Sydney - Horror - Singapore - Horror - Frankfurt - Take Off/Landing - Home

Last comment. Resume. Summary. Or just the an explanation of the worst thing of the trip - the flight.

A short map of my trip.
Yea, I like Australia. Maybe it was not the last time that I had spent some days of my life on this continent. All fine, but there is a big loss - the distance between home an Oz - it's pretty far away...

Some call it airplane but I think its an instrument of torture! By the way: Dear Mr Boing, I guess there are more people on the world who need a bit more space for their legs!!!!That was Sydney in spring - 22 hours later: Sunrise on the other side of the world - Frankfurt...
I rewind the travel at my balcony while having a good Austrian Import C0ffee...
And I wonder again... I was just five weeks away and what's that? Fall had already arrived. No no no, not just fall, if you look at the Dachstein (the small white one in behind between of the two mountains) it must be winter...

Finally, special greets to all the guys I met down under. It was a very nice time and who knows, maybe our ways will cross again.

Abschiedstrauer

Die letzten Tage in Melbourne hab ich noch eine groebere Museums und Stadttour gedreht. Kurzum einige Gehmeter gesammelt. So schauts da aus...

Royal Botanic Gardens...

Dann hab ich Bob Rose den Ball geklaut - leider ist der aus Metall - den habens mir beim Sicherheitscheck gleich abgenommen. Also Christoph ich kann dir entgegen meinen Versprechungen leider kein Souvenier mitnehmen...

Der Vorhang der Nacht am Yarra River... Ein letztes Bierchen...
Ingrid war so nett und unterstuetzte mich in der Endzeittrauerstimmung... Meinen Tauschvorschlag - ich bleib da und sie faehrt heim - hat sie aber trotzdem nicht angenommen :-(
Mittlerweile sitze ich wieder in Sydney. Bin ziemlich fertig nachdem ich die restliche Nacht am Flughafen in Melbourne verbracht habe (die nette Frau musste natuerlich genau neben mir um 3am mit dem Staubsaugen anfangen...)

So jetzt werd ich mir noch einen letzten Australischen Kaffee goennen. Ich weis auch schon einen Ort dafuer :-)

Flieger geht um 15 Uhr. Heimat ich komme.

Melbourne

Melbourne. Ja. Gefaellt mir doch sehr gut da. Zudem habe ich hier das Privileg von zwei ueberdurschnittlich netten Deutschen Studentinnen gehostet zu werden. Ging dann auch recht schnell mein Gehirn wieder auf Deutsch (naja zumindest Oesterreichisch) umzustellen.

Ja was machte ich in der "Kaffeehauptstadt Australiens" [Q: LP]...

Genau: ausgedehntes Freuhstueck - bin mit Glueck auch in eine geniale Gasse gefallen.

Danach gings zu den QV Markets und in die Brunswick Street - meiner Ansicht der urbane Hoehepunkt in Australien. Wenn ich in jedem genialen Beisl eingekehrt waere... Federation Square...
Am Abend bin ich mit einer "Ex -Mondseerin" ein bischen die Luefte gefahren: Rialto Towers. Ja die gute Ingrid arbeit auch immer da wo ich Urlaub mache :-)
Netter Abend wars. Heute? Hm, Museumstour und vertiefte Melbournhalation.

Last Destination

In the morning I drove back to Melbourne. I took the way around the national park.

I saw plenty of wallabies and kangaroos in the last days...
The last days of my journey I am going to spend in Melbourne.

The Grampians

Hui. Jea. It's nice there :-). I tried to hire a bike today, but the rental bikes are not in a good shape. So I drove around with the car and did some easy walking tracks.

No, that was not enough for today... I made a longer hike up to the pinnacles (see map) - good choice, it was awesome.

I had just one big problem at the end of the walking track. I took an other way down - most of the tracks are closed due a major bushfire last year - and I was not able to find the car again :-) Shit. After some minutes of thinking over the situation I tried hitch hiking. That was the way out - special thanks to the nice couple from Hells Gap.

Afternoon. Rain had started a few minutes ago. Chill out.

Great Ocean Road

The last two days I was on the fabulous Great Ocean Road.
Sadly the weather was too rainy to drive on yesterday. So I spent my afternoon in Apollo Bay.
Today I started my ride early in the morning and the weather got better from hour to hour.
The 12 A...
Coffee break. Time to make a picture of my car - the silver one on the left.
The trip goes on...


I've never seen so many sheeps and cows...
On the way from the cost to the Grampians.
In the meantime I arrived at the Grampians Nationalpark. The city is called Hells Gap - sounds bad, but is ok :-). I will spend the next two nights here an try to do some sports. Will see what I can do.

Canberra

The first impression of Canberra: not my style.

Maybe it was my own fault to chose the wrong hostel and to check out the city by food... Funny how they have designed their capital. (pretentious, lots of streets)

But there are also some nice "have to see" spots. One of them is Mt Ainslie - great look out

and a lot of animals around the walking track.

Or an other one is the National Gallery - actually a few Andy Warhol paintings.

Thanks for your good recommendations Suvi. Without I would have been lost in this street and concrete jungle. The vegetarian restaurant "Bernadette" closed down, but I tried an other one instead and ate my first kangaroo steak (probably because I saw no wild roos :-))

Today I explored the city by bike - much better. The area around the arts university is also not bad.

Check out this ad - klick to enlarge...

Sydney again

Poor me...

After I arrived in Sydney I went directly to Circular Quay...
...and took the ferry to Manly.
Everywhere...
And yes, I saw something on the way back.

Phu, after this cake I was not feeling very well...

Sunset.

On the evening I met Leese (I contacted her via HC) She showed me a really nice rooftop beer garden in "the Rocks". I'm sure you can't find this is a secret spot without the knowledge of a local. The view was great.

The winner is...

Good start into 9/11. The winner of my short cafe test serial is... (I don't know the name...)

This tiny and nice store offers the stylest location in Katoomba. In addition you get the best breakfast with handmade jam while listening to jazz music.
I also want to point out, here you can read a lot of climbing magazines and Heinz Zack books.

Sport and Chill

Today I rent me a bike. Yes, it was more expensive than two nights in the hostel :-) but it was worth the money. That's the "dirt" track:

This is the plateau I drove along.

The tour was not really a big challange but harder than expeacted. Most of the ups and downs are not easy to tackle.

Resume: All in all a nice ride trough the Blue Mountains National Park.

After I've made the "day tour" in three hours :-) was a lot of time left to check out the cafes in town. I was able to test some of them. Wow, I'm quite awake now.

Tomorrow in the morning I'll drive back to Sydney - enough sport for the next days.

...