hi guys,

Brisbane was great ... ok, didn't real see much of the city, but had lots of fun ... met a real great english guy, with whom i spent (and will spend) some days ...

so after arriving in a real good hostel (free internet, free swimmingpool, great view over Brisbane and the best thing was the hostel pub *g*) i met this english guy (name= John, who i saw in my bus but didn't talk to him) again in my room ... the first night we met also an italian guy (name= Filippo) who turned out as a big Inter Milano fan .. so we made some jokes about the italian football scandal, but he didn't real care about that ;) ... the first night was quiz night in our pub, so we three formed a team ... we were quite good, as the John translated the question into slower english ;) up to round 3 (each round ten question about everything like sport, history, politics, ...) we were real good, but then came round 4, where we had to guess the song names by listening to the song ... in this round we were absolut rubbish ;) the winner got 100 dollars, unfortunately that weren't we ;)

as we also had some (ok a little more than some *g*) beers, i nearly slept the whole Tuesday, to be fit for the hostel olympic games ... John and me played together in one team in table tennis, foosball (table soccer is called like this) and pool billiard .... starting with table tennis was no prob, we played one set to 11, and clearly won ... foosball was played up to 6 goals and was also no problem for us ... then we had to play pool ... we had no chance but won by luck ... the other team scored the black and the white one together, so we son ;)) (pool was played only with 2 balls of each and the black ball) ... our next pool game we lost clearly, so we were forced to win table tennis and foosball to get into the semi finals ... we easily managed this and so we were in the round of the last 4 with a 5:1 score ... now we had to play table tennis up to 21, foosball up to 10 and pool as a full game ... starting with table tennis it was again no problem (John always looped back, after some time of practice i smashed down some balls to speed up our game *g*), the second game was pool and as always we lost, so the score was 1:1 and the foosball was the deciding game ... as usual, we had no problems (i was the striker in every match, but the other team(s) were not really good at all) and so we were in the final ... starting again with table tennis we won this game, again lost in pool although we played our best pool game this evening (i even scored three balls in a row) but the others were real real good and so we had no chance ... deciding game as in the semifinal was foosball and to continue our series, we won this game and so became olympic champion in our hostel ;)) we won 75 bucks together and decided to make party the next evening .. after the olympics i played table tennis against a dutch guy who was real awesome ... he told me in his younger years he played in the dutch selection ...

the third day i went with John to the Gabba Stadium ... was a little difficult to go inside the stadium ... we asked 4 people near the stadium and everybody told us something different, but always tried their best ... finally we got to the management office, asked if there is a tour today, but there was no one ... but the office woman said, we should sit down for a moment, she calls a guy for us to show us the ground for some minute ... and no 2 minutes later, the guy picked us and took us into the stadium ... looked like a bit as our Ernst Happel Stadium, it's capacity is 43.000 visitors ... John and the Aussie guy talked about cricket and the world champion ship, which is in the moment ... after visiting the stadium we took the free loop bus through Brisbane and got to Southbank, the relaxing area of Brisbane, spent some time there and then we went back to grab our 75 dollars from the bar's manager ... after having shower and tea (John explained me, tea = dinner, and dinner = lunch in england) we started our last evening in Brisbane ... we were a big group of French, Dutch, Danish, English, Aussie and Kiwi guys (and of course Austrian *g*) ... stayed some time in our hostel pub, there was Karaoke night, we sang the last song (Bohemian Rhapsody ... was my idea *g*), then we went to an other pub and got home very late ;))) was real fun this evening, but we had to leave the next day

now i'm in Surfers Paradis, i will take some surfing lessons on the way to Sydney (which is from here about 14 hours by bus) ...

ok, i wish everybody a good last working day of the week and enjoy your weekend

cu soon, christoph