Our Easter excursion to Manly and the Harbour Bridge at sunset

On Easter Sunday Dirk and Silke were hiding and searching Easter eggs in their flat. Silke really wanted to celebrate this long year tradition of her girlfriends. In the beginning Dirk was only laughing about her but in the end he enjoyed it, too ;-)! After the egg search and a nice breakfast with salmon we set out for Manly. We took the ferry from Circular Quay. While walking to Shellys Beach we had a nice encounter with a tourist who wanted to do a professional photo of us. We had only asked him to do one photo of us with Manly beach in the background but he said that he had to do another one that he preferred. On the ferry back to the city Dirk took some nice photos of the Harbour Bridge at sunset.

Easter Saturday – Bronte beach, Easter carnival in Randwick and BBQ in Bondi

On Easter Saturday Thomas, Dirk and Silke walked the coastal track to Bronte where we had breakfast with Geoff. After the nice breakfast / brunch we went to the beach and Geoff introduced us into bodysurfing. He showed us how to catch a wave at the right moment and to let ourselves be carried for metres by the wave. It was great fun and we went on practising after Geoff had already left.
Around 2 pm Silke got a phone call of Jana (German) whom she had met the day before on the beach. She invited us to come to the horse races as her friends and her were all going to be there. Spontaneously as we are we went there in our beach clothes. Everybody except of us was dressed up a lot as you can see on the pictures. But people didn´t care about our beach clothes as they all were already drunk when we arrived there ;-). Because we arrived really late we didn´t have to pay entrance fee so we invested the money on bets. Unfortunately we weren´t lucky winners:-(!
After the last horse race and a beer in a bar in Surry Hills we took the bus back to Bondi where we had a BBQ at the flat of Jana´s Swedish friends.

Huge waves around Sydney

We experienced some huge waves on the weekend before Easter. On Saturday April, 08th we were on Bondi Beach and tried to get in the water. It was a great experience to realise how strong the waves can be. Warrik – an Australian mate of us – saw a big wave coming and all the people in the shallow water were toppling down. He said that it looked like a bid soup of people. One girl lost her bikini bottom and her bum was on top of the wave.
This was reported in the news:
Beaches on the east coast of Australia were closed on Sunday April, 09th by some of the biggest waves seen there for years. Only four beaches between the Hunter region and the NSW south coast were open, while Sydney's Manly ferry services were suspended from about noon due to the swells. Waves of more than five metres were reported at Sydney's southern beaches, and NSW Surf Lifesaving said it was possible the seas were even bigger on the state's south coast. Fifteen people were rescued today as huge swells created dangerous conditions at Sydney's beaches. The huge waves were caused by very low air pressure over the Tasman sea.

Rooftop Spa on floor 30 or even further up

Nearly two weeks ago on April, 08th we went to visit a Dutch couple in the city. We met them at a traveller survey of the TNT magazine. They invited us to their apartment in Liverpool Street and told us to bring our swimmers. After some drinks we went on the rooftop of the skyscraper and enjoyed the spa for about half an hour. Later on we went to the city and danced in Scruffy Murphys and Paddys Irish Pub.

Our new cool party place - Paddys Irish Pub on George Street

We have already been to this great Irish Pub (http://www.paddymaguires.com/haymarket/) two Mondays because there is a great band with a good-looking singer playing live-music. First time we went with the Swiss Stéphane (cp. blog entry from April, 5th) and then a second time one week later with our German friend Thomas. Two days ago, on Tuesday, we checked out the Irish Pubs and it wasn´t nice at all. We then went to the Three Monkeys Bar and coincidently our famous singer was playing there with another band:-)! We were very happy and stayed and danced there…

One month anniversary

Yesterday we had "oooone-month" anniversary in Sydney!
We didn't know before that it could be that easy, living already eight weeks without work!...smile....
Compared to Germany the weather is really nice here - you get busy with going to the beach every day, going out (still searching for the right party-place), meeting new people, shopping and sightseeing we are busy and stressed again.

During the week, Silke met a little mouse in our kitchen. Now we have besides all the cockroaches, bugs and spiders one more pet around. Dirk haven´t seen her yet,...so he couldn't introduce himself. Looking forward to that moment ;-)
Even we have found (compare to the other houses around) a clean place, it's different to Europe. You have to learn to live with all that. We try to, but sometimes it's really hard ... and we are not yet in the outback!

We haven´t found a job so far but we weren´t really looking. The weather got really nice again and the beach in front of the house is very tempting.
Dirk started looking for jobs today and he already found two nice cafés where he handed in his resume and they seemed very interested.
The problem for Silke is that she already got her working holiday visa in 2000 and she wasn´t allowed to get a second one. So officially she isn´t allowed to work here or she has to be sponsored by a business (but this wouldn´t correspond with travelling around Australia). She has to find a cash in hand job and that isn´t easy in Bondi Beach because the immigration takes good care that workers have a working permission. They just know that there are many backpackers living in Bondi Beach. So she is looking for a job in a private household (like nanny or housekeeping etc.).

Dirk´s excursion to the Olympic Park

Last Friday Dirk and a friend of him went to the Olympic Park to see the famous “real body exhibition”. Silke had already visited this exhibition in Cologne and knew the Olympic Park so she didn´t go. After visiting the exhibition Dirk explored the Olympic Park and took photos of the statues for the volunteers and the Olympic Stadium now called Telstra Stadium.
After that Dirk had to hurry up, because we were invited for a german dinner, at the house of the german family whom we met a couple of weeks ago. We had “Sauerbraten, Semmelknödel, Spätzle und Rotkohl” the food was fantastic and of course the evening ended up with a lot of wine and dancing in the living-room.

Our hiking trip in the Blue Mountains

Last Thursday we got up really early for the first time and went to the Blue Mountains with Stéphane. Waiting for the bus to come we watched a great sunrise at Bondi Beach :-)!
After around three hours on public transport (bus and trains) we arrived in the Blue Mountains around 10:30 a.m. We took the explorer bus (London double-deck-buses) over there and went to Echo Point. This is the spot for seeing the famous Three Sisters.
We decided to do the most spectacular hike with around 900 steps downstairs and then up again on the other side of the valley. It was a nice walk and we did quite well because Dirk reminded us all the time that walking many steps is the best exercise to get a nice bum ;-)! We passed the Katoomba Falls and met only a few people. After the walk we took the bus again to see a little bit more of the area. We visited a small town called Leura and had some food in Katoomba before taking the train back to Sydney around 4:30 p.m.
Back in Sydney Stéphane and Silke went to the Cruise Bar in the Rocks. There we met Ricardo and some of his Columbian friends to dance salsa and drink Mojitos. Silke got really dizzy after one and a half Mojitos and dancing because her dance partner twirled her around so much. But anyway it was great fun and a really sportive day :-)!

A Monday with heaps of things going on in Sydney

A Swiss friends of Eva arrived Sunday night in Sydney and Silke met him Monday afternoon to show him around Sydney. We walked to the Opera House and then took a ferry to Rose Bay. We had some drinks over there and on the way back we watched a great sundown. Back in the city and after some tasty thai food we went to a famous backpacker bar called Scubar where a crabrace is taking place every Monday. Everybody can bet on a crab and win some prices. For the first race there was an English co-moderator on stage which started dancing and undressing while moderating. Everybody looked a little ashamed when she put off her bra. But then she fell of the table, got up very quickly (it seemed that nothing had happened to her) and everybody started laughing. After the third crabrace where our crab was probably taking part we left the backpacker bar and went to meet Dirk. We decided to go to Paddy´s – an Irish Pub where we have already been for St. Patrick´s Day. There was a real good live band playing that we danced a lot. After many jugs of beer Stéphane went to his hostel and we went home to Bondi Beach. After all we had to wait at Hyde Park for our bus and started listening to “Superjeile Zick” and other music – as you can see on the picture ;-)

Our great evening at the Opera Bar and the “Rake´s Progress” in the Opera House

We arrived at the Opera Bar which is situated right next to the Opera House with a beautiful view of the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. Every Friday afternoon it gets really busy when people come to drink their after work beers over there. We found a great spot to sit and drink some sparkling wine. A friend of Dirk and also an actor in the opera where were going to see met Dirk before the performance and showed him the inside of the whole Opera House building. Meanwhile Silke had to finish the wine and met some people (e.g. an Norwegian who is working as a ferry captain in Circular Quay). During the performance we both realised that we don´t like operas too much but anyway we enjoyed being inside the famous building. But one opera a year should be enough….