Our first tour planning

We started planning our tour through Australia a little bit. We realised very quickly that we don´t have enough time to visit all the places we would like to visit:-(. Just three weeks here and running already out of time to fulfil all of our dreams in a whole year. A shame we have to work between our trips and have to do the three months “seasonal work” for the extension of Dirk’s Visa (it’s a new rule, if you do three months fruit-picking for example, then you are entitled for another one year working holiday visa!).
Probably and unfortunately we won´t make it to New Zealand and Fiji. Anyway we are looking forward to travelling to the Western part of Australia after leaving Sydney because everybody told us that it is really nice and even more relaxed than in Sydney.
We plan to visit (not especially in this sequence: Melbourne (2), Tasmania (3), some friends of Albert´s family nearby Adelaide (4), the sister of Silke´s fellow student Jenny Röcker in Albany (5), Perth (6), Monkey Mia (7), Ningaloo Reef (8), Darwin and the Kakadu Nationalpark (9), Dirk also wants to visit Uluru (10) – Silke has already seen the big stone;-) and of course we want to go up the East coast: Cape Tribulation and the Great Barrier Reef near Cairns (11), Whitsunday Islands (12), Fraser Island (13) and Byron Bay (14).

Our current job situation

Still enjoying the holiday feeling! Today we are just three weeks here and didn’t run out of money yet ;-)! But unfortunately have to look for a job sometimes…
A lot of people advised us not to tell that we are only staying two or three months in Sydney because it doesn’t sound good and makes it much harder to find a proper job! So next time we apply for a job we will try this!

Our visit to the Opera House

Dirk managed to get to know Oscar, an actor of an opera performed in the opera house. So luckily we got some tickets for tonight – they are showing “The Rake´s Progress”. Oscar said that we got the best seats of the opera:-)! Normally the tickets are 370 AUS $ (=220 €) but we got them for 80 AUS $ (=48 €). Oscar is having a small role in this opera. We are looking forward to going there tonight. Beforehand we want to meet some friends for their after work drinks in the Opera Bar – located next to the opera house. Dirk will get a special guide through the opera house from Oscar before the opera starts.

Our nightly visit of the bear exhibition at Circular Quay

The famous bears from Berlin are on a world tour. We found them one night while walking through the city. On the photo we are with the Australian bear.

More Germans in Bondi

Our new friends Thomas, Christine, Leon and Timon – a German family in Bondi
During the last two weeks Silke has realized a German couple with their two sons on the beach. She heard they are from Ulm where Silke has lived for two years. Next time we would see them on the beach Silke wanted to greet them. Last Monday Dirk went to a bank to get his bank card and Christine (the female part of this couple; the male is called Thomas) was standing behind him. Her smaller son Leon (3 years) asked his mom in German: “Does this man also have to get his bank card?” And Dirk answered in German: “Yes, I also have to get mine.” So they started talking to each other and went to drink a coffee together. After that they went to pick up the older son Timon (7 years) from school and Dirk went with them to their home to drink another coffee. Dirk came back and told Silke that we got an dinner invitation to a German couple for the same evening. Silke mentioned that probably would be the same couple we have seen on the beach twice. A very funny coincidence!
In the evening we bought some white wine and went to their home which is also in Bondi. We had dinner together and afterwards their neighbour came over. After their children went to bed and swapping some music we started to dance in their living room as you can see on the photo. It was a fun night:-)!
Last night we have been to their house. Christine got a bad back injury on Wednesday morning so we wanted to cheer her a little up. We were watching “Pricilla, the queen of the desert” which has been filmed in Sydney and the outback of Australia.

Our crazy St. Patrick´s Day (March, 17th 2006)

Last Friday we went to celebrate St. Patrick´s Day in an Irish Pub in the city. We met Thomas (a friend of Dirk) and we all had to queue for about half an hour. Inside the pub there were many crazy and really drunk Irish people and it was fun zo watch them. Dirk recognized that the English can only have red or white skin and nothing in between;-)! There was a U2 cover band playing and we were dancing a lot. The singer tried to look like Bono but his voice was totally different.

A bit cloudy and only 25 degrees....good weather for a walk

Yesterday we were doing the long coastal walk from Coogee Beach to Bondi Beach. We were enjoying the really nice views and as you can see were taking some funny photos for you, our friends and family (just check out what is written in the sand). We had whole Tamarama Beach for ourselves as the sun was not there and it was only about 25 degrees.

Last night we met Arnaud, Mounir and Steve from Paris to have some drinks with them. Silke´s friends Rebekka and Arnaud from Bonn know Arnaud and they exchanged our email addresses. They have been in Sydney one week and also in the same hostel we stayed the first week but it took us one week to arrange a meeting. First we went to a sports club having some beer with ocean view. Then we went to a pizzeria and had dinner. At midnight we went swimming in the ocean (Silke get some really strange ideas, especially after a couple of as beers) it still was really warm. We ended and danced for a while in Hotel Bondi where Silke had worked upstairs at the radio station 88.0 FM in the year 2000.

Today at 7 a.m.:-( Dirk started his new job in a really nice small café in Bondi Beach:-). It´s just around the corner and he is going to work there around 40 hours a week. On the end he could choose between three jobs,…and he had to quit his job at Wagamama before he startet it. Now he is even perfect in saying sorry….;-)
Silke only handed in one application so far and has to start to look around more intensively soon. Right now she is still enjoying her holiday;-)!

Today in the afternoon we are going to the city. The TNT magazine (they give tips to travellers like job search and what you have to visit) is doing a research about travellers, their plans, their experience etc. We will get free food and drinks there and 25 AUS $ (=15 Euro) for 1,5 hours of talking. Let´s see what will happen there and meet some other travellers.
The reason why we have to go there, Silke like to say that she is working too!...;-)

Getting fit - A new Experience

Last Saturday we started our fitness program;-)! We went to the Bondi Icebergs to have a swim in their saltwater outdoor pool right next to the ocean and the beach. Now you probably think: “why don´t they swim in the ocean???” and the answer is: you cannot really swim in the ocean because of the big waves in there. This Monday we went jogging at the beach and did some exercise afterwards. We were thinking people would laugh about us untrained Germans in this outdoor fitness area but they did not. Silke told Dirk that we have to do some stretching before and after and Dirk answered: let´s practise “nach Hause dehnen” (=”stretching back home”). Silke could not stop laughing for a long while…:-)

Our night program (instead of Ratinger Strasse and Ballermann in Duesseldorf)

Yesterday evening Dirk met a friend: Lisa whom he got to know in London. She is Australian (from Perth) and showed us Kings Kross which is the red-light district of Sydney. She wanted to show us a lounge bar to chill out. After ten minutes in the bar Dirk started to dance, we joined him and our table and armchairs were moved away by the bar manager to create the dancefloor.
Silke met Geoff whom she knows from her visit in Sydney in 2000 and who came to celebrate carnival in Cologne and Duesseldorf two or three years ago and his two colleagues in Circular Quay and went to a after work party next to the Opera House. The view there was fantastic: the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. People start drinking large amounts of beer there at about 5 p.m. Afterwards Silke met Dirk and Lisa at around 11 p.m.

How much difference can two words have for the meaning?

Dirk had a trial shift for a part time job in a Wagamama restaurant (Dirk’s favourite Japanese style restaurant he used to go in London) last night. He had to seat the people who arrived in the restaurant. He wanted to say: “If you have any questions or problems don´t hesitate to ask.” But instead he said: “If you have any questions or problems don´t ask.” He realised his mistake, got ashamed and walked away and hoped that these guests haven´t realised his mistake.
It seems quite easy to find a job here (especially for Dirk as he has a working holiday visa). The salary is very little but that is something we are very used to;-)!

Our new home on Campbell Parade – Bondi Beach

This Friday we moved from the crap hostel to a great flat situated right on the beach where we are going to stay the next three months. We live with a guy called Angus who is working for a TV station. He and now we;-) have a flat at the beachfront in Bondi Beach. As you can see on the pics we really enjoy the great view from the living room. Yesterday on our first morning in the flat we had New York Bagels (with cream cheese and salmon) and some champagne – which for sure was just for taking the photo;-)! From the living room we can watch whole Bondi Beach and we have to get binoculars as soon as we can to watch the good-looking surfers. Angus likes the seventies so his furniture is really cool.
When Silke put back the champagne glasses after finishing our photo session she fell off three stairs in the flat and Dirk got really shocked in the kitchen. Now she got some bruises on her beautiful tanned skin on the legs and her bum;-)…

Australian lunch time

We miss you, clickies, for lunch but we changed our big lunches to a really fresh sushi roll each day for 96 cent which is very tasty and cheap for its size. That supports our diet which we tried to start last Monday. Our diet contains breakfast, a sushi roll for lunch, some pasta or something else in the evening and heaps of beer;-)!

Mardi Gras Parade: yesterday we went to the biggest venue in town. Mardi Gras is the same like the Christopher Street Day in Europe (though Silke thinks that the gay men in Cologne look better than on the parade yesterday). A lot of queer people everywhere. It really feels like carnival in Germany – only much hotter and sexier because the weather here is much better and the people get undressed more quickly. Dirk was a good boy and went home early (2 a.m.) with Silke…;-)!

At the moment we are sitting in front of the hostel, moving away from the sun to see the screen of Dirk´s ibook and writing these lines. After the strong sun at midday we plan to go to beach and watch the surfers.

We are enjoying the weather, the atmosphere and just relax without thinking about job possibilities. Tomorrow we will start checking out job and flat opportunities.

We wish you a great working week and of course we are thinking about all of you;-)!

Our condition

We still have a jetlag and especially Dirk sleeps only for few hours each night and loves to sleep on the bus instead (like in the tuk-tuk). In the morning Dirk goes to the beach and watch the sunrise while Silke is still sleeping.

The must dos after the arrival: a ferry trip to some bays and of course viewing the harbour bridge and the opera house while passing them on the water. Dirk mentioned that these sights are smaller than they seem to be on postcards and pictures. The weather was cloudy but still warm and it gets better from hour to hour.

We walked through the inner city to successfully get a prepaid mobile card.

We live in a twin room in a hostel (www.lanrocklodge.com) in Bondi Beach within 4 square meters inclusive kitchenette. Amazing how spacious a room can be… The hostel was a really nice place six years ago (when Silke was here for the first time) but it is a little run down right now. We booked the room for the first week and will see where we go next. A big advantage is that we only have to walk 2 mins to the beach:-)!

Bondi Beach´s New LifeSavers

Dirk´s first impression of Australia: amazing how green and big a country can be… Hot weather and hot guys everywhere… Feel again too fat compared to the rest on the beach like in Rio…

First Stop - Bangkok / Thailand

There we had many challenges:

- finding a hotel because our reservation didn´t work

- buying not too much stuff to carry on to Australia (that´s is a real big problem for us because of cheap prices and good offers everywhere)

- not to end up in a “banana” or “ping-pong” show because was everybody tried to get us into these special kind of sex shows

- not falling asleep everywhere (Dirk managed to fall asleep on each tuk-tuk ride;-)!)

- getting to the airport on time.

Yes, we managed to miss our flight in the afternoon (like Dirk did several times before) because of a thai massage, the Grand Palace, sightseeing, shopping again and our own false thinking about our departure time.

For the future, Dirk knows better don’t trust girls and double-check your flight details;-)!

In the end we had luck because we managed to get a flight on the same day – just a couple of hours later:-)! Missing our flight was for a special reason as the later flight was really empty and we could sleep on four seats each. Anyway Dirk had some problems with sleeping because he was missing his tuk-tuk;-).

Luckily we didn`t have to pay heaps of money for changing the flight.

Our Departure

On Tuesday morning with heaps of snow on the motorway to Frankfurt (-3 celsius) we started our trip. Beate was our special surprise farewell committee at the airport.

After ten hours flight without sleeping (instead watching 3 movies) we arrived in Bangkok (35 celsius).

Saying Goodbye to "Good old Germany"

Finally the day had come to say goodbye to all our great friends and family. After a really busy week when we had to move out our flats, organize our trip and for Dirk´s part do some more holiday in Rio we had our farewell celebration party in Duesseldorf on the world famous Kö last Sunday. On this street event we trained ourselves in drinking beer and as a result too much beer we got experience in putting up sheep;-)!