Stuttgart after 6 months - Why the real life is nice and also kind of sucks

Dear real life lovers,

Six months... I cannot make this sound right in my head. I arrived back in Stuttgart six whole months ago. Where the heck did the time go? Of course a lot happened since I got back but it stills feels like less than a month since I left Australia behind to land back in cold old Germany.

I battled a massive jetlag, celebrated my 29th birthday with a beautiful cake with my family, started into the new year with my Markus and started a new job mid-January. Even Christine visited me whom I met in Melbourne and who also visited me in Perth.

My Australia travel video

Dear travel video lovers,
Five weeks ago I landed back in Germany after having been away for nearly a year of which I traveled over 10 months in BIG BIG Australia. I cannot stop thinking about this amazing journey. Putting this 10 months in a video of less than 9 minutes seems pathetic but in a nutshell it reflects my journey. The amazing places and landscapes I have seen, the many and long roads I traveled, the animals I encountered, the things I have done and most importantly the awesome people I have met along the way.
I hope you like my video.
Or watch the Full HD video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FXlhNFXKlsM

Thanks so much to everyone who supported me. Please leave a comment!!! :-)
Yours Australia-travel-video-creator Stefanie

Australia - Some statistics about my travel

G'Day mates, I am thinking a lot about Australia since I came back 26 days ago. I did a lot of rummaging through my bills and came up with this very cost-based statistic that would be of most interest to those who are planning on going there. But I also very much enjoyed the other non-monetary aspects of my travels which surprised even me seeing all listed up like this. This journey was just amazing.
As statistics go, it could get a bit confusing but I try to make it as simple as I can and still interesting (I hope). I have the following categories:

1) How many nights did I sleep where?
2) How much did the accommodation cost me?
3) How many km did I travel by road?
4) How many km did I fly for how much money?
5) What did I achieve and attend?
6) What wildlife did I encounter?
7) How much did the touristic tours cost me?
8) How much money did I earn?
9) How much of my own money did I spend?
10) Cost-breakdown of all the spent money

Stuttgart - Jetlag, bureaucracy and dreaming

Dear home-coming lovers,
Just a week ago I had quite a journey to complete. After my climb up the Sydney Harbour Bridge I slept very badly in the warm dorm room. At 6am I was awake and packed all my luggage. With the airport shuttle I got to the Sydney International Airport to check-in my suitcase which weighted 19.6 kg and then got through immigration and onto my first plane with Vietnam Airlines towards Ho-Chi-Minh-City. After nearly 9 hours we arrived there at 5pm local time. I waited 7 hours to board my second plane to Frankfurt Main and luckily had three seats to myself!!! HURRAY! Despite being able to lie down I didn't sleep too well and 13 hours later I touched down on German ground at 6:45am.
Well, I would say thanks to German efficiency within 30 minutes I was out of the aircraft, through immigration and with my suitcase out of the arrival hall and in Markus' arms!!! We were both so overwhelmed that we didn't take any pictures but I was a mess anyway. Markus has brought me all my winter gear: winter jacket, scarf, gloves and winter boots. We got into the car and drove to our first stop: the German Employment Office in Stuttgart!

Australia - Birds in the wild

Dear loyal readers of my little blog,
During my time in Australia I had the chance and a fairly good camera to take pictures of lots of different birds in Australia. At one point during my Au Pair time in Perth I had enough time and the energy to look up their names on the internet (it was raining a lot, so no point in going out and exploring the country, right?).

I start with the most beautiful birds in my opinion: the parrots!

Here is a Carnaby`s Cockatoo which I encountered in King's Park in Perth. Only when I saw a picture of it in a Avon Valley brochure I recognised it as an endangered black cockatoo.

Australia - Compared to Singapore - my impression after a week

Dear Singapore lovers,
Guys, Singapore is like SO freaking different to Australia but than in some ways it isn't. I spent a week there after I finished my six months as an Au Pair. Luckily I was able to stay with my friend Eva whom I met in Adelaide in February.

Let's just get a few facts right about Australia and Singapore to give you an idea of how different they are:

Australia - 10 things I learned as an Au Pair

Dear children lovers,
I never thought I would end up as an Au Pair. In all honesty, I considered working as an Au Pair as almost my very last option to earn money in Australia. But then I decided to answer this one add on Gumtree as it did sound quite fair and well, the next week I boarded the plane from Melbourne to Perth to start working as an Au pair - in a French family... I swear this is the best picture of the four kids and me that we could take!

I had a bit of experience with younger children before due to my younger cousines and my goddaughter but these three kids have teached me quite something, I can tell ya!

11.9.2014 - 9 months in Oz!!! What's next?

Dear date lovers,
Today is again a little milestone in my travels around the mighty country of Australia:

9 whole months ago I finally arrived here after waiting for over 10 years!!!

Time has passed way too quickly for me, so let me recapture on the last three months: what have I done?
Well, actually heaps of stuff to be honest :-) I made it safely all the way from Perth up the West Coast, swimming with Whalesharks, through the Pilbara, past crocodiles in the Kimberleys and into the very Top End despite our van brokedown and all the mosquitos, snakes and spiders :-)

Perth - Why I am back

Dear Perth lovers,
Why did I decide to go back to my host family in Perth to work there for a few more months instead of just finishing my travels? Do you have any idea of how expensive Australia is???
My West Coast Tour has cost more than I expected but I would like to do some more traveling and therefore need to earn more money. My host family is supadupa nice, I got used to the children and why look (again) for another job if I already have a good one?

Australia - 12 Tipps to driving long distances

Dear loyal blog readers,

SHEEZ! I couldn't believe it even when I checked the figures: over 7,000km!!! We drove over seven THOUSAND kilometers from Perth to Darwin in just 30 days... In comparison, Markus and I drove over 3,000km on the East Coast from Sydney to Cape Tribulation and back to Cairns in 18 days. And let's not forget my awesome 5 day Kangaroo Island trip (a roundtrip of about 800km). And the Tasmania Tour (about 1,500km in 6 days) and the Southwest Tour (about 2,500km in 6 days) even though I didn't drive myself.

Western Australia Day - 9 interesting facts about this enormous state

Happy Western Australia Day!
Or in short WA Day (before 2012 it was named Foundation Day). It commemorates the founding of the Swan River Colony in 1829.
In preparation to this public holiday here I would like to tell you 9 interesting facts about this really huge state. I found different figures in different sources (print version and internet), so this is only to give you a rough idea.

Australia - A few things about domestic flights that might surprise you

Hello everyone,

I am on the plane from Melbourne to Perth which will take just about 3.5 hours to get there. I have already taken a few domestic flights within Australia, mainly with Jetstar but also with Qantas: Cairns to Ayers Rock, Ayers Rock to Sydney, Sydney to Melbourne, from Melbourne to Hobart and return and from Melbourne to Adelaide and return. It is almost a completely different experience in regards to the security procedures at the airports. Whereas in Germany you still have to undergo the known restrictions to fluids and liquids that you take onboard and you cannot pass the security to enter the main terminal gates without a valid boarding pass. Here in Australia they don’t care about what fluids and liquids and how much you take with you!

How similar is Australia to the UK?

VERY!

I have lived for 18 months in Manchester, UK and I found a lot of similarities to Australia in the past four months. Here are some examples:

-          Of course the language is similar.

-          Both drive on the left side of the road.

-          Australia belongs to the British Commonwealth.

-          The Parliament structure is similar to the British one and some of the procedures and the furniture in their two houses are in accordance with the British measurements.

Australia - Job search experience

Hi there everyone,

As my loyal readers know I have been trying to find a job since Markus left Australia to fly back to Germany. This was Mid January 2014. Surprisingly enough and very motivating I got two interviews within a week of sending out my resume / CV to various Facility Management companies around Melbourne. (I have studied and worked in the Facility Management field since 2005 if you count my dual studies).

Outback - 6 things to consider

Servus folks,
Alrighty, I am on the plane from Ayers Rock to Sydney where we will hopefully get on a flight to Melbourne. This morning we got the information that the flight we were initially booked on was cancelled and we did not get any other information than to see the Customer Service Desk in Sydney to be booked on another flight to Melbourne. But don’t worry. We have been told that there are about five more flights scheduled for today from Sydney to Melbourne and none of them are completely booked out. Let’s see what happens.
Anyway, we have still another hour to fly and I would like to reflect on the three days in the Outback.