Some of the best…
(some photos from Karl and some altered by me)

It was nice and warm on the climb up, but the top was a little windy.
And as one would expect, you never really can get away from the Germans and their love of the Alps. Just when you think your are more than 10,000 Km from the father land, you meet 2 German girls right at the top!

The terrain is of course much different that most bush/mountainous areas. The Grampians has many rocky areas that make it unique in my mind.
Note to self: find more rocky hiking areas.

Scenic driving shot (taken by Anja)

We stopped on the way back at the Tangled Maze where we got lost, played mini-golf and a quick game of chess.

It took me a while, but I’ve finally found some time to let you know what Anja and I did on our trip around Australia.
Our trip focused on Melbourne, Brisbane and Cairns during May 2010 (28/4/2010 -> 26/5/2010). I’m blogging about our first stop here and will blog more about the others later.

Melbourne (12 days)

Melbourne was our ‘catch up with friends’ part of our journey. The mornings were late starts and the nights went long with the never ending dinners and games. Many thanks to those that were able to make time and catch up. Sorry to all those who I left out this time round, I hope to see you on my next trip!

I love the skyline that Melbourne has. By far it’s one of the varied city skylines I have seen around the world.

A more typical shot of Melbourne below with the Flinders Street train station, St Paul’s cathedral and the Yarra river (taken from Southbank).

We stopped by the Vic Market on our first day so that I could brag about differences b/w DE and AU markets/food. I have spent many years shopping at the Vic, often coming back with about 15Kgs of stuff on my back as I ride back home or to a train station.

Behold our latest discovery… it looks like something straight out of Dr Who with all the bad/old school monster costume design and tacky aliens, but it’s actually just a lemon. This was found near the Organic (auf Deutsche ‘Bio’) area.

Dancing was a must for us. For those that don’t know, Melbourne has the biggest Swing dancing scene outside of the US. Swing Patrol are massive and so if you’re living in Melbourne, I would definitely check it out! There is something on every night for all levels and the odd competition or ball for the more ‘spectator’ type people.

Fun pit was our first stop where the teacher (Brad) was in shock to see me.. It’s good to see a few familiar faces…. ..Daniel! You’re back… I thought you were in Germany… Leon also happened to turn up later which totally surprised me and the others when he gave me a hug.

North Melbourne feels like my birth place for Swing Dancing.. I know that I was really born into Swing dancing at (the now extinct) CBD, but North Melbourne is where I was raised and found my Swing. The dancers are great and the teachers (Shob & Andy) really make the place alive with good spirits, bad/funny jokes and great technical insight into fixing my dancing.

Below are images from the paintball birthday event which Viesha organised. This place in Dingley was one of the best paintball places I have played because of the field design/setup. Unfortunately, Anja hurt her knee while ducking for cover on the bridge (last photo) because there was a brick exposed and yet hidden at the same time in the ground. Luckily, that didn’t really affect the rest of the trip, however it was sore for at least 3 weeks.

My favourite moment is when I ‘killed’ like 10 people all lined up like sitting ducks on the ‘barrels course’. All I did was run up straight along side their defensive stretch and shot like I had infinite ammo. I think they thought it was: A) impossible that I was there, B) that I was on their side and C) the thought “what is going on and why am I in pain… where am I being shot from”. I have to say, it was a little too much fun. Adrenaline overload.

One of my favourite stops for sight seeing are the bells of St Paul’s and St Pat’s cathedral. I’m not religious, but I have a great fascination for the ringing and the technical skill and challenge that is involved in Bellringing. I think it’s sharing this with others that really leaves an impression in people’s minds. I’m not going to explain Bellringing in detail, but basically: it’s not typical music, bells are not instruments that are easy to stop/control, the weight of a bell can be compared to that of a small car, there is a conductor for the band, it can take months to learn the physical skill safely and properly, the mental ability is far, far more complex and difficult than the physical (methods, peals, touches etc.) and you can’t do it anywhere you hear bells (one requires full circle ringable bells set up for ‘english’ style change ringing). You can find more about Bellringing on the change ringing wiki

Below: My mum on the treble, the band at St Pat’s.

Above: St Pat’s Cathedral Melbourne, St Paul’s Cathedral Melbourne

Below: St Paul’s Bells (4 of 13.. there are two 2s for different keys)

Probably the most memorable experience would be feeding the Sulphur-crested cockatoos and rosellas down at Mt Dandenong. Anja had up to 4 cockatoos on and hanging off her at one point. They landed on our shoulders, our hands and climbed all over us. It was actually a lot of fun! A bit scary at first, but the birds are civil. If you happen to have a fear of birds, or have seen to much Hitchcock, then I wouldn’t recommend this.

Lunch at the botanical gardens. It was fairly short lived once the rain that came however it was one of our few rainy days on our trip, so not so bad in the end.

There was also a few special dinners and parties, but this post is already too long. Check out my next post on the Grampians for the complete Melbourne trip!

About this photo.
This is a collection of images I have taken using my iphone and borrowed from the friendly digital world.

‘Before a few’ (top down):
——————-
The festival parade representing the beer produces and the like responsible for the event.
Thousands upon thousands of stores sell heart shaped gingerbread biscuits for friends, to eat or to give to a potential date.
Horses carry many carts containing barrels of beer.
A man on the train kind enough to let me take a photo of him.
Pushing the beer barrels onto the carts.
The traditional first tap of the beer keg to officially start the beer flowing for the event. Often done by a famous person or the major (in this case).
Traditional footwear for the lads and paraders.
One of the many theme park style rides available for the not so drunk and kids.

During a few (top down):
——————-
The many dressed up girls of which many wear their expensive dirndls.
One of the bands that was on break and decided to get up on the tables and chuck in a few songs. Each tent has a few bands that play constantly throughout the day and night with songs perfect to sing a long to, both old and new.
My ‘bretzel’ (similar to pretzel) that was helping me drink the 2 Mass (1 L beers) that I had on the day (the whole chicken also helped).
Some of the food that the many waitresses carried throughout the tents. Most trays had up to 8 meals on them!
A traditional ‘Prost’ or cheers.

After a LOT (top down)
——————-
The lights of the rides and tents at night.
The drinking games?
Pissoir = Pissing wall
The not so traditional dresses (it says in lip stick ‘I fcuked Jack’).
The many drunk lads that are happy to sleep against a wall or in the park (see below)
The packed tents and ‘beer participants’ happy to sing, dance, prost and all while standing on the tables!
Me.. wondering if I’ll make it. (FYI I did and even went swing dancing afterwards!…. but I couldn’t have done it without the chicken!)

The following are photos from the “für reinhard schulz” concert in München.

The music was not exactly to my taste. I found it rather angry, depressed and scary. The first 2 tracks seemed like they fell off the end of an x-files soundtrack because they were too scary!

My girlfriend was highly engaged throughout the first 3 songs… She said that she could feel almost every note in her teeth.

In my wildest nightmares I never though I would hear a piece with a clarinet that involved loud breathing in and out of a clarinet (titled: 32 breathes). It was something like Darth Vadar on a good day… You know, like if he worked out at a gym for a few days and stopped smoking.

Anjas father (Robert Delanoff) is a very talented composer and in all honesty, happened to have the best piece played on the day. Unlike the others which went down some kind of spooky, dark and depressing path, his actually came back out and into the light which gave it a nice contrast b/w the two.

So now I’ve had my share of exotic German musical culture… I’m glad that box is ticked.

Somedays (most) one feels like they are not lucky and nothing exciting and special will happen today. 11/3/2010 was a different day for me. It was lucky from the moment I left the house and my train pulled up as if it was just for me.

When I met Anja in the city for lunch, the question was where? Beautiful sun beaming through the winter cold but ice cold winds making the idea a pipedream. Out of shear luck, we headed down a street looking at cafes we didn’t even think existed and found one with a free table at the back. One free table! One next to the window with the entire sun beaming through! Needless to say, superb toasted sandwiches, exotic drinks and great service.

My next stroke of luck involved finding a German learning magazine in the main train station (of which countless hours can be lost looking for the right exit alone). Found it with no problems but the cashier insisted I only gave him 6€ and not 7€. In my best deutsch I stood my ground and after a minute of pointless argument I saved my self from being ripped off like a foreigner. Despite him wanting to count the till and show me the security footage.

On these days of luck, one must ask him self… “how much is a Lotto ticket in Germany?”
Considering that my luck might be changing or had already ran out, I spent 4€ on a ticket (choose 6 out of 49 times 5 ). I should have been charged 5€ but was only charged 4€.

Two days later, I won just over 11€ for having 3 numbers correct. This value was also slightly higher than the expected average winning (for matching 3 numbers).

All and all, a day to remember and a day to document. For all those who seem to have a bad string of luck, just remember that tomorrow is another day… and it’s got to be somewhat lucky for someone right?

Something for the travelers out there from the land of Oz.. I found the most common questions to be asked were:
“How big is Melbourne and what is the population of Australia?”

After being asked these kind of questions like 12 times, I decided to look it up.
FYI
Munich = ~1.3 Million
Syd = ~4.8 Million
Melb = ~4.3 Million

DE = ~ 84 Million
Aust = ~ 24 Million

So one can say that Melbourne is almost 4 times bigger than Munich (even if it doesn’t seem like it).
Sydney and Melbourne are the 2 biggest cities in Oz… almost the same size (people don’t get that Melbourne could be as big as Sydney because most know Sydney).
Germany has almost 4 times the population of Australia.
Germany is about the same size as Victoria.

All this came in incredibly handy when I was quizzed (at my DE school) on it for a Christmas chocolate prize. The poor American that had lived in Munich over a year guessed 1 Million but it was 1.3 that got the goods!

Finding out the population of Australia and therefore Munich really paid off….  those many little chocolates didn’t make it back from Egypt.

The process of being allowed to pay taxes in Germany is surprising difficult. I was not able to invoice properly until I was given a Steuernummer (tax number). The process involved many calls back and forth between the Finanzamt (tax dept.) and the kind colleagues willing to put up with them.
When the letter final came telling me how and when to pay taxes, I was so happy it was all fixed. I’d never been so happy to have the ability to pay taxes before!

(this was in Nov/Dec after applying start of Oct)

Another interesting verb in German:

Ich soll vs Ich solte (points out motivation)

“Ich soll”
Implies someone has told me I should.. (motivation from others)

“Ich sollte”
Implies I should because I must (and is a motivation from the self)

“Ich sollte mich gesunde ernähren”.
I should eat healthier (because I know this to be true)

“Ich soll mit dem Rauchen aufhören” (someone who has been told to stop smoking but doesn’t believe it or want to)
“Ich sollte mit dem Rauchen aufhören” (someone who believes they should stop smoking)

The tricky thing then is to also understand when to use müssen (must) and dürfen (may).

“Ich darf nicht mehr eis essen”
(I am not allowed to eat more ice cream = Someone has told me I can’t eat more ice cream)
(dürfen is used more for warnings, restrictions, signage etc.)

“Ich muss nicht in die Schule gehen”
(I must not go in the school = I don’t have to go to school)

Note that müssen = must and the German opposite is ‘don’t have to’. But the English ‘must’ = ‘have to’ and the opposite is ‘must not’ = ‘must not do xyz’ (which is actually still a must but the verb is not negated, only the object/subject to which the verb is with).

So much learning and practice ahead!

Seems like everyone has left me!
It’s either they don’t like me, or the staff don’t like working at Student Flights Collingwood.

Basically, everyone that has done some small favour for me has left the job which makes it impossible to plan things. Also, none of their “I no longer work here” reply emails actually offer another email address to use. And the website itself doesn’t offer an alternative email address either!

Chris booked everything with me before I left
(Chris left in Nov?)
Dave helped postpone my return flight
(Dave left in Dec?)
Lily gave a quote for flights return to AU
(She left in Jan?)
Natalie is on leave
(She didn’t return my email when she got back anyway…. maybe she quit)
I called up and got a new Dave who was just a temp working till Weds
Dave gave me a contact to email… The best bit was the google response:
————-
Karen topacio email account is rejecting gmail. [studentsflights.com.au (1): Connection refused]

Technical details of temporary failure:
The recipient server did not accept our requests to connect. Learn more at http://mail.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=7720
————-

So after all is done, it’s really a comedic experience to try and get anything done with this Mob. If they should happen to come across this post, then I hope they learn something about customer satisfaction and service.. otherwise there’s no need for these middle man travel agency people. AVOID THEM and just plan trips yourself!

Hi All… been a while I know.

Just wanted to let you know that I’m all good and I have like 5 blog posts all saved up for when I have more time.
For those that want to know what black hole I disappeared into, here it is:

- Had a break down with learning German (~Nov – end Feb)
- Went diving in Egypt in Jan
- Moved in with Anja Feb (officially)
- Got some ice skating and skiing in
- Went tobogganing on a plastic bag (and then on a real sled ’cause the kids felt sorry for us.. plan worked like a charm
- Booked trip to Australia with Anja (April 28th -> May 26th.. Start of May in Melb for ~10 days)
- Publicis ran out of Flash/Flex work -> working on Aussie clients and Vidza… (visa/contract still good till end 2010)
- Got a toaster!!!
- Fridge died… got a new Fridge
- Got a new bike pump and went for a nice ride around Munich and the Isar river

Also, went to a few birthday parties and events, lots of dinners and games.

Not doing as much Swing dancing as I would like, but it’s on the agenda for sure!
Also got back into learning German by translating mac magazines.
Saw Alice in Wonderland in 3D and English… not bad… not perfect, but worth it.

BTW, I’ve uploaded a couple of vids to picasa (more to come): http://picasaweb.google.com/pettetd/IphoneMovies