Newcastle (16.02 - 20.02.2019)

We arrived quite late in Newcastle in the evening. The drive to Newcastle was filled with anticipation and excitement. Ben and I were quite happy to leave Port Macquarie behind and move on to another place. When we arrived around 10 PM, the hostel owner picked us up by car. The first impression of the hostel: a shock. It was a large group of drunk people in the hostel and the hostel itself looked very dirty. However, the hostel owner didn't seem happy about it either and drove the group away after we checked in. Then we were placed in a 6-bed room. This 6-bed room was a mess. Four men were living there, apparently for a long time. Ben and I went straight to bed and tried to sleep, while the other residents slowly came into the room.

The next morning, we were greeted with a big breakfast buffet. Everything we desired was there. By the way, the hostel owner had already told us yesterday that we would get a quieter room the next day. That's why we didn't unpack our stuff, also because there was no space in the room. Then it was off to the city center to explore the city. The first impression was also a bit depressing. It looked very deserted and run-down. But the closer we got to the water, the newer and more modern Newcastle seemed to us. Newcastle is mainly an industrial location for coal. That's why it's called Newcastle, by the way: Newcastle gets its name from the English city of Newcastle, which used to be one of the most important coal suppliers worldwide. Since Newcastle in Australia also has a coal industry, it was simply called "Newcastle". Now even the Australian Newcastle has surpassed the British one in terms of the coal industry.

After the first stop at the tourist information, we visited the Newcastle Museum. It reminded me of Phaeno in Wolfsburg. You could play around a lot and learn something playfully. After that, we walked along the harbor. We looked around here and there. Then we strolled around a bit. There were many shops on the way back to the accommodation that we looked at. At the accommodation, we waited for the owner. Unfortunately, we couldn't find him directly, so we spent the waiting time with a puzzle. It was a 1000-piece puzzle and we thought we would never finish it. But after 5 hours (time flew by so quickly), we not only finished the puzzle, but also got a new room (to our amazement, we got a double room, pure luxury), got dinner from our hostel residents, and also dessert (homemade pancakes) from another hostel resident. They had made too much of each, much to our delight. We were happier than ever. The room was a dream: clean, quiet, and spacious. The hostel was also cleaned up a bit that day, so we felt really comfortable there.

The following day, we went back to the city. We did a walking tour called "The Shoreline". We got a brochure about it at the tourist information, so we could walk a path and get information along the way. We took our time at each stop because we not only read the texts in the brochure but also translated them. So you learn English a little more intensively. We learned about the figure "Destiny" that greets the ships in the Newcastle Harbor, about the tugboats, about several shipwrecks in the area, and much more. We made a little detour to Nobby's Point and then continued to Newcastle Ocean Baths. This is a kind of swimming pool that was built at the beginning of the 20th century. You can still see that it is quite historical. I felt like I was in a photo from 1930. The atmosphere, the buildings around it, everything looked very historical. But also really beautiful. It was something special. It is also located right on the beach and the water in the pools is filled with sand and saltwater. It serves to protect swimmers from strong currents and waves. Ben even took a dip in the Ocean Baths. For me, the water was definitely too cold. Afterwards, we went to Newcastle Beach and then back to the hostel. The BBQ was waiting for us there. We hadn't had such a nice BBQ for a long time. There were wraps, corn on the cob, potatoes, chips, zucchini, chicken, and sausages. We were really happy. The hostel owner also joined us and we talked a bit. He was quite difficult to understand, but luckily there was also an Englishwoman at our table who participated in the conversation. He also explained that a group of English people had checked in for one day on our first evening and then thrown a party. After that, we relaxed in our beautiful room.

On the last full day in Newcastle, we went back to the city. We really wanted to go to the Memorial Walk. On the way, there were several smaller sights. It was quite windy at the Memorial Walk, but the view was sensational. We especially enjoyed the view of another "swimming pool". This is the largest in the southern hemisphere. We also had a view of three other beaches and all of Newcastle. Really beautiful. By the way, the Memorial Walk was dedicated to World War I. Everyone from the region who contributed something was mentioned at these steel figures. Really nice. After that, we went to Darby Street. It is a shopping street. We were particularly impressed by a farmer's market there. The store had such beautiful and high-quality products. It was really fun to go through there. You could tap the milk yourself and we saw real bread again, as we were used to from Germany. Then we went back to the hostel. It started raining slowly on the way back, but we didn't care. In the hostel, we relaxed and packed our things.

The next morning (still raining), we went to Sydney. We enjoyed the good breakfast one last time and the hostel owner drove us back to the bus stop. We really liked Newcastle.

Now we are both looking forward to Sydney. It is our last stop in Australia. We will spend two weeks here.