New Zealand
Pauanui Beach, Eastcoast of Coromandel Peninsula, Eastcoast of Northern Island of New Zealand
Although the flight was really enjoyable we were really happy to hit the ground in Auckland after 28 hours. There we had to undergo several Quarantine Procedures before being welcomed by Simon and his girlfriend Rohan. During 1,5 hour drive to Pauanui we already experienced the unbelievable beauty and variety of landscapes of this country. Finally arrived in Pauanui, Simon and Rohan offered us to stay with them the whole time we would spend in New Zealand. We were overwhelmed by this hospitality. After we have got through the aftermath of our heavy journey, we started to explore Pauanui ,the little, beautiful village at Coromandel Peninsula, with one of New Zealand's most beautiful beaches.
Simon offered Marie to work in his surfshop on weekends and I'm gonna do some cashwork - whatever comes I take it. There is some work in prospect for me (cleaning up building sites). So, although there is no surf by now, things couldn't go better for Marie and me...
19.10.05 One week has passed now since our arrival. I've started working in Simon's surfshop last Friday. I'm working there Friday, Saturday, Sunday from 10 oclock until 4pm (which is great as I don't have to get up troo early and can still spend another hour at the beach after work). My task is restocking and keeping the shop tidy. It's a little bit boring but probably the best job I could ever get here, regarding the fact that there are only 4 shops and 4cafes in town. I'm working together with Earan, Rohan's sister. She's very nice, and a bit crazy, which makes is quite cool to work with her.
Lukas went surfing for the first time on Sunday and we both went together on Monday, my first day off. It was great fun, as we were the only ones in the water along the whole kilometer-long beach. But after an hour we were both so tired and our arms were almost falling off, so that we decided to have a walk up to Mount Pauanui, the mountain at the south end of the beach.That took way more time that we would have thought but it was definitely worth it, regarding the wonderful view from top of the mountain over the whole town. Now we're both quite curious about the oncoming labour weekend" , a long weekend for the people here which is said produce chaos in pauanui, bringing 9000 people ( additional to the 800 permanent residents) into this little town...
31.10.05 Labour-weekend came closer and hit Pauanui on last weekend. It was quite strange when the population of a little village like Pauanui suddenly raised from about 800 to 10.00. You even had to watch out for the traffic when crossing the road. Chaos also didn't stop in front of the surfshop's doors. Marie was working during labour-weekend and was definitely not bored - unstopably moving the mess of the customers.Unfortunately I couln't find any work "til now - so my part on labour-weekend was quite relaxed. On the first day it was windy, rainy and pretty cold, so I stayed at home, keeping the bed warm. On Saturday, Sunday there was alittle bit of surf. I spent my time on the beach with Simon, Chops ( afriend of Simon), Kalani and Teagan (the older one of the Avery- with 4 years) Luckily Marie had off on Monday afternoon that we could spend the time together. After a relaxed sunset-surf we had BBQ at Rainer's and his wife Mareille"s house ( a german couple who settled down in pauanui). The next day we all started preparing our stuff for moving over to the new house of Simon and Rohan which luckily is situated next to the old house. In the evening Marie and I had a nice sunsetsurf on our own. The next days we moved tons of stuff from one place to the other. We cocluded our days with lovely BBQs on the deck of the new house - watching the sun go down. How cruel life can be, ay? ;-)
12.11.05 Two weeks ago we went on our first real trip. We went to Tairua, the town across the estuary. To cross this estuary we had to take the "ferry", a tiny little boat which is the only public transport connection between the two towns. First, we had awalk along the other side of the estuary, which is almost dry at low tide with only a small channel left for the boats. At the town center, which is much bigger than the Pauanui one, we got some leaflets at the informationcenter and bought some food for lunch. We went on through the town, which is basically built along the estuary between two hills on the north and the south end, to the beach. The beach is not as long but as empty as the one in Pauanui, which made it kind of cosier. Maybe that was why we defenitely liked it more than the beach at "home". We had our lunch picnic there before we started to "climb"the Paku hill at the north end of the town - a dead volcano with two peaks. The way up there was lovely - sometimes right through the gardens or across the decks of the houses that are built there in the sort of tropical forest, sometimes over tiny little steps through the forest or just straight up over areas of grass. On the top we were rewarded with agreat view over Tairua, Pauanui, the beaches of the two towns, cliffs into green water and the islands off the coasts. When we came down the hill we already thought about swimming over to Pauanui with our feets sore of walking so far in jandals but with our backpacks we had to walk all the way along the water back to the ferry. It was agreat trip where we had the feeling of exploring something really new for the first time. And when we came back "home"we had the best surf ever so far. Great blue water, perfect offshore wind and perfectly breaking hip high waves. What a day!!! We were mainly hanging out and surfing during the rest of my days off and the next week I was unfortunately sick and had to stay in bed.
29.11.05 Two weeks ago Mike, Rohan`s father offered to take us on a day trip to Taupo, Rotorua and back to the Coromandel Peninsula via Tauranga. We were lucky because otherwise we wouldn`t have seen this part of NZ, situated in the central of the northern island. It was a lovely and interesting trip through lots of different landscapes: Lake Taupo, the biggest lake in New Zealand; a little bit of the volcano Mt.Ruhapehu (unfortunately the rest of it was covered in clouds); the Haku-falls; Kiwi-plantations and Mt.Maunganui.
The next day Marie and I decided to check out the waterfalls near Pauanui Simon had often told us about. After a 1 1/2 hour walk we reached the beautiful and lonely waterfall flowing down a 30 to 40 meter cliff. At the bottom of the falls were two natural pools where we had lunch and a refreshing jump into the water.
The next week we traveled along the west coast of the Coromandel peninsula. It was our first try ever to hitch-hike. The queasy feeling at the beginning disappeared quickly. We never had to wait longer then 15 minutes for a ride and the people were unbelievably friendly and normal. It didn`t take long until we reached Thames. I was a bit disappointed of this Town because it`ss really ugly and there is not much interesting to see (historically it is famous for its gold-mining). After a visit in the little but interesting historical museum we headed further to Coromandel Town, along a beautiful coastal road. We reached C.T. in the late afternoon and put up our tent on nice campground in the middle of this little village. After a short walk around C.T. and a visit at a pottery created by a couple of local artists we made our way back home on the next day.
15.12.05 Last week we didn't really know what to do on my days off since the weather forecast as well as the tides didn't look good for our plan to hitchhike up the eastcoast of the Coromandel (we needed low tide and good weather to visit two famous beaches up the coast)
But when monday and Tuesady turned out to be sunny and hot days we decided to use Wednesday to go up the Pinnacles (a "mountain", looking like like the face of an old woman lying down, which we can see from Pauanui)
On Wednesday morning we hitchhiked to Thames from where Rohan's father took us to the Kauaeranga Valley where the track starts. Short after we'd walked off the weather forecast became reality and it started to rain. It didn't stop 'til we reached the "hut" (rather a big modern house with 80 beds) near the summit after 3 hours. But all the same it was alovely walk up on a hundred years old track, built to deliver food etc. to the men up the mountain felling Kauri trees. The track mainly followed a creek through the native bush where around 1800 people had built stone steps up to the mountain to give better grip to the horses' feet.
When we reached the top, the weather cleared up a bit and we were rewarded with great views down to the Valley and across to the hills of the Coromandel Peninsula. After a little lunch we walked back down and that was when finally the sun came out - and after all we were happy that we didn't have to go up the mountain in such hot and muggy weather. We stayed over night at Rohan's parents' place, a little farm neat Thames and they drove us back to Pauanui on the next day when I had to go back to work.
This week we finally had the chance to go up the eastcoast of the Coromandel. Weather and tide were right and Rohan's cousin even took us up to Hahei, a little village (even smaller than Pauanui) mainly of holiday homes, where we could stay at the bach of another cousin of Rohan.
After relaxing on the beautiful (our favourite beach 'til now) Hahei beach for the reast of the day, the next day we walked along a track very popular with tourists but offering stunning views on blue water, white cliffs and small offshore islands to Cathedral Cove, a beach only accessable through a hole in the cliffs at low tide.
We stayed there for a while, took a bath and even found a lonely beach with access only by climbing over rocks for at least 15minutes. Unfortunately we couldn't stay there as hunger was pushing us back "home" to Hahei.
On Wednesday we visited Hot Water Beach where you can find hot water pools (thermal activity) by digging holes into the sand at low tide. But when we arrived we found out that we were only two of at least 50 tourists looking for hot water. We didn't want to join this desperately searching crowd and were happy when we felt the hot water by pushing our feet deep into the sand, before hitchhiking bak "home" to Pauanui...
29.12.05 In the week before christmas we decided to travel to Auckland for 4 days. After a delayed start (we forgot our money at home and had to jump on the bus 4 hours later) we finally arrived in Auckland at Sky City, the center of the town. There we stocked up on information before we took the bus to Avondale, a district about 10 km outside the center.
On tuesday our "2-days-extreme-sightseeing-tour" started.
We experienced a really interesting town where every street seems to have its own character. The mixture between old and new perfectly fits together and creates special urban features. On sightseeing tour we visited several very interesting museums, Kelly Tarlton's Underwaterworld, the harbour with its impressive sailing boats, a volcano situated in the middle of the town...-we have seen a lot, to much to go further into detail.
Leaving the center you get to know the other, not that friendly side of Auckland, in which most of the people of Auckland have to spend their lives. The center, which is a really tiny part of the whole city, is surrounded by a sea of old, mostly dowdy detached houses. It seems to be very dreary environs to live in.
Nervertheless, at the end of our 4 days trip we agreed that Auckland is a very fascinating town and really worth staying for a longer period of time.
Unfortunately we had to go back to Pauanui on thursday because Marie had to work and christmas was just around the corner.
To get in the mood for christmas Marie and I treated ourselves to a lovely and delicious dinner for two on Christmas-Eve. We really enjoyed it!
On the 25th we celebrated together with Simon and Rohan, the kids and all their relatives. We spent our day sitting in the sun, having BBQ and a lot of different kinds of delicious food.
The kids were snowed under with presents and the grown-ups sat back and relaxed in the sun with plenty of drinks.
All in all it was a really nice and relaxed day!
On the 26th the invasion by the tourists began. From that day on Marie has to work in the shop everday till 3rd of January, one day before we leave Pauanui.
The only good thing about this mass of people is that I finally get the chance to earn some money with surf lessons...
12.01.06 We've just arrived in Wellington and wanted to let you all now that we are good.
Our trip was awesome so far. The good-bye in Pauanui was hard, as it had already become sort of a second home for us.We've traveled up the eastcoast of the North-Island, starting in Auckland where we picked up the rental car (Mike, Rohan's father had brought us there - thank you so much for that again!!!). We went up to Cape Reinga and down the westcoast. We really liked the northland with its green hills and beautiful bays.
Our next stop was Hamilton where we could even afford one night on a campground for a change (normally we sleep on the front seats of our car, which is more comfortable than we've expected) After a short visit of the city we traveled on down the westcoast of the North-Island, over NewPlymouth. We saw some really good waves on our way, which was kind of frustrating without a surfboard. But anyway, we had a few good days on the black sanded beaches, watching the waves (better than nothing :-)
Now that we arrived in Wellington, we'll have a look around New Zealand's capital and its coastline tomorrow and we'll take the ferry over to Picton, i.e over to the SouthIsland tomorrow night. We are already looking forward to getting there as we've only heard good things.
Oh, if you ever come to Wellington: don't drive into the city. We've been looking for a parking space for over an hour and still had to pay 10$.
02.02.06 It's unbelieveable that the time for us in NZ is already over. After 4 1/2 weeks of driving, sleeping, eating, writing, reading, relaxing and playing chess in our rental car we are quite glad to give that car back but I am still sad to leave that incredible and awesome country.
The last three weeks we travelled around the South Island. The northern part around Nelson with the Malborough Sound and the Abel Tasman National Park is quite similar to the North Island with sandy beaches, clear blue water and lots of original jungle-like woods.
After the north we drove along the westcoast further south, where the sea is already getting more rough and the Southern Alps are getting higher and higher.
To get a slight feeling of winter we headed right into the middle of the Southern Alps with Franz Joseph Glacier and the Fox Glacier and some other snowy mountains.
From there it's not far to get to the Fjordland. There we took part at a boat trip through the Milford Sound, the only one of the Fjords you are able to enter. It's a fascinating scenery with 200m waterfalls and steep but still green cliffs covered in fog.
Leaving the Fjordland further south the landscapes change again into huge and wide hills with dry grass.
Before we travelled back up north along the eastcoast, we had the chance to meet Ian, who was in Queenstown for two days with his travelgroup. We had a perfect night with lots to talk about, some drinks and a lovelly dinner at an indian restaurant. Thank you Ian!! That night was one of our highlights on this journey!
On our journey we have seen quite the whole of the South Island and as far as I am concerned it's more imprtessive than the North Island.
We came through so many different and unique sceneries and had the chance to watch seals, albatrosses, penguins, dolhins and even whales in their natural environment. We had one unforgettable experience after another.
We experienced New Zealand as an incredible country where you still got the feeling that nature dominates men and not the other way round.
Though, we're looking forward to our next stop, Australia, where we're going to arrive on Saturday...
Australia
13.02.06 We've arrived one week ago on the Goldcoast (eastcoast of Australia south of Brisbane) and started looking for a job in ByronBay, which is at the south end of the GoldCoast. But we were told that it's a very quiet time now and that there would not be job for us until Easter.
At least we managed to buy a car (Ford Falcon, 20 years old, 160.000km, in a good condition, named Henry for 800$~550Eu) so we were at least able to go looking for a job somewhere else.
But that didn't help much:-( We drove all up the coast to SurfersParadise, asking for jobs, but nothing. I worked in a restaurant one night "for a try" but after all they didn't take me and I wasn't even payed for that night - not very encouraging. Lukas would have found a little job as dishwasher, but it was not enough to survive. So we were a little desperate and upset.
But then we decided to head south for the next 3 weeks to Melbourne, where it's likely to get a fruit picking job at that time of year.
Pretty hard work but well payed and we hope to earn all the money we've spent until then and some more to drive over to perth, where we're going to meet Bert, a very good friend of mine and where we hope to get another job.
I'm very sorry that I can't answer all your emails at the moment, but I hope that you understand that it's kind of difficult as we don't know yet how much we're going to earn fruit picking, so we'll have to be carefull spending money...
But please don't stop writing me - I'm so happy every time I get to read an email:-) Miss you all very much!!!
You can also get our new mobile phone number on "Impressum" soon...
21.02.06 After one week of travelling along the eastcoast of New South Wales we arrived at Sydney. The more or less negative impression we had about Australia after our first week on the Gold Coast already started to change.
On our way down to Sydney, starting at Coolangatta, our first stop was Byron Bay, again. There we spent two days of surfing and enjoying the beautiful beach and the warm water and made a half day trip to Nimbin, a "hippy" community in the Hinterland.
Our next stops were Condiri Beach, near Red Rocks, and Crescent Head, where we spent another two days because of the friendly atmosphere of that little village. On our second day at Crescent Head a nice swell arrived and made the righthand pointbreak to a playground for nearly all the inhabitants of the village, most of them riding the overhead sized waves with the longboard, getting insane long rides!!
The followimg days we just headed towards Sydney with short stops at Black Head, The Entrance and Newcastle.
The ride down south along the coast wasn't really exciting because the landscape didn't vary that much by now. We just saw beaches and a lot of bush in the Hinteralnd. The one thing we already experienced ist the fact that in Australia everything is way bigger then we are used to in Europe. we have already seen spiders as big as my hand, a lizard with 1 meter length next to a carpark and Pelikans nearly as big as we are...
Tomorrow we check out Bondi Beach near Sydney, hopefully there is a bit of surf, before we travel to the Blue Mountains...
05.03.06 The last week we were travelling down from Sydney to Melbourne along the Coast. The weather was getting cooler on our way down, which made travelling much more comfortable. We had a few good waves on our way, though not as much as the weeks before. But we even saw a kangaroo when we spent a night in one of the National Parks along the coast. Yesterday we arrived in Melbourne where I finally got a job fruitpicking. I'm going to start tomorrow at a vineyard near Melbourne in Yarra Valley. Already bought a large sunhat today:-)
I hope I can work there for the next 3 weeks getting in at least part of the money we've spent so far.
For Lukas it doesn't look good again. We're going to ask for a job at the vineyard but it seems to be difficult to get cash jobs. He'll be looking around Melbourne too (dishwasher or wahtever) so there's still a little hope:-) We'll let you know as soon as we got news for you...
14.03.06 Expect the unexpected! That is what we defenitely experienced since we arrived in Australia.
Glad that at least Marie found some work at picking grapes in the Yarra Valley near Melbourne we have to leave that place already after 11/2 weeks. Marie only had the chance to work for four days and just between two and six hours a day. Though enough tim to cut her fingers, sweat like hell in the heat and getting a sore back, but not enough to cover our spendings. Although you don,t have to carry heavy loads it's an exhausting job, standing on a hill without any shade and a supervisor who is more busy shouting at people then organising things.
Meanwhile I was trying to get a job in Melbourne. One might think there's nothing easier to get a job in such a big city - but expect the unexpected! No! No job for me. Either they had no job available or they were too honest and didn't want to pay under the table.
Next and final plan ist to get on the road again, heading to Perth where we "expect" some work for both of us, and meet Bert, to which we are really looking forward...!
23.03.06 Before we're going to go on our 1600km trip through the deserts of the NullaborPlain, we wanted to let you know that we're ok.
The last week and a half, we've seen both, a wonderful stunning landscape along the GreatOceanRoad and a boring drive through flat, dry land from Adelaide to PortAugusta.
The GreatOceanRoad is a very famous route along the coast from Melbourne to Adelaide. And it was great. First, we spend a day in Torquay and at BellsBeach (for the "outsiders": a world famous surfing Beach). Unfortunately we didn't have the chance to go surfimg there (on one day it was too big and the other day it was totally flat) but at least we got a set of new tyres for our Henry, which made us feel a lot safer:-)
Then, we spent two days driving along the beautiful coast. High, steep cliffs, lots of little, hidden bays, a rough but blue sea, kangaroohs, green hills in the hinterland with waterfalls, rainforests, Eukalyptus forests and lots of Koalas.
It was definitely the area which we liked most until now and it sort og reminded us of NewZealand.
In Adelaide, we first had a look at the famous, "bavarian" town Hahndorf, which offered a range of German food, beers and crafts. But we agreed that it did definitely not look like Bavaria - probably more like in the South of France and that we really like it (although the "bavarian" music they played was horrible)
The next two days, while sleeping somewhere in the AdelaideHills, we spent wandering around Adelaide. Though it is not really a beautiful city we really liked its relaxed atmosphere 9noone was hurrying like in Sydney and Melbourne) with lots of cafes, restaurants and bars, the green park belt around the city, its nice little seaside quarter Glenelg and the old and beautiful NorthAdelaide with broad roads with a lot of trees on both sides.
Then, the boring part came: We were driving 300km (it seemed like at least 1000) from Adelaide to PortAugusta and we saw nothing else than dry, brown fields with a few trees, completely flat with looooooooong, straight roads.
But this probably prepared us alittle bit for the oncoming drive across the NullaborPlain (the name already sais ist: not a single tree!) We are not goimg to drive long hours because we don't want good old Henry to break down, so we'll do the 1600km in about 5 days, driving only in the morning and the evening. First we were very worried because we'd heard a lot of scary stories, but today a lady in the OutbackCentre here in PtAugusta told us, that the drive is not that bad, with a roadhouse at least every 200km and a lot of traffic going alomg that road...
02.04.06 We made it!! We crossed the Nullarbor Plain! It wasn't that bad as we have thought before. The landscape was amazing, although most of the time there are really no trees. But for some hundreds of kilometer you drive along the coastline with high cliffs and a rough sea. Good old Henry also did very well!! No problems at all!
Although we were faster as we expected to, we were really keen on getting to the sea again. But first we got a certificate at the Norseman-Visitor-Center and a free shower!
We had short stops at Esperance and Albany which are surrounded by white beaches and crystal clear water. Unfortunately the strong wind and cool temperatures kept us off the water.
We drove further to the West coast through fantastic forests of the huge Karri-trees. We even had the chance to climb up a 60m tree. Half way I recognized that I am a bit afraid of heights, I didn't knew it before. That' s why I couldn't really enjoy the wonderfull view at the top of this huge tree.
Really looking forward to get in the water again and having a surf we headed further to Margeret River. But unfortunately the last two days the waves were huge, up to three meters. Perfect shape, nice offshore wind,but defenitely too big for us and all of the breaks in that area explode on shallow reef.
But luckily right at this weekend there is a Four star WQS Event at Surfers Point with lots of famous Australian Surfers. It's unbelievable watching them dropping into these monsters and ride them like they would be chest-high.
We gonna stay here for a few days and check out the coastline for some beachbreaks for us befor we finally drive to Perth...
12.04.06 During the last week of our living-in-a-car-for-3-months-life we had some good nad some bad days. First we (or at least Lukas and a Dutch couple that we've met) happened to have a very good dinner for a change when we found a 6-7kg salmon. I'm not joking, we really found it! We were on the beach after a nice little surfsession, a group of fishermen hauling in the salmon catch of the day a few hundret meters away from us when I saw a really big fish floating dead in the water. I told Lukas, more or less as a joke that there was dinner for them in the water but when Lukas went to get it, we saw that it looked fresh and good (it must have slipped out of the fishermen's net) so we decided to make dinner out of it (we later found out in the supermarket that this fish was worth f**** 100$)Unfortunately in the end we had to throw half of the salmon away as it was just too much for Lukas and the Dutch couple.
So far one of the craziest things that happened to us - finding a 100$fish
But our luck didn't last long and a few days later Lukas got sick with a bad cold (no, not because of the fish;-), so we were just lying in the back of our car in the shade on a carpark near the beach for a few days. But when Lukas finally got better, I started to feel sick, (not as bad as he though).
But then we had finally made it to Perth where we were welcomed by my dear Portuguese friend Bert, his Swedish girlfriend Kerstin and two of her friends Sana and John. They are living in an apartment with river view in EastFremantle and invited us to stay with them. We found it was quite sad to give up our nomad livestyle but a big bed, a stove, a fridge and a warm shower every morning make it a lot easier :-) Now, we're looking for a job here in Fremantle and it seems not to be too difficult. Lukas found a little one as a dishwasher over the Easter weekend even on the first day looking around for a job. He'll try it in another part of Perth today while I start looking in Fremantle (I was still feeling and looking too sick yesterday) and we're quite confident:-)
15.05.06 After 4 weeks in Perth we already feel quite comfortable. Fremantle ,the little city where we live, is about 20 min away from Perth center by train. It's right at the rivermouth of the Swan river.The center of Fremantle is full of nice cafes, restaurants and quite many pubs. And there is the Little Creatures Brewery which makes the best beer besides the Augustiner Brewery in Salzburg!
I was really lucky getting a job as a dishwasher in Fremantle. I work at Marconis, a nice restaurant with good food and the funniest staff I've ever met. Although the work as a dishwasher is crap, I like to work there because all the people working in the kitchen are quite young and really nice to me. There's always Drum and Bass on high volume pushing the chefs and kitchenhands during the busy times of the day. I work there for three days a week, sometimes washing and scrubbing dishes and frying pans for seven hours straight! I never thought that washing dishes can be so hard. Besides Marconi I work at the same little Cafe,the Toscaninis, where Marie is working, doing the shifts she can't take. It's totally different to Marconis, because the work there is really relaxed and I don't have to hurry up getting all the dishes cleaned. If I am having a day off I am at Trigg Beach trying to get some waves. There are always some waves because of the reef, but it can get very crowded.
Marie got a waitressing job in a pretty fancy restaurant, The Blue Mussel, and the dishwashing job at Toscaninis.
We live togeteher with Berd and his girlfriend Kerstin and Sanna and John, two other swedish. We can be really lucky living there, because it's situated above the Swan river with a nice view to the sea and Rottnest Island. Kerstin, John, Sanna and Berd are really great room mates. It's fun living with them, playing Backgammon, having a few beers,teaching them some german, shooting some hoops and I even got used to eat vegetarian and sometimes even vegan food. They are all good at cooking really good and tasty food, although there is no meat in it.
Marie and I are enjoying our last three weeks here before we take off to Brasil...
23.05.06 I just finished my last dishwashing shift for this week and thought I might give you a little sign that we're still alive :-) Now, I'm off for my "weekend"
Last week was a good one. On Wednesday, Bert and I actually wanted to go to see a big Australian boxing fight but in the end we got stuck at Clancy's Pub, one of our favourites, talking about god and the world 'til we decided to pick up Lukas from work and go home :-)
On Saturday I was invited to the birthday party of one of my colleages in the BlueMussel. I wasn't there very long because I had to catch the last train home but it was a nice thing to do after a very stressed out night at the restaurant. We'd been very busy and heaps of staff had their night off. So some people had to wait very long for their meals ( and of course the waitresses are the ones that get yelled at) So everyone was nervous, I managed to spill beer over customers twice :-/ and we were really happy when the last guests had left. So it was great to have a few drinks afterwards, although it may have been a little too many drinks for such a short time. At least on the next morning it was quite tough to get up and go back to work (luckily it was very quiet on Sunday:-)
Sunday night we had our tradtional night at Mojos, another of of our favourite pubs, that has live music, free pool and free BBQ (even with vegetarian sausages) on every sunday :-)
Unfortunately this time we had to go there without our Swedish friends as they borrowed our car and are gone on a 2 weeks trip up north before Sana and John are flying home next week. First they wanted to give us money for borrowing the car but as we didn't take it (we don't need the car anyway at the moment) they left us a dinner voucher for a Swedish restaurant in Perth.
So yesterday Bert, Lukas and I had a great dinner out. It was really so yummy. Haven't had such a good meal for ages:-) And Lukas got to eat so much meat and fish that it was enough to catch up on what he missed the last 4 months ;-)
Tomorrow we'll have our second "tourist trip" to Perth as we want to see the Western Australian museum. On my last "weekend" we'd also been to Perth but only strolling around town, which is really not as big as I expected it to be - but very nice.
And on my second day off we're going to do some shoping for our trip to Brasil.
Yes, we finally know when we're going :-) Yesterday we picked up the tickets from the travel agency :-))) We're going in about 2 weeks on the 7th of June via Johannesburg (where we even got a free night at the hotel for our overnight stopover - advantages of not booking online but with a real person:-) to Sao Paulo.
We're really looking forward to that but on the other hand I don't want to think too much about it by now, now that we're just starting to feel at home here in Fremantle...
03.06.06 Only 3 and a half days left until our flight takes us to the next 'stop' on our tour: Brasil
Time to say goodbye to a place we really liked.
We really had a tough time in the beginning here in Australia - and I can assure you, during the first weeks we didn't like it at all and wished nothing more than the time here would pass real quick.
But as soon as we were on the road with Henry, things got better and better the further south and west we came.
Along the GreatOceanRoad and all the way from there to Perth the landscape was absolutely fantastic and our time here in Fremantle was simply a great one. Fremantle is a really nice place to live and thanks to our housemates we had a lot of fun, a bit of a nightlife again and we really liked our jobs.
My first job here in Australia, which was grapepicking, gave me a glimpse into what it feels like to be actually physically working, and my back still feels sore when I think back :-) But it was a good experience and it made me appreciate my jobs here in Fremantle even more.
My colleagues were always so caring and helpful that I immidiately felt sort of at home. I think, I'm even going to miss my BarbieGirls at the BlueMussel a little bit (yes, one can even start to like Barbie-Girls ;-)
The upcoming days we're going to prepare everything for our trip to Brasil, are going to have a few goodbye-drinks, even go to a Drum'n'Bass Party in Perth with Kerstin, Bert and Lorry, a friend of ours (Sana and John left about 4 days ago). And for our last evening here in Fremantle we've saved some money to take Kerstin and Bert out for dinner - but psst, it's still a surprise :-)
It's really sad to leave Kerstin and Bert, but on the other hand I know that we'll see them again, which makes it a lot easier...
After all I think can say that Australia has been a great exeperience, from the tough days in the beginning to the great time here in Fremantle - it was worth it :-)))
see ya in Brasil...
BRASIL
17.06.06 We are already in Brasil for one week! Arriving at Sao Paulo it was kind of a strange feeling, coming from Australia where everything is clinically clean and tidy. Suddenly you are in a city with a population of over 17 Mio..and poverty is surrounding you at every step you make. Little children sleeping on the streets,inhaling glue, black market is more present then the legal shops. Although it´s quite hard to deal with, Sao Paulo is fascinating and scary at once.
After three days in Sao Paulo we travelled to Cananeia, a little fishing town situated on an island. Very nice, although it was raining.
From there we went on to Curitiba, the capital city of Parana sate. Quite a big town with a beautiful pedestrain street. We visited the Oscar Niemeyer museum, a special piece of architecture, looking like a huge eye. We made a one-day-trip to Paranagua trough a incredibely wonderful valley (a 5 1/2 hour ride for 110km)
Now we are on the island of Santa Catarina, with Florianopolis as the capital city of Santa Catarina state. The island is famous for it´s different landscapes, mountains, huge sand dunes, crystal clear water and for its good surf!
Every day Marie and I are surprised how cheap it is. A dinner for two, with portions you can´t imagine, with drinks for 7 Euros!
I enjoy the time in brasil very much , it´s such a beautiful country!!!
I´m looking forward for what´s next to come...
03.07.06 Brasil ist out of the worldcup, which didn't exactly make us sad. Until we came here, we didn't really regret not being at home for the worldcup as we expected the party to be much better in Brasil. But during the last weeks we were more than disappointed by the Brazilians - at least in regard to football-party. The streets stayed always empty, everyone was watching the game at home, even after the matches, the cities were relatively quiet and on TV we always saw the big partys happening in Germany:-( We weren't really cheering for the Brazil anyway (they were too certain that they would win) so I was just stoked that both my favourite countries, Portugal and Germany made it to the semi-finals. And that night we had the first and best party so far. Although they lost, there was a big street party here in Cuiabá, although it eneded earlier than it would have when Brazil would have won. But it didn't matter as Larissa, (one of the daughters of the owner of the place we were staying at) took us to a friend's private party. Basically it was just a car with a big sound system parked in the backyard, about 10 people dancing around it (wow, I've never seen people dancing like that) and lots of Caipirinha (which was the first one I really liked). It was great fun and a long night. We slept for 2 hours in a neighbour's house across the road before we went home at 7 o'clock in the morning.
It was a good finish of a great week.
We'd spent all our money on a tour into the Pantanal. A famous wetland ecosystem in the central west of Brazil. It was amazing. 4 days hiking, boatriding and horseriding through an amazing landscape with even more amazing wildlife. Monkeys, Caymans, Rheas, Tarantulas, Giant Anteaters, millions of fascinating birds, Capybaras (basically giant Guinneapigs), giant beetles, giant butterflies, Piranhas and so on... And those were only few of the ones we saw. And our guide was great. He also knew everything about the usage of plants. From fruits of a palm, that have sterile water to use as eyedrops or to wash out wounds to plants that contain insuline for diabetics. I can just call it amazing!!!
After that we were staying at a pousada here in Cuiabá which became more like a host family for us. A big one, though. 6 kids and even already 2 grandchildren living under one roof. E spent the evenings watching TV together and we also watched the Brazil:France match with them. We were surprised by how easy they took the result.
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you about the rest of our stay in Florianópolis. The day after we wrote the last time, it finally became sunny and warm and so we spent a day on PraiaMole, surfing on a rented board and one day hiking through the mountains to reach a beautiful beach and lagoon, that is only accessable by this little trail. It was really nice:-)
After that the weather turned grey and wet again and so we stayed at the youth hostel most of the following 3 days that we spent in Praia da Rosa, a pretty little, usually touristy but around this time of the year pretty much dead beach town, which was our next stop. Actually we'd gone there to see the wales that are breeding there around this time of the year, but they hadn't arrived yet, so we spent the days watching TV and making little hikes along the coast, which looks pretty much like a little tropical paradise.
And it was good that we could relax a bit before we went on the 35 hours bus trip across the country to Cuiabá :-)
20.07.06 Marie missed the last time to tell about our heavy night out in Cuiabá after the football game brasil-france. I don´t have the time to tell you the whole story, but I just can say that I had to struggle the hangover for the following three days.
After the aftermath of this party slightly went away, we headed on to Goias Velho, a nice colonial town, which originally was ment to be the capital city of Goias, the capital today is Goiania. But Goias Velho officially becomes the capital city for three days a year, which is , as you can imagine, celebrated a lot.
Our next stop was Brasilia, the capital city of Brasil. I was really excited to go there, because I heard a lot about its futuristic architecture and its shape of an aeroplane. We arrived pretty late that day, so we just went to our pousada, a little house in one of brasilia´s "superquadras", super expensive and the rooms were tiny and just seperated by thin wooden blanks that it seemed the whole floor is sleeping in one big room. I felt pretty uncomfortable.
The next day we explored the city itself and after about an hour I realized that this is the ugliest city in the world!!!!
The famous buildings by Oscar Niemeyer (5 or 6 buildings) are spread over the whole city and are hidden between monsters of concrete buildings. If there is no ugly building, then there are 6-lane roads with constantly flowing town traffic!! Unbelieveably insane city.
I was so happy when we went on the next day to Alto Paraiso, a little village north of Brasilia, full of alternatively held pousadas and shops, very friendly people and calm and clean surroundings. There we joined a tour to the Parque Nacional Chapada dos Veadeiros, which is a typical "Cerrado", one of Brasil´s big ecosystems. We walked to beautifull waterfalls(30-120m height) where we had a wonderfull bath in their natural pools, great!!!!
After a short visit in Belo Horizonte we went further south to Ouro Preto, an old colonial city, which is famous for its churches and the town itself. It really is the most beautifull city we have seen so far on our journey. Set between and on several mountains, it´s like wandering through history, old buildings and cobbel stone streets everywhere and lots, lots of beautifull churches. There we stayed for 5 days, did lots of sightseeing and relaxed as well!!
We arrived in Rio de Janeiro two days ago and have already seen a lot, but we gonna tell you about that next time...
03.08.06 Rio was really good.We felt much more comfortable than we would have thought. We were a bit afraid in the beginning because we'd heard a lot of warnings to be very careful in Rio. But it turned out to be our favourite big brasilian city until now. Of course we did all the touristy things like going up the Sugarloaf Mountain "Pão de Açúcar", looking over the city from the feet of the Christ statue and strolling along Ipanema and Copacabana beaches. But we also saw many of the parts of town that are not so famous. We really liked it. Because of the many green hills and rocks that divide the city into many fragments, it never seems to be such an endless city, which makes, together with lots of treelined streets a really enjoyable city. But all the same, I would never want to live in a city where I have to be afraid of going out onto the streets at night.
After one week in the big city, we wanted to relax a bit and went to a town east of Rio, called Saquarema for 3 days. Very good surf, but I got sick on our first day there and didn't get better until now.
At the moment we're enjoying our first stop in Bahia, the Northeast of Brasil, which most would call the typical one, because this part probably comes closest to the picture most people have in mind when they think of Brazil.
The town is called Itacaré and we came here after my portuguese family had spent their holidays here and were absolutely excited about the place. And it's really a kind of tropical paradise: beaches backed by coconut palms and hills covered by rainforest, wooden huts selling fruit or juices, lots of chilled music everywhere, people practising capoeira on the beach and people are very open, relaxed and friendly. The town is a bit touristy, whith lots of stylish hotels but still not too busy, which makes it a really nice place to be. Surf isn't bad either, so we decided to cure my flu here :-)
22.08.06 We had to leave paradisical Itacaré after 5 days for Salvador, the poorest city of brazilians big cities, but historically the most important. We spent 4 days of walking through the histotical center of Salvador, the so called Pelourinho, a UNESCO world heritage site. It was really nice walking through cobblestone streets with beautifully restored buildings. Salvador is also famous for its Samba and Percussion Groups which you can hear all day and night long in this part of the town. It was just sad that we never felt really save (although there was always heavily armed police around - or maybe because of that?) since, apart from the touristy Pelourinho, most of Salvador is really dodgy and extremly poor.
Next stop was Lencois, 200km west of Salvador. A little village in the Parque Nacional Chapada da Diamantina. A very relaxed place with lots of waterfalls, natural pools and walking tracks, where, as we experienced, you should better take a guide. We spent our days with 2 to 3 hour walks through fantastic landscapes and enjoyed the refreshing waters of the rivers. We also wanted to do a 5 hour walk through the national park but we couldn´t afford spending money on a guide - just a map of the region to try on our own - after three hours of searching our way through the bush we had to give up. Luckily we found our way back home!
After Lencois we headed further north with a short 2 day stop in Olinda, where we enjoyed the historic center and two nights of Caipirinha with two French and a Peruan in our hostel.
Because we are pretty tired of the extreme sightseeing tour we had the last 2 1/2 month we decided to relax in Paracuru, north of Fortaleza, with endless beaches, palmtrees and warm water, but unfortunately horribly strong wind which makes it a bit uncomfortable staying on the beach.
Tomorrow we gonna jump on the bus again for another 19 hour bus ride to Sao Luis, our last stop, before we have to go all the way back to Sao Paulo to catch the plane back to Europe...
29.08.06 Only 3 days left until our trip through Brasil as well as our trip together is coming to an end.
Hmm, what to say about Brasil? It's a very beautiful country. We've experienced unbelievably beautiful nature, genuine wildlife and an absolutely fascinating culture.
We've found out that Brasil can be a lot different from what people tend to think about it.
First of all, the South is completely different from the North.
In the beginning, while we were travelling through the South of Brasil we were a bit disappointed, but mainly just because we had expectations that the south couldn't live up to. We expected a Brasil full of music everywhere, happy, laughing people and party everytime and everywhere. During the soccer worldcup we were looking for streetparties in vain. People were celebrating but, even when the Barszilians won a game, only at home with their families, which made us regret a little bit not being at home for this great event. But, in my opinion, it wasn't a good worldcup anyway, so we'll come over it :-)
We were not surrounded by music all the time either, and we didn't exactly meet the always happy Braszilians. They tended to be very serious and also worried, which actually shouldn't be a surprise in regard of the amount of really poor people.
Sometimes, we didn't feel welcome at all. But when we met family Souza em Cuiabá and felt almost as if being a family member, we realized that this might have been just because we didn't get to know anyone better. When we continued travelling we realized that, although there were still enough unfriendly persons, most of the Brazilians are really very open, welcoming and friendly (probably just as in any other country)
When we came up North, we realized that this was probably the part that comes closest to people's expectations of Brasil.
As decendants from African slaves, most people in the North are much poorer than the South, where mainly Germans, Austrians, Italians and Eastern Europeans settled on small family run farms.
But it was here, that we heard a lot of music in the streets almost everywhere, learned a lot about different traditional celebrations (although most of them take place in summer) and Candomblé (a mixture of catholic and african ideas), saw sugarcane growing beside the streets and experienced a lot more people smiling back when one smiled at them and poeple much more willing to help.
It also got a lot hotter and muggier which is probably the reason why the towns seemed to get calmer and calmer the farer North we came.
The only thing that made us very sad to see all over Brasil was poverty and all the problems that come with it. A lot of people really live in conditions we can't even imagine. In the cities this is very obvious, when you see whole families sleeping on the walkway. In the countryside it sometimes almost looked quite romantic, when people are sitting in front of houses that we only know from museums where they show how peasants lived 200years ago. But when you hear that most of the families can't even give their children a proper alimentation so that they become crippeled, which is probably the worst thing that can happen to you in this country: being unable to work, the whole thing deosn't look romantic at all anymore.
And it was sad to see how much they seem to be indifferent then to all the rubbish that sometimes makes the most beautiful place look dirty.
And, of course, with all the poverty comes crime, and when you hear of assasinations, missing people and kidnapping everywhere and every day, and how little a human life is worth here, you start to understand those people that whish nothing more from the new government (that is being elected in october) than establishing more security.
All the same, we got to know that Brazilians love their country more than anything else, despite all its problems.
After all, although we sometimes felt a bit helpless and uncomfortable since as a tourist you never know where to go without ending up in one of the dangerous parts of town or whom to trust without being tricked, we came to the conclusion that they have a good reason to be proud of their beautiful country and their fascinating culture which we enjoyed a lot during these 3 months.
Maybe they just need to get a bit more active to try to solve their problems...
Last but not least, I want to thank Lukas for the wonderful time we had together. I had expected it to be a lot more difficult to be together every single day for a whole year. But it turned out to be a great time, without any major problems between the two of us. I'm going to miss Lukas a lot - freezing lonely during the Irish winter - but I'm also looking forward to my next stop - and I whish Lukas all the best for Portugal. I'm already looking forward to see him again...
Ireland/Portugal
13.09.06 I've arrived in Ireland about a week ago and so far everything is running very well. At the moment I'm staying at a very cosy hostel in a cute little harbour suburb south of Dublin, called Dun Laoghaire (pronounced like Dun Leary). I've already found a job in a nice litlle delicates cafe and wine bar. I'll start working there on next Saturday. Much more difficult is to find a room to live. At the moment all students are coming back to Dublin for college, so there is a lot of competition and prices are high. I viewed a nice room yesterday and I'm now waiting for the two Irish girls living there to decide.
But I'm also already prepared to stay in the Hostel until christmas as it is a really nice place with lots of interesting people. We've also already been to some pubs with the hostel crew the last nights which was great fun. I'll be back with more news...
(marie, ireland)
26.09.06 By now, I've pretty much settled down here in Dun Laoghaire.
I've got the job at the "Gourmet Food Parlour", a mix of Sandwich Bar (the Irish love their sandwiches), cafe and delicatess food store. I'm working there full-time, which means basically 6 days a week for 8 hours during the day. Sunday is my only day off:-/
But I like the job and have discovered my love for coffee-making:-)
We've also been out a lot with the guys from the Hostel and last Sunday we went on a little hike along the coast outside of Dublin, which was absolutely beautiful - more Irish green than I expected:-)
Next week, Valerie, a dear friend from Munich is coming to see me and it's going to be a great time for sure...
(marie, ireland)
05.10.06 Hm, what is there to tell about last week? It ended being a very tiring week. In a good sense:-)
I was normally working in my cafe, which I still like, although the daily, very busy lunchtime slowly becomes annoying. But ok, I didn't expect to find my dreamjob anyway.
On Wednesday we, i.e the HostelCrew went to a RaggaeParty. Absolutely fantastic! A great band, lots of drinks and great people araound. It was great fun! Unfortunately after that there were only 5 hours to sleep until I had to get up again and go to work.
I was already looking forward to going to bed early on Thursday, when I was told at work that we would have a farewell-party for Alicia, the Polish girl that was working in the cafe. She would go home the next day so we went out again. It was good fun again and it was worth it not going to bed early. But I still had to go to work the next day. Luckily the weekend was a bit more quiet and we were only watching some videos at the hostel. On Sunday I needed to get some fresh air and went for a walk with Agnieszka, (The Polish girl who used to be my roommate in the hostel before she found a nice room only a couple of minutes away from the hostel) and her sister who was here for a few days to see Agnieszka. We walked along some famous cliffs north of Dublin and although there were heaps of tourists is was very nice. Again, I just love the rough, Irish landscape:-)))
Yesterday Chrsitina and I were a bit disappointed when we went to the concert of a Irish rockband from the 80s "Level 42". I had never heard of that band but my boss at work gave me the tickets because she couldn't go - so we were looking forward to a funny night out. But it turned out not to be so funny. Bad music (wannabe rocky lovesongs) and a crowd mainly in their forties. I would not mind a crowd in their forties but this was definitely a boring one. Maximum dancing movement was a slight head nodding. So we went home after about an hour:-/
So now, I'm really looking forward to this weekend where we going to party for sure. Valerie is going to arrive in a few hours and we'll have to introduce her to Dublin's nightlife ;-)))
(marie, ireland)
19.10.06 The weekend with Valerie was fantastic. We had a full programm and only a few hours sleep. Lots of party and sightseeing the next day.
On Friday we went out on a girls night with Agnieszka and we ended up teaching old guys (really old -about 55) how to light a shot of sambucca in your mouth.
I took Saturday off work, so I finally got to see the city centre as well - and this time not only at night ;-). We went sightseeing, but the tired version. Just strolling around the city and having a look at some of the important places like Trinity college and a few old churches. I quite liked it, although it is a very busy city, a bit too busy with lots of traffic and too many people around for such a small city.
At night we went out with most of the old and new hostel crew, first to the pub next door, but took the last train into Dublin and went to a pub/club in temple Bar where we kept dancing until 4 o'clock :-) On Sunday I wanted to show Valerie the beautiful landscape around Dublin but it was terribly irish weather so the walk ended after a few hundred metres along the beach. At night we went to that great traditional pub with Irish music. On Monday I had to work before we celebrated Valrie's and Christina's (she moved into an apartment on tuesday - with 3 chinese:-) last night at the hostel in the pub next door.
Well and now I'm alone at the hostel, with Sebastian, Cora (they are a couple now) and Stephan. Which is definitely still great fun :-)))
The weekend after that was very quiet for me. I was sick and had to relax a bit. We went to the movies (I can only recommend 'little miss sunshine' - so funny) and had a nice walk on Sunday.
This week was a bit stressed out as Ursula, the Hungarian girl from the Hostel, who is now also working with me, turned out to be not quite right in her mind (she keeps telling me that she can hear thoughts and that she heard me complaining to the boss about her and talking bad about her in the hostel) I really got scared of her but, well, she slowly seems to calm down so I hope it's getting better next week...
(marie, ireland)
26.20.06 No way it got better. I haven't been sleeping for about 3 nights, keep shaking and just can't find any rest.
Ursula kept harassing me the last week and it got worse and worse although on Monday the boss found out about the whole story and she and the other girl, Claire, tried to convince her that I had never been talking about her. First Ursula said she would now believe me but 2 days after she started again and even followed me to my room, yelling she just wanted me to let her alone. She even put her foot into my door so I couldn't close it because I refused to talk about her. The hostel manager had to pull her out of there.
Her thinking ist just so irrational (because she really believes that she hears all these things) that it leaves me completely helpless. There's no way I could react to make her believe me or just to calm her down.
Phil, the hostelmanager offered me to sit down together with the two of us to try to solve the problem, afetr I apologized for the whole scene in front of new arriving guests. And although I don't think it's going to help the situation (I just can hardly believe that ursula suddenly realizes that she's not hearing me or anybody but some f**** voices in her head) I'm probably going to try it tonight for a last time - if I feel strong enough for it.
But I've prepared everything to leave the hostel: I can probably stay on Christinas couch for one week and either I find a room til then or I'll have to hope that I'll be able to move on to another friend's couch...
(marie, ireland)
02.11.06 I'm feeling a lot better now. I moved out of the hostel a few days ago and I'm now sleeping at Christina's place. It's good to be away from all that trouble :-) I didn't even try to talk to Phil and Ursula after ursula even threatened me at work: "Don't fall asleep in the hostel". Not that I actually think that she's going to do anything but for my own sake, I needed to get out of there. And aparantly ursula is going back home in a few days anyway and then I'll return to the hostel for sure:-)
The whole story made me realize one thing: I can be so happy that I met all these great people here that helped me so much during the last 2 weeks. Thanks a lot to Sebastian, Christina, Agnieszka and Cora!!! Also to Claire and Lorraine who gave me great support at work!
Last weekend I went on a trip to Northern Ireland with Anne&Sam and Agnieszka. We rented a car and started off to Belfast on Friday night. On Saturday we went to see the murals they paimted during the Troubles between the Protestants and the Catholics. It was really impressive, even frightening and made us all think a lot. We even met a former and probably still) IRA memebr who told us about his side of the story and about a lot of his friends who died during the Troubles.
After that we went on to the more pleasant part of the trip - along the coast up to the "Giant's causeway" an ancient rock formation that looks really more than unreal with its perfectly hexagonal shaped pillars. But the whole coast up there is beautiful: steep cliffs in between the green landscape and the turquoise sea.
We even wanted to go see the world's oldest legal whiskey-distillery (bushmill's) but unfortunaltely we ran out of time :-/
It was a great weekend!!!
09.11.06 After enjoying living with Christina for one week (I think we would be extremly good housemates:-) I moved to Agnieszka's place, since the mother of Christina's Chinese housemates came over from China. I'm enjoying it a lot there as well. It's a very nice and cosy place and Agnieszka's housemates were so cute when they heard why I had to leave the hostel. Tonight Agnieszka will even make a Polish speciality for dinner. Yummy:-)))
Last monday we already had German Apfelkuechle for dinner, Christina made them and although they didn't look as good, they were soooo yummy:-) and reminded me of back home - my aunt Heidi used to make them a lot.
Tomorrow I'm going back to da hostel as Ursula left today. Phil was so nice to keep my bed for me, although the hostel is fully booked.
And we'll have to say good bye to Anne&Sam tomorrow. They are leaving for their trip around Europe. And guess where they are starting: Portugal!!! Already spent hours on telling them where to go :-)))
So we'll have a few farewell pints in the good old PurtyKitchen (the very nice and handy pub next to the hostel;-) tomorrow night...
And after that I have the whole weekend off for a change. Looking forward to that:-))) I'll probably try to get out of Dublin again - hava a little walk, get some fresh air...
(marie, ireland)
18.11.06 Ok, last weekend didn't quite work out as I expected it. Instead of getting out of Dublin, I spent Saturday in bed, totally hung over after Ann&Sam's farewell party :-/
On Sunday I still didn't feel quite well but I needed to get some frech air so I headed out for a little walk in Europe's biggest innercity park, Phoenix Park. And after a lot of walking I agree: really big. You definitely don't feel like being in the middle of a buzzling city.
After that weekend I started into this week quite tired and working between 9 and 10 hours every day didn't help much to change that. So pretty much nothing to tell about this week. Even last night, I spent the evening chilling out with Sebastian, Cora and Christina in my room. And this morning I finally could sleep in again. Sooo good;-)
Moreover, although it's really feezing outside the sun is shining so I'll head out for a little walk along the harbour soon.
Tonight is going to be longer again. 7 friends of Christina are coming over from Germany and although I don't exactly feel like, I promised Christina ages ago to come out with them tonight. And as far as I know the story it's going to be a really good night again :-)
And since last weekend I vowed not to drink alcohol until my farewell party, which basically means for the next 3 weeks, I even don't have to worry about tomorrow morning :-) I was planning to go to see a few museums in Dublin tomorrow...
(marie, ireland)
23.11.06 Of course I kept my promise and it was a great, funny night and nice to meet some of Christina's friends. And without alcohol I was really able to get up on Sunday quite early to head out for Dublin's photo gallery and the National Museum. Both really interesting. The photo gallery showed an exhibition called "the breathing factory" and although I don't particularly like modern photography (in this case it was basically just photos of machines and workers in a totally sterile factory) where the meaning of the photo is more important than the picture itself, it was still interesting to see.
In the National Museum I was surprised. It's a museum based on artefacts wich I usually find quite boring but here it was arranged very cleverly so that you could really see how they developed their skills in stone and later metal working. Amazing what the Celts were able to make out of iron and gold. And then came the Vikings and with them only strong, rough swords and axes and the amazingly delicate artwork of the Celts disappeared.
For me the weekend was over and I started working again on monday. Tonight we're going to have a nice evening in the pub, tomorrow I'm going to work from 12 til late, since someone booked the cafe for a party and on saturday I'm working again. Means a short weekend for me. But: slowly but surely I'm preparing everything for my 3 weeks trip through Ireland. Only 7 days working left :-)))
If everything goes ok I'm leaving Dublin on the 4th of December in my rental car to explore the rest of the green Island, only coming back for the Cafe's christmas party on the 9th and then for the night before my flight back home on the 23rd....
(marie, ireland)
30.11.06 Well, after working a 13 hour shift on Friday, coming home from work at 1am and working again the next morning, my only plan last saturday was to go to bed as early as possible. And although my feet were still a abit sore on Sunday I decided to make use of the time that I still have in Dublin to o a bit of sightseeing. First I went to see a few of Dublin's city parks and gardens. Really nice and even good weather for a change. Then some of the historic buildings around town and again to the National Museum. This time to see a really interesting exhibtion about "The Irish at war - at home and abroad". Unfortunately when I came to the most interesting aprt of the exhibition, the EasterRising and the IndependenceWar, the museum closed :-/ So I already know what to do this sunday....
The evening I spent with Agnieszka and her two housemates celebrating a Polish tradition "St. Andrew's day". A day strictly for girls where we found out who's getting married with whom next year by magical rituals. It was a really funny night and I know now that I'm going to get married to someone with a G as first letter of his name, that I'm going to stay at home and then there was something with an elephant. So, now I know exactly what to expect ;-)))
Well, back to work on Monday and early to bed too.
Yesterday I had my goodbye night. I wanted to go to a reaggae Party in Dublin anyway and so i thought I might as well make it my goodbye night.
First I went for a few drinks to the PurtyKitchen with most of the people I met here. It was nice to see them all reunited. :-)
Unfortunately everyone just thought of the next day and so Christina and I ended up going into town on our own. It was a great night out and it felt good dancing to really good music again.
It was pretty late too when we came back home, but luckily I felt surprisingly fit this morning :-) But now, I'm feeling that I've only been sleeping 5 hours and I'm really looking forward to hide from the rain in my cosy, warm bed.... :-)))
(marie, ireland)
10.12.06 My little stopover in Dublin for the staff christmas Party last night was definitely worth it. It was great to see everybody from work and have a good time with them to say goodbye. It made me really sad too, because I got to like Nigel, Claire, Barbara and Jersey and it was great fun to work with them.
The party itself was great fun too. After a few wines in the cafe we went to the PurtyKitchen for dinner (oh good god was that good :-))) and to the club upstairs afterwards. I'm a bit hungover today and as I didn't want to drive with that litre of alcohol still left in my head I'll stay at christina's place til Monday. Then I'm off to do the west coast of Ireland...
Last week was great too. First I went hiking in Glendalough in the Wicklow Mountains. It was pouring down with rain and I was drenched after the 5 hours walk but it was still fantastic: amazing landscape with a certain magic to it, not a soul around for miles and lots of deer and wild goats to spot.
After that I drove to Kilkenny, a nice little medievial town with an impressive castle. After that came Cork, where I stayed at a horrible hostel. But I liked the city itself: it looks a lot more Irish than Dublin.
On the way back to Dublin I stayed at this hostel which was in a 700 years old castle. Really good - and it got even better when the owner sat down with me in the evening telling me about the ghosts that he'd seen in there :-)))
Driving is ok too. No problems with the left hand side driving (guess the thousands of kilometres in Australia were enough training:-) and the towns are not as badly signposted as I expected.
All in all, it feels really good to be on the road again and I'm enjoying it to have some time for myself - gives me the opportunity to think a bit about the last one and a half years...
(marie, ireland)
25.12.06 Eventually I arrived back home! It was nice - my parents picked me up from the airport, we had a really good Christmas with both my grandmas and my aunt and I even saw a few of my fríends when we went to church. It felt really good to be back!!!
Although I also still feel a bit weird. I sort of expected everything had changed while I was away and that I would have troubles finding my way through Munich but it turned out to be so normal, so well known - while I felt so completely different to when I left. Well, but maybe I just need a little time to get used to the way things are at home...
The last weeks or rather months in Ireland didn't exactly make it easy for me to leave either. The rest of my trip around the island was amazing. I did a few more hikes in pouring rain through deserted areas, slept in cold hostels as their only guest, stayed in warm hostels with a nice fireplace and funny people and drove a few more kilometres (all in all I did 6000km in Ireland). I even managed to see Mike and his family in their hometown in Mayo, which was definitely one of the highlights of my trip. Although it was extremly embarassing to tell his father that I couldn't eat the beef stew he had made for me ;-) (because Mike totally forgot that I'm vegetarian) it was a really good time. Mike showed me around the area and at night we went on a little crawl through "his" pubs :-)))
After that I went further up the west coast until the most Northern Point of Ireland, before I went back down to Dublin, not forgetting to make a little detour over the world's oldest legal whiskey distillery to buy a bottle (yummy:-)
The last night I spent with my closest friends: we went out for dinner and after that managed for a change to really leave the pub after one pint :-) The idea of having to get up at 3 o'clock the next morning certainly helped a lot ;-)
Dublin airport, where a nice Polish taxidriver took me together with a bunch of other Polish, was mental. people weren't even able to enter the departure hall anymore as it was too packed. Lesson learned: never go flying short before christmas!!!
It was strange as this was probably the first country that I was really sad to leave. I had a fantastic time there, mainly (the job that I liked, the cosy pubs, the music that I love and the country itself are to blame as well though) because of the people that I've met. Thanks for that, guys!!! That's why I'm sure that this goodbye is not forever :-))) I'll be back!!!!
(marie, back home)