Adelaide - Guided tour through Botanical Garden

Heyho everybody,

Today I went again to the Botanical Garden with Eva. But this time we joined the daily FREE guided tour. Our guide Ron is retired and a true tree lover. He told us and two other who joined the tour so many things about the garden itself, the trees and plants. He also showed us different material he had with him about how the wood of several trees look from the inside and how they feel. Or he would have some seeds and pictures to show. In 1.5 hours he gave us so many new impressions.

Adelaide - State library and tomato festival

Cheers mates,
On Saturday morning I met Lillian and Craig (who got back to the hostel at 4am and slept in so he checked out late) who went off to the airport. So again I had to say Good-Bye to some new friends but maybe I will see Craig In Melbourne again.
Eva and I went to the State Library and had a look at the old building where we also went upstairs and had a closer look at the old books. It looked truly amazing in there.

Adelaide - Fringe Festival at night

Servus world,
After the chocolate-tasting at the Haigh's Chocolate Factory I spent the rest of the afternoon in the hostel. Eva, a 21 year old German arrived in my dorm. She just arrived in Australia and was really exhausted from the travel. I took her with me so she wouldn't feel asleep too soon. I met again with Jan and Sébastien and also a South Korean girl that I got to know two days ago joined in the common room of the hostel. Then we also spoke to a Britsh guy called Craig and together over a beer we decided to go to the Waymouth Street party. There was this street performer who balanced on two volunteers and juggled three hammers while a boy measured the noise of the audience. It was really funny.

Adelaide - Organising a trip and chocolate-tasting

G'Day everyone,

Today I slept in to get rid of all the alcohol from the wine-tasting the day before. After breakfast I went to the Visitor Information Center in the city center to get some more information about Kangaroo Island. The thing is that guided tours are quite expensive. It costs about 200 AUD or more per day! I spoke to many other backpackers in Melbourne who organized the trip themselves and saved lots of money. So I am about to do the same thing.

Adelaide - Barossa Valley wine-tasting

Prost!

On a windy and rainy morning in Adelaide (is this a normal summer here?) I got picked up at 9am (good time!) by The Taste of Barossa Valley Tour for some great wine tasting! Absolutely everyone who has done a wine tasting in Barossa Valley was completely raving about it and recommended this tour as a Must-Do while in Adelaide. After picking up 17 guests in total all around the CBD of Adelaide we headed to the Adelaide Hills through rain. Our guide Russell told us about his love to this valley and the history how this area has become a famous grape-growing and wine-producing area in Australia.

 

 

Our first stop was however something that has nothing to do with grapes or wine: The Whispering Wall!

Adelaide - Sightseeing, Art Gallery and Museum

Hi there everyone,

On Tuesday I got on my way further West in Australia to the capital of South Australia: Adelaide! I took the plane as it was the cheapest for me and I way prefer flying over getting the train or even a bus (it takes 10 hours!!!).

Anyway, I checked into the Backpack Oz at 5pm (Adelaide is half an hour behind Melbourne) and did nothing spectacular that evening.

Today I ventured out to the North of the city as this is where all the main attractions seem to be located. I started at the Adelaide Arcade which reminds me of the Block Arcade in Melbourne.

Melbourne - Mexican food with friends - Picnic and comedy

Moin Moin to all my readers,

As I woke up this Sunday the 16^th of February 2014 it was absolutely pouring down outside. I would have liked to just stay in bed but I had to get to a supermarket to get some ingredients for my bean salsa. Elina and Karlis have invited their friends to a Mexican theme picnic in the Botanical Garden. I arrived at about 12:30pm to a blue sky like it has never rained. During the afternoon more and more friends of Elina and Karlis arrived, many with babies and little children and everyone with lots of food. We had lots of Salsa, Guacamole, different salads, lots of vegetables, chicken, tortilla and fruits as dessert.

Melbourne - QVM and free MSO concert with friends

Cheers everyone,

On Saturday morning I woke up at 7:30am to get ready to meet my friends Elina and Karlis! They are from Melbourne but living in Bremen now. As they knew I was here as well while they are visiting their families and friends they invited me to come along with them to some grocery shopping at the Queen Victoria Market. It was really busy there at 9:30am but we managed to get everything of their list by 11am. After that we walked to Hardware Lane for some coffee, cappuccino and Chinotto.

 

 Then we decided to have kind of a second breakfast instead of lunch.

Melbourne - South Market, NGV, Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine’s Day!

What did I do on Valentine’s Day all on my own in Melbourne? After breakfast I went back to bed. Yes, I slept in until about 12pm and then decided to go to the South Melbourne Market to have lunch there. It is only a 5 minute walk from the hostel. It is much smaller than the QueenVictoria Market and set up partly in a real building und not just under a hall. Also the shops are set up permanently which gives the market actually more a shopping center atmosphere than a market one.

 

Melbourne - Garden, Treasury, Organ concert, casino

Hi there,

You are probably getting sick of reading more about Melbourne but it has so much to offer. And I am kind of stuck here if you will because my friends from Melbourne who live in Bremen now are here to visit their family and friends. I will meet them this weekend. So although I have already decided to not look any more for a job in Melbourne I will stay here until after this weekend and then travel on further. Therefore I am going to make the best of my time here and discover this city which was voted several times as one of the most liveable cities in the world. You have everything: business, art, culture, sport, science, tourism, lots and lots of events in a fabulous laidback and still kind of European atmosphere.

Melbourne - Federation Square and National Gallery of Victoria

Greetings especially to my art-loving friends out there,

Today was supposed to be my shopping day to treat myself and get over the wasted time I have invested in looking for a job that I have no certificate for. But as I had to go to the Visitor Information Center on Federation Square to ask a few things I decided I could as well have a walk around the square. The square shall symbolize the red and grey colors of the outback (or something like that).

Melbourne - Going out and about

Good morning world!

In the last five days I have spent each afternoon/evening with someone else around the city which is great as I totally did not know what to do with myself. As I already wrote in my last entry I haddinner and a last walk around Melbourne with Laura on Thursday. On Friday I had to check-out of my room and check-in in the afternoon into another 4-bed-female-dorm in the same hostel (Nomads All Nations) and met three Australian girls from Adelaide. They were so nice and friendly and as I had no other plans for the evening they asked me to come along with them for a night out.

Melbourne - Docklands Dragon at daylight and at night

Howdy partners,

Melbourne is getting into yet another heat wave and without air-conditioning in our rooms it is a bit hard to sleep. So I got up earlier than intended, skyped with Markus and applied to some more jobs. After an hour I had enough of it and spent the rest of the morning looking up some information about Adelaide and Kangaroo Island. I am pretty sure now that I will fly there in two weeks.

Laura and I had lunch together and after an afternoon nap we both set out into the incredible heat at 5:30pm to drive to the Docklands to have a look at this 100 m long and 10 meter high dragon.

 

Australia - Job searching pain and deciding what to do next

Moin Moin everybody,

It’s Wednesday the 5th of February 2014. I left thetour on Sunday after the Port Arthur visit and went back to the hostel called The Pickled Frog which is very comfortable and colorful (absolutely bright-green from the outside and awesomely colorful inside). I should have made some pictures of it but funny enough somehow I never took pictures of the accommodations that I stayed in.

 

The day after the tour I wrote some more postcards and posted them at the post office in Hobart. As it was very cloudy and slightly raining I went grocery shopping (I got me some nice stuff to treat myself after this exhausting tour) and then back to the hostel.

Tasmania - Port Arthur and Tasman National Park

Good morning/afternoon/evening/night, wherever you are,

On Sunday morning we left the hostel at 8am (finally we could sleep a bit longer) to head first to Richmond, a historic town which is 200 years old! Again, Australia is a fairly young settlement… We saw the oldest bridge of Australia and grabbed a coffee and some lunch for later.

Tasmania - Wineglass Bay and Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary

Servus everyone,

At 7:30am we left Bicheno towards Wineglass Bay. The fitter ones of our tour went up Mount Amos to get the beautiful view over the bay and the not so fit ones drove to a lighthouse, most of us walked at least up to the lookout but I decided to also go all the way down to the actual beach, called Hazzards Beach Walk. It was a very steep walk and after an hour the arrival at the beach was quite emotional.

Tasmania - Cataract Gorge Launceston and Bay of Fires

Cheers world,

Okay, today we left a bit later than before, at 7:30am. (NOOOOOOOOOOO, still too early) We had to pick up four new passengers and then stopped at the Cataract Gorge of Launceston for an easy and short 45-minute walk around the beautiful gorge and we saw two wallabies (or even pademelons? Not sure).

Tasmania - Cradle Mountain, lake, wild animals, murals and cheese

Hey ladies and gentlemen, girls and boys,

Getting up early gets harder and harder and I was a bit late with my breakfast but nevertheless we left almost on time at 7:08am for an 1.5-hour drive to Tullah Lakeside to grab a sandwich for lunch.

Another 1.5-hour drive later we arrived at Cradle Mountain where we could choose from several short and easy to long and hard walks in the area.

Tasmania - Falls, sand dunes and secret lake

Howdy partners,

We all had breakfast at 6am and headed to the west coast of Tasmania at 7am. After some driving and picking up some lunch to take with us we stopped for an easy but muddy three-hour walk through the rainforest to the Montezuma Falls.

Tasmania - Falls, Mount Field NP and bushfire detour

Hi there everyone,

On Tuesday morning five persons got picked up at my hostel and we had to navigate through the rush hour in Hobart to pick up another five people until our coach was full with the tour guide Renate and 21 persons. Then we set off to a small village to grab some lunch to take with us and after some driving we arrived at some rainforest for an easy walk past the Horseshoe Falls and the Russels Falls.

Hobart - Arrival and short city walk

Cheers mates,

After Australia Day I flew out from Melbourne Tullamarine Airport at 8am to Hobart in Tasmania. The flight only took one hour but the airport shuttle bus which I took to my hostel (The Pickled Frog, what a name…) stopped at so many other hotels and hostels, I did not get to my hostel until 11am. It was still too early to check in, so I made use of the washing machines and dryers and the FREE Wifi to update my blog. At 3pm I got my stuff up into my room and met some really nice girls. Then I had a nap and when I got up two Dutch girls entered the room and it turned out they were going to be on the same tour as me. Nice!