Last days in Melbourne

Howdy

As usual a small recab about my last days in Melbourne.

I think I already wrote how good it was to be back in Melbourne after beeing away for such a long time. Almost 4 weeks….
Jochen and me stayed the first few days at a friends place and we lived like something between a 5 star hotel and cloud 9 😉
The family we stayed with was also german and – against all cliches about germans – really awesome!

Sunday, 26.8.

The almost first thing we did (the day after we arrived) was going to the footy. Jochen had not seen a footy game yet and luckily we still got tickets for Hird’s and Sheedy’s last game at the MCG against Richmond – a must-win-game for Essendon. As it tourned out it wasn’t that must-win. Essendon lost. But it was a cool game anyway and Jochen fell in love with footy immediately 🙂

The statium was supposed to be packed but there were still a few spare seats.

Bombers still in front

AND we saw an awesome sunset…

Getting beer… – and he was not german 😉

Although the bombers lost they had small/big fireworks as say-goodbye for Hirdy and Sheedy.

We both were a little bit frustrated after that. Me because the Bombers lost the last game I was be able to see and Jochen because he trusted me and supported them 😉

After that we went a bit through the city and I showed Jochen Melbourne’s Southbank. He was so suprised because he hasn’t seen it before (for whatever reason)

We watched the fireshow at Crown Casino

Sunset at Southbank the next day

Tuesday 28.8.

After Jochen left I moved to Steph’s place where I stayed for the rest of my time. Again, it was just awesome. Steph and Bernhard (her housemate) gave me everything I needed.
At this stage: Thanks again Steph and Bernie for everything!!!

Beer, Pizza, Ricola, Vodka Brause / Ahoi and Knoppers – the perfect mixture 😛

I spent the next days with catching up with friends, going shopping in the city or organising stuff.

Enjoying the cheap sushi 😉 – 2$ per roll (1, 20 €)

I visited Siemens around 3 times to say goodbye to everybody.

I just loved to work there and didnt want to leave ^^

Steph, Dave and Phil (my replacement) hitting some golf balls at “Dorset Road Driving Range” after work

31.8. – 2.9.

A few weeks before Lena asked me if I wanted to join her and a few friends to Falls Creek for boarding. The skipasses were a bit expensive but we stayed in a Siemens lodge which was only 10$/night. So after all I think I payed around 300$ for 2 days boarding (in Australia!!)

Lena and me

Lena

Nick 😉

Lena and Nick in the lift – you can see the masses of snow in the background… 😉

Awesome jumps – I only jumped over the big one (not the kicker)

Lena boarding

Nick after doing almost a 360° jump…not 😉

Our last run down to the lift. You see it’s getting summer in Australia 😀
We had to walk the last 100 meters.

10 minutes later there is no snow at all any more.

Tuesday, 4.9.

We took this picture for Stefan who started at Porsche a few weeks ago ^^

Me after a yummy steak at TGI Friday’s

On the way back to the city

At night, Vern showed me around Melbourne Uni. it’s jsut a massive campus a bit north of the CBD in the City.

On the way there, a tram borke down and caused a massive tram-jam 😉
10-15 trams in a row unable to move look pretty funny.

Vern and me

We went a Longroom, Melbourne longest bar. And it is long! (and expensive ^^) But they make awesome cocktails.

Wednesday, 5.9.

During my stay in Melbourne I tried so often to drive to the Grampians but it never worked out. So Dave asked me if I wanted go there with him. We left on Wednesday afternoon to camp one night, see the Grampians the next day and drive back home at night.

Dave and his favorite gesture 🙂

Driving into the sunset…

By the time we arrived it was already dark. We built up our tent and “cooked” some food.

Penne with meatballs and bread 🙂

We managed to enlight a fire at one of the provided fireplaces and grilled marshmallows and had beer – a lot of beer 😉

We got up pretty late the next day 😉

The reason…

Since there were bushfires in the Grampians a few years ago (I think 2002) everything is still burned and black.

After pissing off the lady at the tourist information at Halls Gap (“Is that the Pinnacle walk?” – “no, one sec this is a different one…” – “where is the pinnacle” – “I show you this first: Here you can … blablabla … and you could also do this one” – “is that the Pinnace walk?” – “No that is also a different one…” etc… 😉 ) we left for a 3 hours walk to the Pinnacles. We could have also done the 5 hours walk but…. nah… too lazy 😉

We had a quick shower…

This massive rocks keeping balance at an area as big as my hand.

After an hour walk we arrived at the top with a wonderful view…

…and had a beer 😉

And tuna with bread and crackers.

Dangerous 😉 – especially because we were (almost) drunk!! 😀

And again – you see how many german tourist are travelling around Australia 😀 (back in Halls Gap)

Roos

Friday, 7.9.

After visiting Siemens (again!) I met Vesna and had pizza with her in the park. She lived one year in Bremen/ Germany and brought a german boardgame back to Australia (Die Siedler von Catan). We played it a couple of times when I was still living in Melbourne.
Its funny to explain someone what “Ertragreiches Jahr – du bekommst einen Rohstoff deiner Wahl” means 😉

Trying to sort and pack all my stuff….

Sunday, 9.9.

After spending my last night at lena’s 23rd in the city I met Anja the next morning for breakfast on Chapel street. Last time Chapel street and last time seeing Anja for probably a long time…

After that Steph, David and Lena drove me to the airport and we spent the last hours together…
This three persons are probably the persons I’ll miss most back in Ger… (And I still have to do the dare 😉

Frauenheld 😛

Having beer at the airport…

Last picture…. I’ll miss you guys!!!

Too late to go back…

(Sorry I wasn’t really motivated to write a lot of stuff)

Home sweet home

G’day

Just to let everybody know:
I arrived good back home (real home 🙂 ) in Germany yesterday. Pics from the last weeks in Melbourne, my 2-day-stay in SIngapore and other topics are coming soon…

Just for now, the probably funniest picture I took in my whole trip 😀

Drunk / happy / stoned Buddha

Ben

Strange feeling…

I just have a strange feeling.
I dont know really why.
It was soo good to come back to Melbourne after our trip. Not that the trip was any bad – it couldn’t have been better – but just to be back in Melbourne, my “home” for the last almost 8 month was just such a good feeling.
I was back home.
Not “real” home.
Not Germany
Not Hessdorf
Just Melbourne

I walked with Jochen through the city two days after we arrived from Sydney and everything just seemed to be so familiar. The street names, restaurants, the Yarra, Crown Casino and the fire show, the cafes and shops, even the people.
I caught up with almost everyone in the last days and it was as if I had never been away. I had dinner with Ish at “Spicey noodles” on La Trobe, the place we had dinner the day I moved into our appartment and so many more times after that. I’ve been to the Siemens office in Bayswater three times to say good bye to everyone or just to hang around and distract everybody from work – kind of.

Now it’s Friday night, I’m lying on the floor of my room at Steph’s house where I lived for the last 2 weeks (You’re the best, Steph! 🙂 ) and I try to get organised.
Try to sort all my stuff and pack it into a suitcase and a backpack.
Try to put the live of 8 month into two pieces of cotton and zippers.
Try to get ready to leave this beautiful country.

Maybe I’m just nervous
Nervous about how all the things have changed
Nervous about how my family and friends have changed
Nervous about how I have changed

Also, I think I’m just not ready to go yet…

From Brissie over Syd to Mel

G’day!

Just a (more or less) small recap of the last days/weeks.
After we started from the big pinnaple we drove down the 100km to Brisbane.
We first had trouble to find an accomodation because the hostel we wanted to stay in (near “The Valley” – a great party place) was

completely booked. We found 2 free beds in a nice hostel in the city and just had some problems finding a car park, but luckily I have the

same ability as my mum: getting a car park wherever and at whatever time without searching longer than 5 mins. 😉

We couldn’t really go out that night because of Jochen’s shoulder, so we just went to “The Valley” to have a look. Damn, I haven’t seen so

many crazy people for a long time 😀
We left pretty early the next day to search a physio for Jochen in the city but they couldn’t help him and just gave us some contact

details for a few physios in Surfers Paradise where we wanted to be the next day.
After seeing the doctor we caught up with Darren who was my personal tour guide when I was in Brisbane for work the first time (4-5 weeks

before). I have good memories about this tour and the “aftershow” at darrens place playing guitarhero until 1 am 😀 (we both had to work

the next day)
We did a small walk around the city (of course it started raining), southbank and the botanical gardens before we had a coffee and then

left for Surfers Paradise.

Southbank – they just built a small rainforest there.

Mangroves at the bontaical gardens

On the way to Surfers Paradies

I had to get my camera from the backseat while driving to take this picture and almost had a crash (not really) – it was worth it 🙂

(lol@dave – you love this picture don’t u? 😉 )

In Surfers it was – of course – raining. The whole day, the whole night. As usual we wanted to stay near the beach but a nice police

officer reminded us that we are not allowed to stay there. “I’ll be back in a couple of hours and you shouldn’t be here any more then.

*whispering* I hate these fucking wild campers…”
So we looked up the address of one of the physios and just stayed the night on their car park to go there straight away on the next

morning.
The Physio tied Jochen’s shoulders back (with normal tape) so that they were more stabalised. She was a really nice lady and charged only

20 bucks for that. Normally you would probably pay 60-80$ just to SEE the doctor.

Bins in surfer outfit 🙂

After a short walk through the rainy city of Surfers we decided to drive down to Byron Bay, the most eastern point of Australia.

Bye bye Surfers…

We picked up a hitchhiker on the way. A guy called Val (Valentine) who was working in a hostel in Byron Bay. We dropped him off and booked

two beds in the same hostel in a funny teepee (2$ cheaper) :). Imagine a big teepee with an oven in the middle and 10 beds around it. The

hostel “Art Factory” was really cool. They had a cafe and cinema next door where we got free wlan – something special here in Australia

:). The main “living room” in the hostel had a big fireplace, 2 pool tables and heaps of comfy tables where everybody was playing games

like poker, monopoly, etc…

Massive waves at the beach of byron bay. Probably the biggest we’ve seen on the whole trip.

The day after we drove (I drove – Jochen was sleeping 😉 ) almost 800 km (12-14 hours) down from Byron Bay to Newcastle. Newcastle is a

little city 100 km north of Sydney where the huge tanker was stranded on the beach a few month ago. We arrived late at night and just

stayed somewhere near the beach on a car park. Luckily it was exactly the same beach where the tanker stranded. The next day we made yummy

pancakes, went to the city to get a 80$ parking fee (we parked 15 mins too long!) and then caught up with one of the Siemens sales guys I

got to know in Sydney. He’s a damn funny guy 😉

The beach…

Mine?

Compare this…

…and this picture a few month ago.

Sunrise…

The next day we drove down to Sydney where we had booked two nights in a hostel called “Wake up”. Jochen once saw a ‘documentation’ about

this hostel on Vox tours, a german tv show.
We first drove to the Blue Mountains in the west of Sydney and had a few nice walks. Unfortunately it was raining and Jochen had pain

again so we left in the early afternoon for Sydney.

Blue Mountains

Sydney…

We searched a car park in the city of Sydney and at this point a good advice: Never, NEVER try to park in Sydney :D. The parking fares are

around 18-25 $ a day plus another 20$ if you want to stay overnight. We found a hidden car park in a little alley only a few hundret

meters away from our hostel and just left our van there. You just had to press a button to get in and the guy on the intercom (nobody else

was protecting the car park) said that we had to buy a token to get out again. Our idea was to just go there (after the 2 days) and say

that we just stayed a few hours ;-).

The hostel was pretty nice. Clean, big and a bit anonymous but really cool people and a nice bar downstairs ;). We got to know a few

really nice people in our room the second night. Chandler, a crazy canadian who also broke his collar bone a few weeks ago boarding in NZ

and Katy a really nice german girl.
That was probably one of the coolest nights I had here in Australia. We went to the bottle shop and got some stuff and just spent a few

hours in our room and then went out first to the bar and then to kings cross (where we left 30 mins later…). Kings cross is a funny

area. I have never seen so many prostitutes in such a short time. The average is probably one every five meters 😀 and you can’t miss

them!

Hostel in Syd

Katy tieing Jochen’s shoes 🙂

The next day we had to get up early to check out and put all our stuff in the van. Oh shit… the van. We totally forgot about that. We

didnt even have a look during the 2 days if it’s still there. 😀
We really thought that it has been towed away or something but when we arrived at the car park everything was fine. Still nobody there who

was paying attention and so we just left the car park. (I’m not sure if it’s relevant that we didn’t buy a token but just followed a car

leaving the car park and probably saved 100$ for parking 😉 )

Anyway… we drove to Wicked campers to drop out van off and took a cab back to the city where we walked the whooooole day around, climbed

on of the pylons of the habour bridge, said “hi” to the opera house and got locked into the botanical gardens next to the opera house

because we didnt leave when they told us to leave 😀

More Wicked campers – ours was definitely the best 🙂

Jochen cleaning (as good as you can clean with only one arm)

Our bed for the last 4 weeks

I found the sheet the nurse from the hospital in Nambour gave to Jochen. lol 😀

We “found” the yellow sign somewhere on the way between Brissie and Syd. It was standing “near” a McDonalds 😀
We left it in the wicked camper office because te guy liked it 🙂

Sydney Tower

Blondie

Nice contrast – old houses in the foreground and the skyline in the background…

On the habour bridge

City…

Habour bridge from the Pylon

On the way to the opera house

Here it is…

The skyline is probably the best thing about Sydney 🙂

As I said… we were locked in the botanical gardens with some other guys and had to call a Walker Texas Ranger to open the door for us.

At around 7 pm we left with the probably craziest airport shuttle driver I’ve ever met (he used constanstly 2 lanes, sometimes the wrong

one and crashed almost with 3 cars 😉 ) from our hostel to the Airport.
After almost a whole month of awesome fun, crazy trips, smelling vans, powernaps on the highway, the probably best selfcooked food since a

few month, wildcamping on the esplanades of australias eastcoast, sign-steeling-actions, “drug delicts”, alcohol abuses, won or loss competitions 😉 and really profund conversations, our great trip had an end.
We flew back to Melbourne and Jochen left a few days later (1 week ago) back to Germany…

I messaged him the other day and he replied: “Its weird to sleep alone – I kinda miss you :P”
Don’t worry I’ll be back soon 😀

Ben