my story in english

Melbourne zoo and Healesville sanctuary:


Since I had a few extra free days because of the early return from the farm, I decided I didn't want to stay home but do things outside (it was an extreem lovely week for this time of year).
I went to the Melbourne zoo where I wanted to make some drawings of koala's and wombats. I've seen the Australian animals like kangaroos, koala's, wombats and Tasmanian devils in a few other zoo's and sanctuary's, but didn't got the time to make drawings yet.
However after an hour walking around in the zoo I went to the Australian section, only to find out that it was closed off for the day (very unexpected and it wasn't announced at the entrance). A shame... although my name wouldn't be Sara if I didn't think I could turn that in a positive thing and get a good deal out of it...
So I went to the entrance to tell them about my dissapointment, they didn't know about it, called the manager (got him out of a meeting) and made me an offer: either I could come back on another day (at that point I kind of suggested I might be able to go to Healesville sanctuary, they work close together with the Melbourne zoo), or I could get 2 (!) free tickets for the Healesville sanctuary :). And I was also allowed to stay the rest of the day in the zoo. Great!!

Dave and me just came back now from Healesville. It was very cold, so we only stayed a few hours before we decided to go into town and get warm inside and eat a late lunch.
We saw an amazing bird show, the birds just flew right above our heads!
The other animals were nice as well, but definitly the bird show was a highlight of the day.

wwoofing (working as a volunteer on an organic farm):


Most backpackers do this to save a bit on money: for free food and accommodation. I however wanted to do this for the experience during the one free week I had left before we go home. (I had to stop working for the family I nanny for for 6 months now, my visa only allows me to work half a year for the same people. Unexpected I got a phonecall from a family I worked for before Christmas to hear if I can work for them until the 8th of July when they get an au-pair to take over my job, works out great for timing and for my financial situation.)
The farm I went to is becoming a childrens farm soon, which sounded very interesting for me to learn and see what the guy there is doing with the place, since Dave and me hope to do something simular somewhere in the future. The guy knew my that this was my main reason to pick his place.
However the first 2 days I only got to oil/ paint some windows (inside!) and mow the grass... not really something that teach me a bit about farming.
Also you should only have to work 3 or 4 hours a day and have the rest of the day free. I however had to ask after 4 hours of work if it was ok to stop working and go for a walk in the area... I hate to have to ask for this! The guy should have realized my time was over and told me to stop.
After 2 days he would spend the night at his girlfriends place. I told him I didn't want to stay alone on the farm and rather go home (alone in a big house, far from the next neighbours and not having any phone connection). Of course if this had been a great experience I would have stayed that night and the rest of the week.
It's a shame especially since Mikael knew another place where I could have had this experience, but I picked this farm because of the fact that it would become a childrens farm soon and be closer to what I want to see and learn.


Viking festival:


On the boardgame evening we met a gay couple that invited us to come over to Warburton (where they live, about one and a half hour drive from Melbourne) for a Viking festival.
It was a great day, we saw a viking camp, market and a combat demonstration which was very impressive!
After that Mikael and Mickey took us to their place for a late lunch/ early dinner, way cheaper than eating out. The only condition was that we had to eat fast so there was time left to play a boardgame, ha.
Before the meal Mickey took us for a short walk on their property. You can walk over an hour on their property! The house they live in is very small however, but the couch is always available for visitors who want to spend the night there.
We had a lovely time with them and hope to go back soon for a full weekend.


Almost going home:


The last 2 weeks have been a bit hard on me.
The last friend I had left here to do things with in my free time just left the country to go back home (Korea) and so I started feeling lonely. The previous times when a friend left, there was always someone else still in Melbourne, with Nano leaving there was no-one left and that made me sad.

After booking my ticket home and even more after Dave's decision to join me, I can't wait to arrive home and see everyone again. I didn't really want to search for new friends again (which is often very time-consuming and goes hand in hand with dissapointments sometimes), I didn't saw the reason in searching for new friends if I have to leave in one and a half month.
However not doing anything about this just made me a bit sad. Therefore last week I started acting, found a few nice activities to join (through couchsurfing website), especially a girls night/ clothesswap was fun (everybody could bring clothes they didn't want to anymore and swapped them), also Dave, me and one of our new housemates went to a boardgames evening. On the boardgames evening we played "werewolves" one of my favourite games, but you have to be at least with 6 or 7 people to be able to play this game.

A bit over a week ago we also moved house. We now share a house with 2 others, great people, we often share meals or sit together in the livingroom for fun conversations.

Also happy I could join a few clownclasses again in the last weeks, it had been a while (or in the last months I was able to only go once every month or so). I really like this and know most of these people since my first two months in Melbourne. Every week we laugh a lot and tomorrow it will be my turn for leading a class again :)!


another trip to Tasmania:


The first time I went, I knew it wasn't enough for me... I had to go back to "Tassie".
It's such a beautiful island.

This time I met 2 girls through couchsurfing website (a website for travellers). Unfortunally the 2 of them came along great and I didn't really fit in (drinking and finding a man for just one night aren't the only and main topics I want to talk about for almost a week). Nobody's fault, I just didn't fit in/ they weren't the best travelmates for me or me the best for them.
One of them had a billion stories we just "had to hear" (thought I talked much... I didn't came anywhere close to this girl) and barely showed any interest in any conversation that wasn't led by herself. I think I didn't really spoke for 3 days (except for "ok we can go there", "yes spaghetti would be great tonight"), ha. Lifelesson for me.

On the website where we rent a campervan it said that this one was good for 3 "good" friends, ok we thought that meant we would be close/ very close during the night, but that it would be possible to sleep.
However... the company didn't know it was 3 of us and they decided to "upgrade" the van and give us one with more kitchen... Thanks for nothing! More kitchen meant less sleeping space and so we slept like sardines, if one turned in the night the 2 others had no choose but turning as well (terrible!!).
Luckily we found a free accommodation for the first and the last night through couchsurfing (normally that means you can sleep at someones couch or on a matras on the floor): we however had a 5 star place, our own bedroom with 3 beds, private bathroom, dinner made for us, pick-up from the airport... it was wonderfull!! Those people were very nice as well, we went together for a drink on our last night.

Conclusion: Tasmania is still beautiful, this time I got to see a bit more (not as much as I wished to, because of no highways but winding roads and travelmates who'd rather sleep a bit longer than leaving early and seeing more).

Oh well, like I wrote before this was kind of a life lesson for me and I did enjoy the beautiful scenery.


new zealand:


Dave and me went to New Zealand for 6 days to see his family and a few friends. his grandmother had her 80th birthday... big family, don't think I remember any of the names of aunts, uncles, cousins,...
first day we arrived in Auckland from where we went for dinner to a friends place. after that Dave's sister came to pick us up, we could stay at her place and leave the next day with her, her husband and their 3 kids to Tauranga where the rest of their family lives.

besides familyvisits we did a few small trips in the area. we walked up the mountain, Mount Maunganui, from which you have a beautiful view over the bay and part of the town.
like I thought before I love New Zealand much more than Australia and appearantly the North Islands, where Tauranga is, is nothing compaired to the South Islands... can't wait to go there!

we also met my cousin, Thomas, who's in New Zealand on a working holiday visa. together we went to some waterfalls, did a small walk, couldn't do much more because of the rain that day unfortunally.

other outings: getting out some fish and chips and eat that at the beach, relaxing in the hot pools, going out for nice breakfast,... do I need to say more:), it was lovely!!



hanging rock:


one of my friends and me went to a place called hanging rock.
the story goes that many years ago a schoolgroup went there for a picknick during which a few years dissapeared and they've never seen again after that. however it's not clear if this is a real story or an urban legend (which makes me believe it's rather the last one). however the story is still big at this place and there is a movie about that story, which I should try to find and see.
a lucky coincidence made us go on the day that there was a big crafts market next to the rock, a market that's only held twice in a year.



long time ago...:


My time in Lorne is over. Actually I'm quite happy to be back in Melbourne. It was nice in Lorne, but I was working many hours (between 50 and 60 a week) so not much time left to do something nice. Also living in with a family you work for isn't always easy, don't understand me wrong, they were nice, but very different from the kind of person I am, so it wasn't always easy...
But of course now I have saved some money which is very nice for future plans :).

Back in Melbourne I knew I couldn't work at the childcare centre anymore, they had found someone who could work full-time and on-going for them. Luckily my nannyjob went from 1 to 2 days a week, for a family I really like working for. Last week the little boy (around 8 months old) was so cute... I went over to babysit and he sat on his mommy's arm when he saw me he started smiling and opening his arms, leaning towards me so I could pick him out of his mommy's arms and hold him... so sweet. I know now that one day I want to have such a little kid myself (one day, not yet).
Two weeks after coming back to Melbourne the childcare centre called me to offer me a job again (that other girl turned down on them very last minute). Therefore I am now working full-time again, or at least when I am in Melbourne, because I planned a few trips (a week New Zealand and a week Tasmania). So I am just working in the childcare centre when I am not working as a nanny and not travelling.
I also got another few hours for a sportorganization that wants me to teach kids some circusskills. They are also planning to get me an afternoon to train their other sportcoaches for the future to teach circusskills, I especially look forward to that (and even like that more then teaching kids).
That day I was there they also filmed me for one of their promotion video's...

Dave and me went a day to Werribee zoo, partly a safari and partly a normal zoo, beautiful.
Got some other nice things to do and catching up with friends as well, though didn't have any time yet to go to another clownworkshop, hopefully next friday, since these are the people I know since my first month in Australia.
Pictures will come soon, just can't get them uploaded most of the times with our internetconnection at home (way too slow), so have to go to the library soon.



Lorne, first impressions:


Last week I've arrived in Lorne, a beautiful beachtown where I will work as a nanny for a month. I'm making long days (up to 62 hours a week if I want to, but the family is flexible on my working hours, I can have free time if I want to). However I'm happy to work a lot since there isn't much to do here, except for going to the beach and going for a walk (which you can't do everyday, or at least I can't on my own). And I'm happy to make a lot of money here to save for future trips around Australia in a few months!

On my first night I've slept in a backpackers where I've met some nice girls to do a trip with the next day. We went to see the 12 apostels and some other nice things on the great ocean road (which you can see in my blog as one of my previous trips). So this was just a second time there for me, still impressive!

The day after I went to the house and the family arrived here as well.
The first morning the kids were so loud I thought I wouldn't survive this for a month, luckily for me it's been better since or I got used to it and sleep through it a bit (I only start working at 8.30 or later, so night time isn't something I have to worry about).

Went to the movies here already twice. They have a very old theatre for movies, only one room, so one movie at a time. 1 or for kids in the afternoon and 2 for adults in the evening (one around 6 and one around 8pm), 3 or 4 times a week.
The seats aren't that comfortable, but it's nice to sit in such an old movie theatre.

On my free day (monday) I went for a walk, a 3 hours walk in the bush all by myself. The beginning was quite hard and difficult, at some points I really thought it would be wiser to return, also I was afraid to find a snake on my way, worried about being there alone (I didn't see anyone for the entire trip). But I'm happy I did it, the view was nice and it was nice to be out in the bush by myself for a while.


The weekend after that Dave came to visit me and we went for another bushwalk. Very beautiful again, after 2 hours we saw a wallabie (kind of a small kangaroo) and than we saw another animal I didn't really wanna see at all... 
I was walking first and since I always look where I'm stepping I was happy to see the little creature in time! One metre in front of my feet: a snake, it first looked like someone had stepped on it (flat behind the head), but it wasn't dead at all! We immediately frooze when we saw it and than slowly walked back a bit, that's when it noticed us and made it's way out of there as soon as it could. Snakes normally hear you approach from a far distance (like 100 metre or something), they are afraid of us and really don't wanna meet either. They only bite if they're trapped or feel trapped by people. It took us another 5 minutes and a lot of rock-throwing (at the place where we had to walk and where we saw it last dissapear from the path into the bushes) to make sure the snake was really gone and it was save to continue.
In a way I'm happy I've seen a snake and know now that as long as you stay calm, still and only slowly move back nothing will happen, and I'm definitly happy I wasn't alone!
I never go for a bushwalk alone again! Although people here say it's safe and normally you don't see the snakes (last 50 years only one or two people died in the entire country because of a snakebite, so no need to be afraid of that, very very unlikely a snake will bite a person).


This weekend I came back to Melbourne for a clowncourse weekend. It was absolutely great, an amazing way to relax and have some "me-time" during such a busy work-month.
Though in Lorne I'm attending a Thai Chi course on mondaymornings (with people who are a lot older than me, almost everybody is retired, ha), but it's a nice relaxing thing to start your day.
I also went to a spa a few times to get a facial or massage... great!




trips by car around Melbourne:


Dave has bought a car, so now we can do trips whenever and wherever we want :)
One day we went to Frankston and surroundings, no clear plans, just going there and see what options we'd have when we arrived.
Arriving in Frankston we saw some big sandsculptures, very beautiful. At first we didn't want to pay the entrance so had a look from behind the fences. However we decided it might be nice to go inside anyway and well it was totally worth it. From closeby it was very impressive! I also loved the fact that many sculptures were based on Tim Burtons movies (nightmare before Christmas for example).

After that we went to a strawberrie farm. Here we could pick some strawberries, however we noticed that the strawberries that we could pick weren't that good (all the good once were taken already since this was a very busy day), so we've bought the cheaper and better strawberries that were already picked by people who work there. They were very tastefull!

Up to some gardens with mazes. As a kid I always wanted to go to a maze, don't think I've ever been and I really loved the ones we saw here. There were a few normal ones, a rozemaze and a lavendermaze, very beautiful!

Another weekend we went for a walk up the "1000 steps"... not that I've count them, but it were many steps and I was very tired by the time we've reached the top.


trips in the city during the xmas holidays:


I went to the aquarium with the grandmother of the family I worked for as a nanny. That job however just finished at Christmas since the grandmother is going to take over my job, she arrived here in Australia a few weeks before. In those weeks she often came along when I took the kids for a walk or to the library, we had many nice conversations so decided to spend a day together in the city when her family was away for a week. I've never been in an aquarium before (or not for as far as I can remember) so it was impressive to see the sharks and other fish swim so close.
Especially after this day I decided my pictures aren't that good because of a camera that isn't very good, so a few days later I ended up buying a new one.

One of my friends from Belgium, Nele, is travelling in Australia as well with another friend. When they were in Melbourne for a few days we went to the prison museum together, botanic gardens,... it was nice to speak Dutch again for a while. The times I could speak Dutch here before was when I met girls from The Netherlands and well in a way that was a bit weird to hear myself those times since I don't really speak with them the same as I would at home. It's like a different dialect and so I would try to keep my dialect less strong as usual. And well believe me if you don't speak your language every week and then you do this, sometimes it sounds like it's not really you speaking.
One afternoon we went to the Belgian beer gardens and we took Dave with us, I just wanted him to try some Belgian beers :). Very expensive prices though, it's like double or more as what we would pay at home for the same beer.


Xmas 2010:


No family around to celebrate Christmas with, also Dave doesn't have his family here...
On the 24th I had to start at a new nanny job, working for 10 hours, I was very tired by the end of the day. Dave and me went to a Brazilian restaurant, very expensive but nice. When the dinner was finished we saw the end of a big show where people were singing Christmas carols. 
At home we would open our presents at Christmaseve, I was therefore very dissapointed when Dave didn't wanna do that :p, or should I say I wasn't very patient and just couldn't wait...
He couldn't resist my begging and so we came to a compromise of just opening 1 or 2 presents each.
The 2 families for which I worked for a longer time already gave me a Christmas present as well, one family even packed their gift into 4 little presents: one from each kid they have :). And I also got a present from the jobagency that I needed to sign up with to get this job.


On Christmasday I had a skype-call with my family at home who just finished their Christmaseve party. After that it was finally time to have breakfast in bed and opening all our gifts!
A few hours later we went to a park to have a picnic with my Korean friend/ swimming buddy and one of her Japanese friends. A nice afternoon, we ended up going for a coffee and as you can see in the picture one of them made a bird out of paper (origami) and we wrote "merry christmas" in all our languages and started decorating the bird.



Sovereign Hill 2nd of Dec.:


With a girl I met on the great ocean road I went to Sovereign Hill, which is an old gold mining town. The entire town is a "fake" town, kind of a themepark, with people dressed up like people from 1860. 
There were presentations/ demonstrations from old jobs like wheelmaking, candy making (by hand),... and of course a lot of shops in which you could buy this candy, pots and other kitchenstuff, stamps could be bought in an old post-office,... The entrance was already quite expensive and then all these shops, it was all very commercialized. But nice though.
I did a tour in the mines, title of the tour was "trapped". There were 3 different tours all done about 2 times a day. Therefore I really couldn't understand why some people with kids choose for this tour, I mean you can imagine this to be a scary one. As an adult you know there are risk involved with mining and that some people die a terrible death, but that isn't something kids shouldn't hear in an adult way. Even when one kid started crying just before we went down the father still decided to force the kid into being brave and trying instead of cancelling on this tour. Stupid people! My friend didn't come on this tour in the mine because of being afraid.
But yeah some adults are just stupid, like when the soldiers had a shooting demonstration. They asked to stay behind the line for safety. Some adults were so occupied with making pictures that they didn't watch their kids or didn't even react enough when they noticed their kids behind the lines (that was just a minute before they would start shooting).
Anyway it was a really nice day. I loved the old look of this town.
We could even see a lot of kids here. The kids here all go to a normal school some days in a week when they are home and the days they "work" here they attend classes like in 1860 and some of them are open for public to watch. Many people here are volunteers who dress up and just walk around in this town, open a shop, work in a shop, be a teacher,...
We also saw how they melted a piece of gold that was worth about 100 thousand euro! Unfortunally we couldn't touch it (though the guy who melted it made a joke first in which we thought we could all touch it for a few seconds! Shame :p...


Great Ocean Road:


Finally I met another girl who can speak Dutch... though she is from the Netherlands, ha. Anyway it was nice to talk in my own language and we decided to make a two day trip together to the Great Ocean Road. It's an amazing coast-line, with wonderfull beaches and incredible views!


Since we were only with the 2 of us we decided we'd go on an organized tour which is slightly cheaper and this way you get to see more, get explanations you never get out of a travelbook and you don't have to organize anything yourself, just be in time for the bus at the departure... In which I've failed, though not completely my fault, the bus was 2 minutes early (just those 2 minutes that I was late).

We went on a 2 daytrip, while most tours for the Great Ocean Road are only 1 day, this gave us more time which in my eyes was needed to see and enjoy all of it.
Also our tour went in the opposit direction, therefore we were there in the morning where other tours would be in the evening and so we didn't get to stops where many other tourists were at the same time :)!

Our female tourguide was quite funny, making jokes about marry one of the guys on our tour so she could get an European passport, we almost believed here (or I guess we all believed her for a few minutes at least, she had it all planned out pretty well when she told us about her marriage idea). She basicly just asked us if any of us wanted/ could help her out with her passport issue.

On the second day I took an helicopter flight to see part of the coast (the most famous part) from above. It was really worth it's money since I'd never done something like that before! (got a little carsick so I was happy that it was only 7 minutes, but it was a great experience).

After that we got to a part of the beach with really strong waves and our guide told us to be carefull and not get wet... No worries! I was only making a picture of one of the big waves splashing down on the rocks, the rock I was standing on was dry the entire time we were there (already 15 mins). That is until this one big wave came, and that I got on a picture... and than it got me... I jumped of the rock into the water (meaning I got in even deeper, but if I hadn't I probably would have been thrown off by the force of the wave). I had to change all my clothes after that and dry my wallet, phone,... though my camera was kept dry, jumping off I kept the camera above my head.
Yeah stupid tourist that didn't want to listen...
I was happy to hear I wasn't the first one ever, even our tourguide once got caught by one of those big waves. And on this tour one of the other girls got caught by a wave as well... mmm, I got something to do with that one also... I was taking a picture of her and didn't warn her for the wave (that I hadn't seen coming eventhough I was looking through her camera in the direction of the sea).

A part of the coast here is famous for shipbreaks because of the strong waves and rocks on and next to the coast. Many of these ships are still on the bottem of the ocean.

Again I must say this was an amazing trip, but I am sure you can tell by looking at my pictures!




Wilsons Promontory national park:


6th until 8th of November... planning a 3 days bushwalking in between 2 housesits.
First time for both Dave and me to do a bushwalk with a big backpack on our shoulders. We got dropped off in the morning by the people of our hostel the night before, they went for a daytrip in the park themselves. They actually went on the same track as we did the first day, however they would return back to the car around the evening (so they walked double the distance we did... but without backpacks).
First hour was quite heavy for me, realizing it's just the start and the backpack made such a big difference (made it so much harder as I thought it would or I wasn't as fit as I thought I would, ha). However after 3 or 4 hours walking with only one big stop for lunch (and another 1 or 2 small stops) I felt I could go on until the next beach = next campingspot. Though you have to let the rangers know where you sleep before you start walking and shouldn't change campingspot and well, we realized it would be crazy to force ourselves on day one...
Taking of the backpack I felt how tired my body was!
Getting the tent up, cooking our food and of to the beach for the last hour of daylight.
What had to be a good night sleep turned out to be terrible. Our matras went flat in the middle of the night, somewhere we had a small hole, probably caused by the cat when we left the matras out in the house (after buying it from other travellers on a rainy day we had to leave it open to dry).

Day two was harder. Same starting problems for me in the morning, enough energy on the next hours, but we had a much longer walk and the last part took us forever (or so it seemed).
We kept on thinking our campingspot for that evening couldn't be far anymore for more than one hour and my body just wanted to give up... Finally we got there! Maybe the colder weather and rain at the end of the day made that feeling worse, lucky for us the rain kicked in when we just got our tent up.
... and just after me searching for the hole in the matras. Desperate to find it and get it fixed to insure a good night sleep. Ha, Dave thought I would never find it or at least not when it was in the tent (ground outside was wet from previous raindrops). I guess he was happy I did the effort when I finally found it and made our night much better :)!
On this campingspot we saw a Wallabie (looks like a small kangaroo) when we arrived and some very colourfull birds came walking really close during our eveningmeal.

Day 3 was over before we knew it (almost). Anyway we were prepared for a long and hard walk again. Thought to start early enough to get some extra stops if needed (we had a time deadline since we had to get a bus back to Melbourne). This day however we walked quite fast until our planned lunchstop halfway, decided it was way to early for lunch, got half an hour stop for a snack and so we had our lunch at the end (where we arrived 2 hours before planned).

No need to say that we both felt every musle in our body for the next days and were really tired!
Working on tuesday I could manage quite well, on wednesday I felt broken and was so happy I could finally go home in the evening to recover from the bushwalking.
It was a great experience, I looking forward to another bushwalk (eventhough I know I will feel broken at the end) -no plans yet for another bushwalk however. The beaches, bush, walkingtracks,... were all so amazing! It is really amazing how much nature you have here in Australia, how long you can walk in just one national park (we only did a really small part of it!).



Tasmania:


fridaynight sleeping at Lili's place, since early saturdaymorning flight.
of course we've talked for too long in the evening, had too less sleep and were tired when we woke up, to arrive in the airport in time... and find out that we had a delay of one hour. (yeah, yeah, I wasn't going to fly with tigerairways anymore, but well it's cheap and than you have this...).


still morning when we arrived in Hobart (capital city of the island). we went to the information centre to make the most out of our weekend and arranged 2 daytours and got a lot of extra info.
we started with the big market in Hobart, very famous and it was nice!
I couldn't help myself to buy something nice (something like a scarf but not quite yet, but it dresses up a black t-shirt very nicely). after that some more shopping in the city... and got myself a dress. well, sun is finally coming through and got bored of the few clothes I could bring from Belgium in my backpack, so needed something else :p.

after that some rollerblading next to the water. I can't manage to use the brakes, but who need brakes when you have protection, ha. no, just being carefull was good enough.

sunday our first tour, we went up Mount Wellington (in a mini-bus) to have a nice view over Hobart and the sea, unfortunally by the time we arrived on the top, so did the clouds... which gave us not the view we'd expected but still a nice view.
on the way down our tourguide filled our bottles with some fresh mountain water, njam!

walking in the forest, around a lake,... even saw some snow.
but my highlight of this day was the "something wild wildlife sanctuary", a place where they take care of sick, or wounded animals, or raise the young animals who's mother got killed. they release the animals when they are strong enough to take care of themselves again.
also saw some Tasmanian devils, they don't release them, but by keeping them try to prevent them from dying from a tumor that already killed 85% of devils in the past years.
5 of these devils' ritme got changed for the visitors (they just put them outside and only open their sleepingplace in the night. normally they are noctural). though it doesn't seem to affect them at all (according to the owner of the place).
in nature Tasmanian devils eat the dead bodies, they can bite through bones.
there is a story about a man who was so drunk he felt asleep on the side of the road (in a forest) when he walked home. he woke up, missing 3 fingers and notice a devil was eating his hand... normally these animals really don't bite living creatures (or just must harm them probably), and we don't know how true this story is, since how can you sleep when something is eating you for already a few minutes! it must hurt so much, drunk or not drunk, can't believe someone can sleep through the first bite, ha.

also saw kangaroos, koala's, a wombat, a platypus (though the last one from far away, but still seeing one in wild is pretty unique, but very likely at this sanctuary).

I would hope to do some volunteering work for them or on another farm in Tasmania (preferable with animals) for a few weeks. and I definitly want to go back and see more of the island.

our second daytrip was also great. this time I wanted to sit in front of the bus, was very happy I could do so. the day before nobody really talked in the bus and Lili sat too far from me for us to have a conversation. at least now the tourguide would probably talk to me and maybe give me some extra information :). good thinking!

we saw some really nice beaches!
went into a cave, which was actually just a rock that was hollow on the inside (because of wind and time). really cool and offered us some funny pictures.
this is one of the things you don't see when you do this trip by yourself. the tourguide found this cave on a drunken evening on which he and a friend decided they shouldn't drive anymore but find themself a cave to sleep in (they had been drinken on the beach).

at the end of the day we made a stop at a place that made pies with strawberry, blueberries,... very very very good. we also already had the taste in our mouths hours before we arrived there, thanks to our tourguide who kept talking about it, so we just couldn't wait to go there :p.

Lili and me had a lot of fun together and meet often now we're back in Melbourne.
and well, I definitly want to go back to Tasmania, but longer so I can do some real trekking, camping.


beginning of October:

housesitting, yay! finally no more housemates with issues around, a big house all for ourselves.
we take care of the house and the 17 year old cat of a lady who is on a holiday for a month.
the cat is still a little shy and miauwing for his owner, but he gets used to us now, so I hope he'll be more quiet in the next nights!

saterday big "footy" game in Melbourne. a kind of sport that involves a ball, but don't ask me the rules, I haven't seen the game and I am not really interested in it either.
however it seemed that almost everybody wanted to see the game, every pub was open, showing the game on a screen, many big screens around the city with even more people to watch it,... public transport just before and after the game was a disaster! the city went crazy, ha!

sunday I went to the park for some slackline practise. on the juggling convention a few weeks ago, I met a guy who was introducing the slackline and I just loved trying it. slackline is kind of like the tightwire (walking on a rope). though a slackline is wider and it is not as tight, it moves a lot more which  makes balancing totally different. it isn't harder or easier as the tightwire, it's just different.
like the guys in the park told me, it's addictive as well, ha, I already wish I could try it again today.

my cousin, Thomas, is in Melbourne with a friend for a few days. they are travelling around Australia and New Zealand. so we met yesterday, had a wonder around the different areas of the city, went to the beach as well. though on the beach we got a great example of Melbourne weather (four seasons in one day who locals describe it, though don't think you can call winter here real winter, ha), we got a cloudy and rainy moment on the beach, and a few hours after that it was totally sunny and hot again, however by then we were far away from the beach.
in the evening they came over for dinner and we played a boardgame, Carcasonne. to my surprise I totally lost the game.... next time will be revenge, I need to win again, ha!

tonight I am going to meet a new German friend, Lili. we are planning a weekend to Tasmania together (this weekend)! I really look forward to that! though I should have a look in my travel book and find out what there is to see and to do before we go.
and I know I said, never again with Tiger airways, we are going with Tiger again... they are the cheapest once around and if my travelpartner wants to risk it, well I just have to follow or stay behind (but that was no option for me).

Sydney:

thursday afternoon, arriving at the airport, we were ready to go to Sydney...
unfortunaly the airplane wasn't ready, a 2 hours delay, arrrghh! there goes our evening. to late to do something else, we just stayed awake for a short chat with Dave's friends in who's house we stayed.

friday: hyde park barracks museum, learning something about the convicts that came here long time ago. a big part of Australian history. except for the fact that convicts were send away to the other side of the world (far away from friends and family), live didn't seem to be that bad for them over here. and many of them managed to start a good live here after their punishment was over.
after that it was time for us to go to the beach (great weather, much better as Melbourne).

saturday: meeting a Swedish family member, Nadja, who is also here on a working holiday visa. (our grandparents are siblings.) we only met once, more then 15 years ago. however we immeddiately had a lot to talk about, we had a great time together!
we had a walk around the Opera House, found out the roof tiles are made in Sweden!
and again we went to the beach (though another one this time).

sunday: what else to do as going to the beach, ha! this time with Dave's friends and we took a guitar to play some music (I should mention I didn't play, since I just can't. but the others could and I enjoyed listening).

monday: our last day in Sydney.
Harbour Bridge wasn't on our list, but we ended up going there anyway, for what I am very happy we did!
I had a great view over the city.
after that a short walk in the city and then to the airport, of course after making a phonecall to be sure we didn't have any delays today.
no delays announced, until half an hour before the plane would leave... arrgh, another 2 hours delay!
never fly with Tiger airlines again. it is the cheapest one, but the price is payed in delays! a delay that's longer then the flight itself is just terrible.

short update:


still no internet at the new house... so I am again in the library for a few hours to try to get everything done as fast as possible.
we found out only 2 days ago that we'll have to move again soon...
one of our housemates has a problem with us, basicly she just has a problem with people in the house. the other girl in the house is almost never home. the one who has this problem seems to be quite chaotic sometimes (both in her mind and house/ kitchen), so she has a hard time to deal with small changes we have to make in the kitchen just to be able to cook (I mean it's hard for her if we use the one pot or pan she wants to use or when we make space to cut up some vegetables by cleaning all her dishes). 
besides that she seems to be ok, but I am not really happy with the fact she didn't realize she couldn't stand people in her house before we moved in. again I have to spend a lot of time on the internet to look for a new place. 


my first working days were great, though I come home really tired in the evenings. maybe part of that is also because it is a one hour bicycle trip (single, so two hours per day). I just prefer to be one hour on a bike above one hour on public transport, often with too many people too close together.


life in Melbourne:

some of my new friends here just left the country or left Melbourne. however there are still friends left here, yay!
since my first week here I am attending a clown course. just a few people who like clowning and every time somebody else of the group is leading. it's a nice thing to start the weekend and it's definitly good to improve my English! (read: get used to the Australian accent).
last week some people had a meeting after clown class, they want to set up a group to performe for charity, refugees,... (just for people who need a laugh but don't have the money to pay for it). the idea is that it starts with making a performance, but it will lead to organizing workshops probably as well,...
of course I wanted to found out about that idea as well, so now I am part of it.

a week ago we moved (Dave and me) to another share house, with only 2 other girls and both of them are not often home. there is a garden with some vegetables and chickens, a couch outside to enjoy the sunshine during breakfast or lunch: great since spring just came in.

last week has been very productive, since I also found a job as a nanny! actually I found 2 jobs. one on tuesdays and wednesdays that start this week (tomorrow!), the other job is probably going to cover most of the other days and should start in October.
I already went to help out an afternoon with the first family, just to get to know the kids' routines. so far it seems like I'll be taking care of 2 lovely kids: Amy, 18 months, and her brother Dominique who's 4.
the other family has 3 kids and there I'll be helping the mom out who's home as well.
this means of course that I won't be travelling too much in the next months and both of the families asked me to stay at least until December. (which I am happy to do so).

however we booked a long weekend to Sydney at the end of September (before my second job starts).
Dave has some friends there he want to see again. and I have a Swedish family member I wish to meet as well (our grandparents are siblings and we only met once about 20 years ago). so I definitly look forward to that trip!


leave a message on my blog:

if you want to leave a message on my blog you have to register I think (it's free and I didn't got any spam for as far as I know from them). just click in the right top corner on register or "aanmelden" if it's in Dutch (I can only see it in dutch so don't know if it gets translated or not).
after that you can click on the bottom of every message on "0 reacties","1 reactie",... and make your own message :).

Adelaide:


After leaving the desert, we immeddiately came into mountains with green, green grass and sheep on it, amazing what a difference!
we made a little b-tour to see and try "magnetic hill": a hill where your car goes up by itself! since it was almost dark we didn't have the time to check how this was possible, we just tried and left. but it was amazing, we indeed went up hill! (or so we thought...).
looking on the internet after the trip, I saw it was an optical illusion, instead of slightly going up, the hill slightly goes down. but really it looks like it goes up. I even remember seeing a documentary about that on tv a long time ago.

our next camping had a big jumping pillow (and adults were allowed as well... good since Caroline really wanted to go). we told ourself this would just be a good work out, ha, we jumped and had fun like two little kids!

arriving in Adelaide we were to tired to do a lot. went to some museums, to the zoo,... in the zoo we could come close to the kangeroes, we could get in a "touching area". when I started drawing them, they all came standing very close :).
one afternoon we went to see an aboriginal performance. the guy came from the "torres strait islands" and his tribe used to be the one that cut off heads from the enemy (they don't do that anymore since the white people came to teach them all about God). he was a very funny man, teaching us some songs/ dances we had to join (we were only with 6 in the audience so it was like almost a private lesson).


Cooper Pedy:


Like the lonely planet (book) says, it's like the town at the end of the world. and it really looks like that!
dusty roads, unattractive city,... but most people live underground. underground has a good temperature all year through, without any heating or cooling systems it is always between 20 and 25 degrees, while outside summers can be very hot (up to 50 degrees almost) and winternights can be freezing (bellow zero)!
so we definitly wanted to spend a night in an underground camping place. that's why with we choose to take the matress out of the campervan and bring it underground.
(while we were looking forward all day already to finally sleep in a good bed - in the campervan - after 3 nights sleeping in a car. oh yeah, after Uluru and Kings Canyon we changed our car for a campervan).

instead of paying 14 dollar for a night underground, we could also pay 20 and get an evening tour with camping. the owner of the camping used to be a minner and showed us one of his old mines that was open for tours now. the australian accent was hard to understand all the time, but his explanation was great, with some humor in between the technical stuff.

next day we booked a tour in town. we saw an underground church, the cemetry - with many annecdotes about some of the death - and the sand hills (mining hills) all around. next to every single hill there is a 30 metres deep hole, so you are not allowed to walk there on your own. there are signs everywhere telling you to watch out, don't step back when you make a picture,... many accidents happened like that in the past. just as it sometimes happened that a family is eating dinner, while suddenly someone falls in their living room through one of these holes!

from Alice Springs to Cooper Pedy we drove 800 km, with only one junction (the road to Uluru/ Kings Canyon). besides the juncion we passed around 3 gas stations where you can fuel your car (where you often have to, since the next one can be 200 km away!).
Cooper Pedy was the only town on the road.
passing one of the roadtrains was always hard! you know you are still a long way from the next gas station and there is no junction, so either you stay behind the roadtrain for a long time or you have to pass it. (road train: a truck with 3 trailers behind, we even saw one for fuel with 4 trailers - which we luckily didn't have to pass).
same distance after Cooper Pedy before you are out of the desert.

looking like the end of the world, Cooper Pedy was often choosen as a movie location. for example: mad max 3, Priscilla queen of the desert, Pitch Black,...

Uluru/ Ayers Rock and Kings Canyon, 1st and 2nd of August:


saturday, 31th of July, we (Caroline, my French travelpartner, and me) arrived in the evening at the airport in Alice Springs. since we only had two days we couldn't go on an organized tour and had to rent a car. quite expensive, so we decided to get the most out of it (cheapest) and sleep in the car... not very comfortable if you have to do that for 3 days, but we survived)!
I was the only one over 25 so I had to be the only driver for 1300 km! and with only 10 hours of daylight there was not much time left, we couldn't drive in the dark because of the insurance (hitting kangoeroes,...).

we started our first day at sunrise. on the first half hour I already saw a dingo (only I saw it, Caroline was a bit  sad about it, since this was the only dingo that crossed our path. oh a dingo is a kind of wild dog that lives in the desert). after that we also saw some kangoeroes (again Caroline couldn't believe that I always saw them first although I was driving and she kept her eyes on the desert all the time, looking for animals). we almost saw as many dead (hitten by cars) kangoeroes as the ones that were still alive...

Uluru or Ayers Rock: a big rock in the middle of the desert, a sacred place for Aborignals. that's why some parts of it couldn't be photographed and why you shouldn't climb on it (although it was possible, only not today because of the strong wind). kind of hypocrite, since you can climb if you want, I think they should just forbid it if they don't want it! maybe that will change in the future however.
it was very impressive, it took us two hours to walk around the rock and, yeah I've never seen something like that before.
after the walk around we went to the place to see the sunset, it is supposed to be very beautiful, in the lights of sunset the rock changes colors. unfortunaly, I was -just like in Cambodia, with the temples - unlucky. there was a nice sunshine all day, until half an hour before sunset, that's when it became cloudy and we couldn't see sunset...
nothing to do about that. we could only see it on postcards, and yeah it looks great :(. but ok, the walk around was also amazing!

next morning very early again, in the car for 3 hours before we arrived at Kings Canyon. the walk there was only 6 km, should be possible in less then 2 hours I figured, since we walk quite fast... the walk started with a climb to the top of the canyon, so 2 hours, no way, make that 3 (that was all we had, since we wanted to be back in Alice Springs before sunset, the next morning our "relocation campervan" would be waiting for us.

the canyon was amazing! I wasn't too keen on coming close to the cliffs, even taking Carolines picture, when she came close made me feel dizzy. halfway their was a stairway going down, to the "garden of Eden"... and believe me it was a garden of Eden! a peacefull, nice and calm place in the middle of the canyon, if it was summer we could have gone for a swim in the water. but it is winter here and even the desert is not that hot in wintertime.
up the stairs on the other side, walking on the other side of the canyon and back to our car.
tired but really happy we left this beautiful place. up for another 5 or 6 hours in the car, we just made it in time to Alice Springs.

more about my trip the next time. and hopefully I can say the same about my pictures, I tried to upload them twice today, but the connection is so slow and everytime something went wrong so I gave up.



new people, new adventures to plan:


the last week has been a week filled with meeting new people, planning trips,...

last thursday I went to Mornington (see pictures) to see the bay, walk up to point Nepean (an old army bunker used during the war to protect the bay).
after the walk we went to a natural hot spring, although it was so commercialized that it didn't look natural anymore... still it was relaxing!
only the car drive was stressfull, driving on the other side of the road, everything inside the car is on the other side as well (what was even more stressfull as the different lane on the street), luckily it was an automatic car!
the parkingspot inside the building where we had to start our trip (in the middle of the city... of course!) was very very narrow!! more stress!!
ok, but now I am a little used to it, so next time will be easier.

this weekend I will leave with a French girl to Alice Springs (we fly there). there we will rent a car for two days, to visit the area. after that we take a relocation car back (that means that we drive, for only 1 dollar a day, a car for somebody who takes the plane) to Adelaide.
another few days in Adelaide before we will come back to Melbourne. I look forward to that trip!

besides planning trips, Melbourne has a lot of musea, parcs, botanic gardens,... to offer to visit. I enjoy my days here.


first days in Melbourne,


new city, new country, new continent :).
big difference of course is that it is winter over here. since it is between 10 and 15 degrees in the daytime (I think) it however feels more like spring to me. though, days are short, at 5.30 it is dark outside and then temperatures drop of course a little more.
the house I stay in is totally not built for winter, it is really cold in the bathroom (window can't close and there is no heater... I prefer to have a shower in belgian wintertime in the circus!!!).

my first day alone in the city on saturday, did some exploring, wondering around, found a nice gallery, some cute shops,... and at my first half hour already some other tourist came to me to ask me to take their picture, and offer to take mine as well, had a little chat with them. than a lady came to me, talking about the cold weather (friendly talkative people I thought)... but she was just doing advertisement for her jeans, she wanted me to say something in front of a camera about her pockets that could be ziped off and changed into new pockets. looked funny, and so now I am on you tube :), though I haven't checked it out myself yet.

looking for some new "friends" to hang out with, had to go through internet since I am not staying at a guesthouse filled with travellers and just going in the city, you can't tell who is local and who's not like in Asia on my previous trips :p.
yesterday I met some people and we'll be going on a daytrip on thursday, with a car... that of course I have to drive (since I am over 25 so it is cheaper to rent one)... on the "wrong" side of the road (or should I just say, on the "other" side of the road :p). I am ok with that, since I know I would have to once, however I'd hoped my first time wouldn't start in the middle of a big city... yeah well, let's get over with it!
meeting some other people tomorrow for a longer trip, still don't know if I will go with them, because I think it will be a really long trip, and I want to explore this area first and go to the other side of the country later on. we'll see about it.
my social life is starting to become quite busy, if it keeps going like this, I'll have to find a job soon to support all my trips and hang outs with people, ha.

what a small, small world... I am going to meet a new penpal this week, knew she lives in Melbourne. but today I started chatting on facebook with an old penpal (though we only wrote a few times, long long time ago). I knew she is from Australia, but didn't knew she is from Melbourne, turns out she even lives around the corner (or almost around the corner)... so another meeting is coming up soon.




finally some time to start my blog...

after a first night sleep in Australia I am finally up to make some time to write how things are going here.

already a week ago since I left Belgium.

last friday, a last drink in Brussels at the station with a friend before I had to check in to the Eurostar to London. in London I took a train to Bristol, to visit my penpal Emma for a weekend (my flight would go from London, so this was the perfect opportunity to see her again).

just like last time (and first time we me,t in January) we again had a great weekend of good food, adventure, sports, fun and long conversations.

on saturday we went to see some caves. the first one was just like most caves are and the audioguide was quite boring, until we found out we could listen to the childrens audioguide, so we went looking for dragons, giants, ha, so funny. I am sure most people thought we were crazy, or were jalous because we seemed to have much more fun as them.

the second cave was supposed to be the lord of the rings cave (we didn't think so, statues didn't look at all like the lord of the rings figures). until we found an elf, since we already made many funny (stupid!) pictures, I just had to be on the picture with it, this elf looked quite real... I wanted to put my arm around the statue, came really close to it, turned around to ask Emma and Will to take my picture, and then it suddenly moved!! that's why it looked so real, it was a real person! many loud noises came out of all of us (mostly laughter, or so I hope, and just hope I didn't scream... don't remember or blocked it out of my memory). guess the elf thought we were fun audience, people behind us didn't make much of noises or great reactions.

some dragonfights later we were out of the cave, back in real life.

the next day we went for a bicycle tour. wonderfull, nice nature, terrible map however (we never really knew exactly where we were, but managed to come back in time).

and so on tuesday I got up really, really early (and thank you Emma for getting up as well to bring me to the trainstation!) to go back to London and get my flight out of Europe. a 12 hours flight to Malaysia, where I had to wait another 18 hours to take my flight to Melbourne (again 8 hours).

in Malaysia I had to claim my luggage, drag around with it, tried to get an earlier flight (which of course didn't work), went to the only nearby hotel (that I couldn't book on internet on monday since it was full, lazy me, should have done that a week before) to hope to still be able to get a room (didn't want to explore the city when I only had a few hours, with all my luggage and being tired, oh and I needed a shower anyway). luckily I still managed to get a room, enjoyed a long sleep, internet and a great shower. ready to go again for my last flight! I felt alive again :).

when we all had to line up for the check in, there was an unbelievable long line!!! they only opened one counter :(, at first. so started talking with the guy behind me, nice how somehow on trips you always (and easily) start talking to one person to find out this is probably one of the most interesting people on the plane (or just around you). we had some common interests and he already gave me some tips regarding jobs and hobbies (ha, I might have found a place to go on with clowncourses because of him). 

I was quite scared for the border controls (worried they would hold me for hours since they are very strickt in Australia, you never know, they could want to check all of my luggage and make a big deal out of a shampoo or a soap or whatever that wouldn't be approved... until now I didn't realize why they sprayed something in the airplane just before we landed, they desinfected us!). I have to admit that for so many controles at the border I was out quite fast (happy about that! after such a long flight I wouldn't have many patience left).

somehow Dave (a friend I have over here) and me missed eachother when I came out, well I knew he had to be there somewhere, so just went back to look for him. very happy I found him, which went a lot faster than finding the car (as well he as the driver didn't remember where they parked it :p). 

and now it is already the next day, I enjoyed a long sleep. time to go and explore the city!