The best of far away

... is sometimes home. 6 weeks Australia lie behind us. Enough time to get a glimpse of a (very big) country. This is what we liked - and what we realized is (sometimes a lot) better at home.

The best-of-the-best:

1. Free flying cockatoos over wide landscapes - these birds are simply not designed for cages. Everybody who puts them in a cage should be put there him/herself.
2. Sunrise at Whitsunday Islands after a night out at sea.
3. Stars. Everywhere. And so different!
   
4. Electric BBQs at most rest areas and  public parks - have your fresh, self-made lunch on the beach or in the middle of a just wonderful National Park. Cheap, easy, tasty.
5. To cuddle Koalas, Kangaroos and Wallabies
   
6. Service orientation of officals - ever tried to ask for restaurant tips in a German police station? Well, Good-luck!
7. Sushi rolls. Simple, easy, huge and tasty.
8. Sleeping in a tent while Wombats and Koalas have their fun outside (earplugs appreciated as they can make a hell of a noise).
9. Orange M&Ms and crumpets with Nutella (although the Woolworth Chocolate Spread actually tastes more like Nutella than Nutella itself over here)
   
10. The beaches, the weather and the sun. But this is why we came here, right?!
    

 Where home was missed

1. Leberwurst, Kalbsfleischwurst & thin bacon slices that actually can be wrapped around a date (the fruit, not your next-door-neighbour- although, each to his own!)
2. Public transportation systems - try to find out which bus brings you where in Sydney (no iPhone at hand!), when it is supposed to leave and where the bus you are currently riding will stop ...
3. Road kills being removed before they skeletonize
4. Being able to sleep in your own bed, in your own appartement with your own kitchen and stuff. Very much sometimes (especially when the place you stay at has pets called cockroaches or spiders in all scary sizes).
5. Shoe variety. I still cannot belive I survived the past 10 weeks with only 4 pairs of shoes. Only 8 to go ...

Well, so much for the big continent with its red heart. We have moved on and were shocked to learn that it has less than 15 degrees here in Christchurch, New Zealand. Currently 8 degrees. We also opened a new picture album - stay tuned!

Missed the session?

Don't worry - this is what you could have seen:

Wanna say hello?

We are currently staying at the recently opened brandnew Sydney Harbour YHA. Great place directly located next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge basically "on top" of The Rocks at Circular Quay. Apart from a few "hatching problems" - like being evacuated twice yesterday due to a (false) fire alarm - this place is awesome and comes with a fabulous kitchen, a huge roof-top terrace and (Thank God!) in-room bathrooms. Wireless still is not for free but they need room for improvement, don't they ;-) ?

It also has a live webcam on the roof-top terrace which can be controlled via internet.

So this is the game: We will be in front of the webcam tomorrow Friday, Nov 27, 8:30 am Sydney time - which is 22:30 Germany time (or 4:30 pm New York time) on Nov 26. We will stay close to the BBQ which can be seen when the camera is turned downwards a little.

If you want to see us "live" you just have to log into the YHA webcam page and take control of the camera to move it downwards a little. It would be great if you take a picture of yourself with your camera screen and send it to us so we can also see you ;-)

People's stories

During our Sailing trip to the Whitsunday Islands one of our little projects grew quite a bit. Sharing the boat with 25 other people provides a lot of sources for stories, sayings, travel advice, life advice and foreign characters written into my red travel diary. (Though it doesn't quite look like it, I am very excited about this!)

By now I have collected thoughts and well-wishes in Chinese, Hindi, Farsi, Korean, Dutch, Swedish, French,  Australian, Maori, German, Swiss German, Bavarian, and, of course, English. The topics range from travel advice to folk music to life advice to surgical insights as well as direct orders from "commander fun". Thank you to everyone who contributed - it is so inspiring to read from you. As promised I will read out all your pieces of wisdom on New Years Eve somewhere on a Fiji beach. For those who did contribute a song, I will sing it, whatsoever (perhaps I should give Philipp Oropax for x-mas ;-P ). All those who also want their words to be read in Fiji on New Years either book your flight now or post something into the comments.

When I was a little school girl we had these books that were supposed to hold poems or little drawings from your class-mates - mine was blue with flowers. If you were very brave (or an absolute geek-nerd) you would also ask your mean English-teacher to fill one of the pages. She did ... with the poem below, which left me wondering what she wanted to tell me for weeks. I was scared!

There was a young lady from Riga,
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.

They returned from the ride
  With the lady inside
And the smile on the face of the tiger.

Another poem proved itself right so many times already:

The crossroads of life don't come with any directions.
(Translated from the German "An den Kreuzungen des Lebens stehen keine Wegweiser")

Especially these days it puts a little smile on my face, considering who wrote it into my poem book about 25 years ago. Thanks, Mum ;-)


Our own (travel) story currently takes a rest in Sydney. We enjoy a few days with no big plans before we leave the country heading to New Zealand. Our Whitsunday pictures are online now. Check out the album to see all pictures from this beautiful place on earth. 3 days on sea also brought our "Natural Tan" project a few steps ahead. Martina proved that 30+ sunscreen actually works - IF you are capable of applying it properly ... And Philipp decided to go for the "Natural T-Shirt" version. Glenf and Sören of course are way ahead in terms of coloring. So far, so wonderful ;-)

Whitsunday Islands

are just beautiful. Don't forget to sail them, dive them, hike them, fly over, snorkel them when you are around (snorkeling and swimming unfortunately always requires a stingersuit):

This is our fantastic trip with some pics - more to come soon.

Sailing the S.V Whitehaven

Map your trip with EveryTrail

Why not do it differently (or different)?

We are on the road for almost 8 weeks now. 6,000kms are behind us and with camping & Youth Hostels there are a lot of people we met and will meet along our way. For the past few days up here in Queensland it is - surprisingly - a lot (a very lot *meaningfullintonantion*) of German speaking people. Maybe because it is winter up there?! ;-)

All of these people have their own story, their own travelling schedule, goal and approach and it is fascinating to listen to them and get to know a little bit of their life. We had that already when we started this blog. Taking off a few months of work to travel is nothing radical anymore these days. There are many people around us who do this. But lately we came across a few approaches that actually made me thinking:

There is the German couple which is travelling through Australia for a whole year (nothing exciting), while he is working remotly a 40h-job (ok, requires some organization skills and a Telstra contract) and their 6-year old daughter is learning English by playing with local kids (try to replace that by pre-school). Also we met a Dutch couple who sold their existance at home, took their 2 kids out of school and travel Australia and New Zealand for half a year. The kids surprise them every day with ideas and travel wishes they would have never imagined (Who thought that a 9 year old would rather walk the bushes than playing at the pool? The "Are we there yet"-issue is still there, though). Also we met an Austrian mother who is travelling Australia and Asia for 6 months alone with her (I would guess) 10 year old son (I also guess he is the star when he gets back to class). Or the Swedish couple travelling Australia with 3 kids - 6, 3, and 1,5 years old - checking out all playgrounds on the east coast, preferably those with coffee places next to them.

All say the same - people mostly ask them 2 questions (I admit, I did so too): How? And why?
The "How" requires some preparation, a lot of patience, some money and courage I would say. Not much more.
The "Why" is a different story. Why not? Just because it is not what you usually would do? Just because nobody else (you know) would or did do it? Just because one doesn't travel for 6 months if you have kids at school? Just because it is not sure what will happen to your life or your job when you come back? Just because you don't know what to do with your furniture - and the gym membership that you will for sure use next month for the first time after signing up 1 year ago?

There are a lot of things we think we know how they should be. Are we sure? Have we tried to do them differently? Maybe it is a lot of fun behind that corner! So when was the last time you did something differently (or is it actually different #englishgrammar)?

Back to our travels:
To meet these people is very inspiring and obviously so exciting that we managed to loose 2 cameras in less than a week. The first one remains in peace (and pieces) on Fraser Island - Philipp is still wearing black. The other one tried swimming pool dipping yesterday but didn't turn off its electricity before (stupid thing that is *gg*...). Thank god the memory cards survived so we didn't loose all those wonder- and colorful pictures:

• Translucent Lake Birrabeen on Fraser Island
• Freshwater creek on the 4WD beach
• Nature as architekt
• Bright colored birds
  
• The first glimpse of the Great Barrier Reef
• And the deep green of the rainforest

There are more pics, don't forget to check out the albums!

The Suzuki is a she ...

Our Suzuki Sierra on Fraser Island showed quite a personality. She doesn't open her door to everyone ...