Brisbane to Brisbane

After a rather turbulent flight, on which we were able to catch some sleep, we arrived in Brisbane. Contrary to all warnings and expectations, it was bloody cold! No scorching heat, no blazing sun, rather an autumnal gray. But it didn't bother us much, because we thought we would get plenty of sun in the 6 weeks in Australia. We took the train to Chinatown and checked into our hostel. The contrast to Asia was already visible in the first few hours: super friendly people (Stephan was greeted by an Australian customs officer with 'Hey Buddy, what up!'); not quite so modern trains covered in graffiti; a hipster-style hostel where we only had 30 minutes of wi-fi per day and, of course, high prices, which we had already become accustomed to in Singapore.

After a $10 burger and beer (which was a special that evening), we also made acquaintances with Stumpy and Bluey, the two lizards that were shown off every Thursday by a stereotypical Australian (a zoo hippie) at the hostel bar. But feeling tired from the journey, we went to bed quite early in our 20-bed dorm (record!).

The following day we did some sightseeing in Brisbane, which is a bit difficult: to be honest, there's not really much that you must/should see. But we set off, visited a cathedral (a nice change after all the temples in Asia), did some shopping, had a lunch break in the botanical garden, walked through the university campus, and looked at the riverbank. On the way back, we bought groceries and cooked spaghetti with tomato sauce for dinner... just like 20 other hostel guests ;-) I guess it's typical backpacker I-need-to-save-money food...

I was looking forward to a cozy evening, but it turned out differently: we wanted to go for a drink with two German girls from our dorm. However, their travel buddies (from France and Scotland) wanted to pre-drink with their friends in another hostel room first. We had our beers while the others downed the vodka, and after a few drinking games, we went to the club! It was really a different world that took some getting used to after such a long time: dolled-up girls, men have to wear long pants, women being hit on, and getting bumped into everywhere. Maybe it was because we weren't drunk enough, but after about an hour of dancing, we said goodbye to our group. It was a surprisingly fun evening with funny conversations, but the next day we had to get up early (7 am) and pick up our rental car.

As a joke, Stephan had looked for a rental car in Kuala Lumpur and surprisingly found a cheap one. So, for the next few days, we were mobile and could drive to Sydney on our own. We made a quick stop in Surfers Paradise and then continued to our homestay for Christmas. We stayed with a nice Taiwanese family and cooked ourselves a delicious dinner. We didn't really have a festive feeling, but it was still a nice evening and definitely better than celebrating in a hostel.

On the 25th of December, we set off for Byron Bay. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain, so we skipped the hike to the lighthouse and drove directly to Lismore. We spent the rainy day watching movies in a typical American motel room, and I tried my hairstyling skills on Stephan's mane. I thought the result was okay, but in a few weeks, a professional will probably have to take over ;-)

For the next leg of our journey, we wanted to drive to Coffs Harbour. Since it was easily doable in one day, we made a detour to the hippie village of Nimbin. Cute little town, but the long-time hippies there live a bit in their own world... After that, we drove to Yamba, where there is a really great beach with beautiful dunes, and then continued to Coffs Harbour. However, we quickly realized that we wouldn't stay there. Firstly, it wasn't as nice as we would have liked, and secondly, we couldn't find any accommodation or didn't want to pay for it. A rundown motel for $120? It's peak season, of course, but we thought that was too much. Instead, we decided to drive 4 more hours to Newcastle. Originally, that was supposed to be our last stop before Sydney, but we realized that making too many stops and only spending one night in each place wasn't very satisfying. It's better to cover larger distances and spend a few days in one place, which allows us to really experience and see more.

If we hadn't driven to Newcastle that day, we wouldn't have met Co (Dinah's roommate). By chance, she was also in Newcastle at that time, and we met up for a coffee at Merewether Beach. Unfortunately, she had to catch her flight to Melbourne soon, but it was still a funny meeting. Stephan and I spent the rest of the day at the beach and did a little hike (even with cloudy skies and SPF 50 sunscreen, you shouldn't spend more than 2 hours on the beach!)

One day earlier than planned, we set off for Sydney. We made a quick stop at Manly Beach, drove over the Harbour Bridge, and continued to Bondi Beach, where our hostel was for the night. I "had to" see Manly Beach because I had been to Sydney in 2003 with a student exchange program, and we had taken the ferry to Manly. Back then, we spent the day at "Manly Beach" and I thought to myself: Well, it's an okay beach, but not soooo great! In reality, we were at a mini beach right next to the ferry and would have had to walk about 100m through the town to get to the real beach :-) But neither we nor our teachers knew that at the time... Those were the days before Google Maps!

Bondi Beach was really beautiful too: cool atmosphere, fine sand, and impressive waves. The currents are also no joke here. We saw a woman who had to be brought ashore by a jet ski, even though she was only about 10m away from the beach! But she simply couldn't make it on her own...

The next day, we finally moved into our Airbnb apartment in the Darlinghurst neighborhood! Finally, a few days in one place where we could settle in and feel at home (and with an Aldi right around the corner, it was really convenient)! One day before New Year's Eve, we did the full tourist program: Hyde Park, St. Mary's Cathedral, Opera House, Circular Quay, Harbour Bridge, The Rocks. We took a little break at Observatory Hill and made our way home through Chinatown, past Darling Harbour. It was quite a packed itinerary for one day, but since there were already preparations and road closures for the New Year's Eve celebrations, it was good that we did it on that day.

The next day, Selma and Felix arrived, whom we had met on Koh Lanta. The two of them got a cheap flight to Sydney, so we could celebrate New Year's Eve together! Even though our place was not very big and they slept on the fold-out couch, it was still super relaxed and just fun to spend a few days with them. We almost missed midnight, but we just had to go down to the street in front of our apartment to see the fireworks from the Harbour Bridge, perfect! It wasn't worth spending the whole day waiting in a restricted, alcohol-free area just to get the perfect view of the fireworks. Luckily! Because the fireworks lasted only 10 minutes, and so we had a much more enjoyable evening! To top it off, we went to a gay club for some dancing (our apartment was right in the middle of the gay and lesbian quarter) and ended the night on our balcony.

We spent the 1st of January (like probably everyone else) relaxing at home and occupied ourselves with breakfast and dinner, as well as planning our onward journey. On the 2nd, Selma and Felix had to continue their journey, and we enjoyed one last evening in our apartment.

After 5 days in the city, we felt the urge to be in nature, more specifically in the Blue Mountains. This national park is only a 2-hour train ride from Sydney. We went hiking to the Wentworth Falls and visited the famous Three Sisters. The weather spoiled one of the days (fog, rain, COLD!), but we had a nice evening at the hostel and met some very funny people...

In addition, Stephan had to give his foot a rest because he had sprained it slightly on the first hike (of course, with his already injured ankle), but luckily he had his ankle brace on and it wasn't anything serious!

From the Blue Mountains, we took the train from Sydney to Melbourne (overnight). We had booked 4 nights there and enjoyed the "most livable city". We walked through the city, passed by street art, visited exhibitions (about film and radio! We're not so intellectual that we go to art exhibitions ;-)), went to markets, and took breaks in one of the many gardens or right by the river under palm trees. It's really good to live here, although we probably haven't seen as many (and especially young) homeless people in any other city... Well, our hostel was right next to the train station, but it was still alarming. Our hostel wasn't exactly great either (especially the bathrooms). So we have mixed feelings about Melbourne...

It's cool that the tram in the city center is free, there's an incredible amount of green space in the city, and there's always a lot going on culturally. We even got to watch a Virtual Reality film for free, which was a really amazing experience (sitting on an office chair with one of those huge VR headsets on, experiencing the Australian desert in 360 degrees!)

Speaking of the desert: We had to skip the trip from Adelaide to Ayers Rock and back due to time and especially cost reasons. It's really a shame, but you can't see everything.

For cost reasons (and because we didn't book campsites weeks in advance), we also decided to camp with a rental car and tent on free sites during our 2-day trip along the Great Ocean Road. It turned out to be a great decision! We were able to find a cheap tent on Facebook, and we bought the rest of the equipment in Melbourne. The campsites right on the Great Ocean Road were obviously full, but a bit further inland, we found a picturesque spot in the eucalyptus forest where we even had the company of mama and baby kangaroos! We also saw wild koalas on our drive, perfect!

The Great Ocean Road was really beautiful, and not even the billions of annoying flies (which prefer to land on your mouth or ears) could spoil the view of the Twelve Apostles!

All in all, it was a successful short trip, and now we're flying back to our starting point Brisbane, from where we will continue north to Cairns...