammals. When we return back to Tangalooma peer, we also see turtles of about 1.5 meter big. We also meet a couple of dolphins. Arriving at the shore, we can have an hour off at the beach. I take the opportunity to climb one of the very steep sand hills. It takes about 20 minutes to get to the top ! They must be some 40 meters high or something. From the top you can really take good pictures of the ship wrecks and the people who try to reach the top but do not have the condition to do that, especially the bodybuilding type of men onboard: whoeha :-)

Monday, monday ...

2008-09-22T16:58:00.000-07:00

Photo: Baking in the springtime sun. It is about 28 degrees with a lovely breeze. Boyspotting at the South bank city beach, pool and view on CBD.

Photo: view on Brisbane CBD and the botanical gardens, from the rear deck of the speed boat.

Photo: The Citycat, a speed boat to cross the river from bank to bank.

Today I will follow the good advice of Manuel, and take the City Cat to travel around the city. Brisbane is virtually build in the jungle on the banks of the river. You can travel quite fast with the City Cat, a kind of a big speed boat, from the one end to the other end of the city. The city cat goes from one bank to the other bank of the river. You can also take the local ferries to cross the river, but they are much slower. Brisbane is really huge, it takes about 3 hours with the city cat to go back and forth from one end to the other end. On the boat you have a perfect view of the CBD district, the bridge, and the villas on the banks of the river.

In the afternoon, I visit again the South bank, to deepen my sun tan. The weather will change in the next days, so we have to profit from the spring sun ! The pool is much greater with a bit of sunshine, and because it is a school holiday, it is crowded with young people having a fun day...

Relax day !

2008-09-21T04:33:00.000-07:00

Photo: Hmm not looking too bad after a full night out ...

Photo: Me, myself and I, a little bit more gold-plated :-)

Today I planned nothing special as I only got up at 14:00.

Here in Redcliffe is a kind of festival to celebrate their settlement so many years ago. I decide to skip it, although there was an F-1 boat race. I heard the motors roar from within bed.

The only thing I do today is to plan my trip to the Gold Coast, to Surfers Paradise. I also work a bit on this blog. This evening there is a massive lightning storm in the high skies. Yesterday there was one too with a big short rain in the evening.

As Egmont asked for a photo how my sun-tan is evolving, here are some photos... It is strange because the color you get here is more a goldish sun-tan instead of becoming red or dark brown. You will see when I get back :-)

Time to get a sun-tan !

2008-09-20T04:15:00.000-07:00

Photo: Redcliffe shore: many of the smaller cities around the coastline have these free parks with opportunities to have a free swim in the pool and have a nice barbie (BBQ). The BBQs are electric. Everybody takes so much care about everything: it is absolutely clean everywhere, even public toilets... This morning I have a very relaxing time here :-p

Photo: The nicely lit Treasury building, with several occasions to go out. A lot of international youngsters hang around here, but not really the gay scene.

This morning I stay at the beach in Redcliffe, to have a dip in the pool and to get some suntan. The weather is lovely again and we are close to 30 degrees. The temperatures are soft here during all the year around, ranging from 20 to 35 degrees. So it stays comfortable all the time without being too humid.

In the afternoon I check out gay life in Brisbane. Well actually it is quite limited. Only two bars, I went only to the Wickham. Like all Brisbane, it gave an old-fashioned look. They are really 20 years behind in this city. I did not like it so much, also because the mens toilet was like completely covered with mirrors, so you could see *everything* *everywhere* from *everybody* Jiw... So, I only had one coffee and decided not to go out here tonight.

Instead I was recommended to go to the Beat Club. Actually it was very good. It was a very strange atmosphere to have straight people, gay people, lesbians and transvestite all mixed together in the same place. But it works ! Everybody had fun in one of the 7 bars and 4 dancing rooms. I danced through the night because I could not get back by public transport. The party zone in Brisbane is really big and concentrated. It was like having the Gentse Feesten in one big street (Ann street around Chinatown). At 5:00 am in the morning everything closes. Had to wait until 6:22 to take the train back. Luckily Australians are so friendly that it is not difficult to start a conversation. Around 7:30 I directly took my breakfast at the oceanside in the sun and then went to home to sleep until 14:00.

Sunday will be a day of rest :-) :-) :-)

City walk Brisbane

2008-09-19T20:03:00.000-07:00

Photo: artificial tropical beach in the middle of the town. Still looks better with bad weather than Brussels beach *smile*

Photo: the inner city, business district. Personally I find it not that nice as Sydney or NY :-), but they are renovating and constructing a lot ...

Good "dai". Today I go with Manuel to the centre of Brisbane, where he works as an architect. The trip from Redcliffe (a peninsula) to the city centre is about 1 hour. We need to go with the local bus to Sandgate, where we take the train to central. Today I also have my Ozzie haircut :-)

I plan to walk around the business district, crossing the Victoria bridge to the South bank. The South bank is a left-over of the world exhibition in 1988. There are several very big musea, a lovely waterfront promenade and a Nepalese pavilion. Unfortunately the weather is not that nice, actually it rains a bit, but nothing compared to Belgium. It is the very first time in about 5 years that they have a decent rain here and it is very good for the plants to get green again.

Very nice is also the free open swimming pool with artificial beach. Here you can have a swim and have a lovely outlook at the CBD skyline at the same time. But I decide to walk further to the botanical gardens. After lunch the weather clears up a bit again.

In the afternoon, I leave the city before it gets dark (around 18:00 it is black dark here) so I can find my way home all by myself.

Flight to Brisbane !

2008-09-18T22:02:00.000-07:00

Photo: view of the creek in the neighbourhood, the buildings are at the coastline.

Photo: ocean view from the terrace.

Okay, today I am flying to Brisbane. It was not a big deal. Flight time was only 1 hour to move up some 1000 km north. The weather is again sunny in Sydney but completely grey overcast in Redcliffe, Brisbane.

The atmosphere is very much tropical here in Brisbane, it is more humid and the air is more heavy. As I am quite far out of the city centre (see google earth, Redcliffe is a peninsula), it is good that Torsten my host came to pick me up from the airport.

We had about one hour drive to there place because of the traffic jam of the construction of a new bridge. In Brisbane there is construction all over the place and it is like the fastest growing area in AU. The appartment were I am staying is very lovely. They have a penthouse with a complete roof terrace with ocean view.

Torsten and Manuel give me a small guided tour in the Redcliffe beach district and then we head home to have a real Aussie BBQ (for free, jippie !) Everybody is so nice overhere ! .... My hosts are in fact two German guys who emigrated overhere some years ago without visas: that's an adventure ! Anyway they say that it is very easy to find a job if you are skilled and also the renting is very cheap and easy.

The only drawback of the Aussies is that they dont really live like Europeans. I mean they do not go out a lot to restaurants or terraces or even the beaches... It is very strange to see how many fancy shops and restos there are in Brisbane and Sydney and actually not a lot of people are using them ....strange strange.

The Sydney botanical gardens

2008-09-17T22:02:00.000-07:00

Photo: Statue of a warrior in the art museum of NSW.

Photo: The spring garden in the botanical gardens of Sydney. The contrast is very nice against the modern buildings.

Hello this is the last day in Sydney. As the weather is the coldest we had up till now, I decide to do the art gallery of New South Wales in the afternoon. In the morning, I had a beatiful walk in the botanical gardens of Sydney, the fernery and the tropical plants garden. I liked the succulent plants section also very much.

The art museum itself is no big deal. They have some lovely statues and some nice European paintings but that is about it. Australians are really not into art but into sports. Everybody seems to be running here at lunch time in the park or garden.

Unfortunately, I lost the appartment keys this very last day :-s, but my hosts were so friendly not to charge me any money ! Australians are really really really very friendly people...

Ferry to Manly

2008-09-16T16:35:00.000-07:00

Photo: CBD and opera house by night fall. Sorry, no photo edit software here to lighten up the picture a bit...

Photo: surfer boy with a bodyboard.

Hi all, against all odds, today is a lovely day again - grin -.
Temperature drop a bit to a nice 19 degrees but it is VERY windy. As it will be the last nice day as the weather forecasts says, I visit the Manly district of Sydney.

You can get there by taking the ferry boat at Circular Quays. The trip takes about 30 minutes. The Manly district has the lovely Corso, which is a street full of shops of any kind, with a palm tree lane, which leads directly to the Manly beach. There are even more surfers here, and I give my sun tan plan an extension... There is also a lovely scenic walk to the next beach over the cliffs. I will spend the total day overhere to soak in as much sun as possible.

Tonight, I take the ferry back to Sydney Central Business District, after dark. It is difficult to take some good picture because the boat is moving all the time, it became really cold and the wind is blowing very hard. But still, some of the pics are lovely. On the photo you can see the harbour in night time...

Spider in the bedroom !

2008-09-15T20:20:00.000-07:00

Photo: Saltwater pool at Bondi beach, in which I had a nice swim, but very cold ! Water temperature only 17 degrees.

Photo: Bondi surfer beach !

Hello everybody, yes it was a tough weekend ;-), I went out till saturday morning at 3:00 am, sunday morning at 9:00 am. Monday morning I went to sleep at 1:00 am and there was some hairy black 2cm spider on the bedroom floor. Luckily it fled away, but I didnt sleep that well that night lol.

As the weather was unusually good for this time of the year, on sunday we had about 30 degrees, also this monday is very fine. Therefore I planned to check out the beaches to see if this surfer boy thing is a myth or not. Well... it is not a myth ;-), I didnt know where to look first, can you imagine summer holidays then here when it is crowded... Indeed the stereotype has half long blonde sun tanned hair which is total loss and bleached due to the salty sea water.

As you can see on the picture, I went to Bondi beach, which is one of the most famous surf beaches here. The waves are tiny but have a very nice curl. Perfect for surfing. A pity that I am here for only a couple of days otherwise I would like to try too. Maybe at the goldcoast in Brisbane...

There are plenty of smaller beaches in Sydney and they are less crowded, but most of the time even nicer.

On the next picture you can see the saltwater seawater pool at the side of Bondi beach, in which I had a swim this morning ... *big smile*. In the afternoon, I got a real sun tan, only by laying a couple of hours on this marvellous beach. Bondi beach can be reach easily by public transport, but I took the tourist Bondi explorer bus, which makes a very nice tour around the coastline of Sydney. Very much worth the money. These buses are regular and you can hop on and off, as you like. So you can hop from one beach to another little beach. *big smile*

Rain and time to have a rest...

2008-09-14T04:21:00.000-07:00

As I went out till 9 am in the morning, I didnt plan anything special today. After all the walking in the last days, (I am probably over 100 km), my knees can take a break.
It is raining this morning, a bit of a small storm in fact. I decided to stay in bed till 16h and then prepare the trip for tomorrow. If the weather is good I go and take the Bondi discoverer bus, on which you can hop on and off at every beach. According to the weather forecast, tomorrow will be the last hot day in Sydney. Then temperatures will drop to 19 degrees.

Sunshine, sunshine ! 28 degrees...

2008-09-13T01:31:00.000-07:00

Photo: The bridge walk, and the view from the other side is splendid !

Photo: The Queen Victoria Building with 5 stories of shops !!!

It is Saturday, and the city centre is crowded. It is really summer time, we have hot temperature about 30 degrees celcius. Today I want to take some pictures of the famous QVB or Queen Victoria Building, which houses 5 levels of the most fantastic boutiques. You can really find everything in here, shoppers heaven ! Underground are the more plain shops you can find everywhere, together connected with a network of other gallery malls and an underground station. On the first floor is an Australian ice cream bar which I still have to try out, with huge mountains of ice and a chocolate fountain. On the third floor there is a nice jewelry shop, where I bought a black opal. Black opals are found only in 5% of the production. So this time no more paintings or typical cloths or art, but a gemstone, only to be found in 1 single Australian desert town: Lightningtown.

In the afternoon I set off walking to the Rocks. From there you can take some 100 stairs to get onto the harbour bridge to cross it as a pedestrian. The sidewalk is not very nice, it looks like Guantanamo bay with fences and stuff, so that people would not jump off. Anyway, you can get a pretty nice view from the opera house and the skyline of CBD. The bridge itself is also impressive in size. There are 8 parallel traffic lines. Once you are on the other side of the bridge, the view is splendid. I had a nice sushi (Japanese raw fish with rice in rolls) there.

Sydney from the sky

2008-09-12T20:00:00.000-07:00

Photo: The Sydney tower, about 260m heigh.

Photo: The Chinese garden of friendship.

Morning: Today is a beautiful day, we are having about 25 degrees. I make my daily internet cafe pop-in early, so there is plenty of time to walk to the Chinese garden of friendship. It is not that big, but very nice and quiet. I have my Chinese jasmin tea on the sunset terrace... Around noon, I have to go home to reload the camera batteries, because I left it on accidently when I was typing all my stuff... Since the hosts are not at home, I take the opportunity to take a sun bath meanwhile. I will even have the complete appartment for me alone during the weekend !

In the afternoon, I am off to the highest tower in the city: the Sydney tower. It gives a splendid 360 degree overview of the central business district and the surroundings. We are about 260 meter above ground level :-) Under the tower is a shopping mall of 4 stories. In the opal shop I have a nice talk with the guy. The owner has a whole career for searching for the opal stones, it took him 3 years for finding his first species !

Then I set off for a walk through the park to the pool of reflection, some memorial thing but nothing special in fact. My real destiny is Oxford street, the gay are of Sydney. It is about a kilometer long and indeed there are some shops and discos, but I am really not that much impressed. Compared to Berling, Sydney's gay scene is not a very big deal, but ok for a final decision, we have to explore the nightlife first... which I will do tomorrow saturday night.

Deathly, creepy and venomous critters !

2008-09-11T08:00:00.000-07:00

Photo: Koala from very nearby, they are sooooooo cute :-)

Photo: The incredible piece of the Aquarium: a piece of the great barrier reef with all sorts of corals.

Hi mates, today I took a plunge into the Sydney Wildlife Centre and the Aquarium Centre. It is absolutely fabulous. Almost all dangerous, deathly and venomous wildlife animals are present here. In fact, the Sydney funnel spider, most deathly spider in the world and about 1 cm in size, can be found all over Sydney. Luckily most of Australians wildlife comes out only at night. Other nice species are the Python, some 5 meters in length but not that dangerous. The top ten of worlds most dangerous animals live in Australia and include the crocodile, the redback spider (also tiny), the Sydney funnel spider, the box jellyfish (een soort kwal), just to name a few. My hosts told me a story that their neighbours in Cairns have a Python in the backyard living, and it doesnt do anything else than sleeping in the sun and snatching once in a while a turkey. So Sara, I guess that Britney the chicken would not survive here very long ;-) But there are also cute animals like the Koala and the Wallaby. You can see one in the picture above.
Today I also had my first full real meal again in 3 days: grilled salmon and french fries ! The food is quite inexpensive for us Europeans, even in the most luxury places.

First day: Discovering the city centre...

2008-09-10T17:34:00.000-07:00

Photo: It is a quite heavy building: Opera House ! Do, re, mi, fa, sol, laaaaaaaa....!!

Photo: the harbour bridge, which I will climb over in one of the next days :-)...

Got up at 13:00 and I ate my breakfast in full sun :-) It is very funny to see people walking here with thick furry coats when it is about 22 degrees Celcius, but it is still winter time here... Luckily I only have a minor jetlag. The wind is a bit chilly but in the sun it is perfect ! I decide to walk to the Opera house and back to discover the city centre. The centre on the map is like a stretched finger and it takes about 1 hour to cross it from one side to another. In fact the city is the New-York of Australia: only a lot cleaner and not at all smelly. Even the exhaust of the traffic is not noticed. Once I reach the circular Quays, the harbour bridge is beautifull. It connects the two parts of Sydney, which hold each 2000 000 inhabitants. Despite this huge number, it doesnt feel as a big city. The next eye-catcher is the Sydney Opera house, with its beautifull surrounding sitting lounges at the harbour site... Have a look in the picture above :-) Tonight my hosts have a friend on visit and we talk about Europe till late night. Peter emigrated in fact from Ireland many years ago...

Arrival in Sydney ...

2008-09-09T22:00:00.000-07:00

Photo: Night time view from the living balcony ...
(PS: DOUBLECLICK THE PHOTOS FOR FULL SIZE DISPLAY)

Photo: my lodgement: What a view from the living room !

I arrived at about 20:00 local time in Sydney airport. The baggage is deliverd very fast. Customs and luggage check go very smoothly. I take the taxi to district Redfern near the central train station of Sydney. I arrive at 22h at the appartment of Peter Jones and George. They live on the edge of the central business district (CBD) and have a marvelous view on Sydney's skyline. In the photos you can have a look in the living room and terrace, the second photo shows the view during night time... My hosts are self-employed and run an email-providing business, 16 places for Bed and Breakfast all over Australia, and a real-estate company in Cairns in the North... okay they are not exactly the poorest...
PS: Ma & pa, Egmont, Frederic, Michiel, Ewein, Christof and Emmy: thanks for the dinner, the nice bottle of Champaign and the ice creams on the evening before my departure. Sorry to disturb your nights with my SMSses ;-)

Take-off !!

2008-09-08T12:00:00.000-07:00

Photo: our Qantas plane with the nice logo. I was sitting next to the wing window, row 55A, 10 passengers per row...

Hi all ! After 12,5 hours of flight I reached the airport of Singapore. We only had 1 hour to stretch the legs while the plane was getting recharged and cleaned. Actually we flew according to the flight path to Bangkok shown in the picture below, except we went further down to Singapore. Although we had several babies onboard, they were very nice, no crying ! I must say the English and Australians behave much more gentle on an international flight compared to the f**ing Americans. Also the food onboard was very nice, every 2 hours a meal, ranging from fresh fruit, chocolate milk, warm meals, wine, etc ... :-) After the plane preparation, we had still 6,5 hours to fly to Sydney. Of which I counted down every single minute... Due to the noise of the 4 big airplane engines, I couldn't sleep during the whole trip...

T - 1 day and counting ...

2008-09-07T15:05:00.000-07:00

10:30 Train trip Eindhoven - Antwerp. I walk in the rain to the station in Eindhoven. The trip is extremely boring, so I try to sleep a bit and save energy for tomorrow. I arrrive at 12:00 in Antwerp where I take some sandwiches. 12:47 Travel by train to Ghent, where I take the tram to Hotel Maene :-). Tomorrow we will take together the 7:15 train to Brussels. Around 8:08 I should be in airport Zaventem. Take off is scheduled for 10:10, flight BA 0391 to London Heathrow (travel time 1:15, 331 km, arrival 10:25). I only have 1h50min to make my transfer to flight QF 0032 (London Heathrow, Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport); travel time is 21 hours and 35 minutes with one stopover in Singapore. I should arrive in Sydney on Tuesday 18:50:00 local time. The travel distance is 10860 km. The above picture shows our flight path.

T - 2 days and counting ...

2008-09-06T13:00:00.000-07:00

All set. I was busy the whole day cleaning the appartment, ironing the laundry and preparing my suitcase.

T - 3 days and counting ...

2008-09-05T00:17:00.000-07:00

Today I relocated all valuable goods such as my external data storage and laptop in an external safe place.

T - 4 days and counting ...

2008-09-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

This evening some housrules were distilled to make life easier for the people who want to use my appartment during my abscence...

T - 5 days and counting ...

2008-09-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

Tonight I am writing the user manual of my appartment in Eindhoven. Visiting people better stick to the house rules :-) !!

T - 6 days and counting ...

2008-09-02T18:00:00.000-07:00

Today, I arranged all the money to pay for my accommodations. I also forwarded my hosts and family the flight informations. Trying to keep my appartment as clean as possible so that i do not have to do a lot of tidying up and washing in the last minute...

2008-09-01T11:39:00.000-07:00

Photo: The sticker in my Belgian passport. Granted 07APR08. Multiple travel. Must not arrive after 07APR13. Holder(s) permitted to remain in Australia indefinitely.

T - 7 days and counting ...

2008-09-01T11:25:00.000-07:00

Photo: Australian Embassy in Berlin, Germany.

After a very long time, on May 30th 2008, I was entitled to receive my visa for permanent residence in Australia. The visa was granted at the Australian Embassy in Berlin, Germany.