hey all together,

last day in australia, can't believe it ... 43 days went so quickly ... did a lot of travel, i think all in all several thousands kilometres by bus (i guess between 6000-7000)... i would never do this in europe, but in australia it's common ;)

so the last days i was pretty lazy ... was tired due to the last 8 days in the outback ... i didn't go out one night in sydney although it's weekend! ;) only did a few sightseeing but no surfing .. damn! but maybe i will do this in new zealand or in south america and maybe it's cheaper there ... australia did cost me a lot of money but it was worth every single dollar ;)

arriving on thursday evening, friday was only relaxing, long sleeping and doing my laundry which was pretty necessary ... had run out of clean clothes ;) ... saturday i went to the Olympic Park of the Olympic Games of 2000 ... went there by train (very nice trains here, very clean and modern) and was pretty impressed by the area there ... many huge stadiums, much green space ... 7 years after the games it's still in use and the government has big plans for this 'city in the city' .... you have there everything what you need (hotels, restaurants, apartments, etc) ... did a guided tour through the biggest stadium, the Telstra Stadium ... a massive building ... due to a game on saturday night we weren't allowed to go to the press&media room, the changing room etc. ... but in exchange we saw a short training of a rugby team ... they look so small in the tv, but in real life there a 'big' persons ... i don't want to meet them in the night ;) ... after my tour i just walked around the area by myself and finally went to the Loewenbraeu restaurant to check if they now have Stiegl beer on stock ... and really, they got some, so i had my first austrian beer since about 3 months ... you cannot imagine how good austrian beer is compared to this australian drink called beer ;) and by the way i have to clear up with a big misunderstanding: Fosters beer is indeed australian beer, but nobody drinks this beer here, it's almost only for export ... i only saw one pub with fosters on the tab, and even in bottle shops (where you normally buy your beer) you hardly find fosters bottles ... more popular is victorian bitter (VB) or Tooheys ... australian beer is also served very very cold (in my opinion too cold) ... so after this wonderful austrian beer i also had a real tasteful zwiebelroestbraten with kaesespaetzle in this restaurant ... fu**ing expensive, but i needed good old austrian food ;) ... after this wonderful early dinner i went back to my hostel

now i'm staying in Kings Cross, this seems to be the red light district of Sydney ;) there are lots of night clubs, swinger clubs, adult stores etc. and i saw the first australian prostitutes on the street ... but it's still save you can walk there without any problems during the night ... and the hostel is much cheaper than the first time (nearly 50 % less)

today i was the first time on the beach in sydney .. on the famous bondi beach ... just walked around there, but it was still pretty warm and there were many people swimming and surfing ... in general, the weather is much better than the last time i stayed here and so i leave sydney tomorrow with a much better impression ;)

yes, that was australia ... i liked it really here but with the exception of melbourne i couldn't stay here for a longer period of time ... the food is too US-like, the beer to light and cold and on the east coast everything is full of tourists - all year round (although, now it's low season, but it's still busy) ... melbourne was real nice, very charmful and (for me important) totally sportscrazy ;) ... you have there several football games on the weekend, lots of tennis courts, can play golf there (which is not important for me *g*), have wonderful beaches and it's not so touristic as sydney ... but the food is the same ;) ... anyway, i guess, i will come back one day to australia to do the westcoast, which is not so touristic but also very nice (i heard this from many backpackers)

tomorrow my next adventure will start in new zealand, the home country of adventure sports ... i will keep you up to date ;)

enjoy the short working week (at least for some of you), 

christoph