Chapter 3 - Great Ocean Road and Christmas in Sydney

Hello dear family and dear friends,

First of all, I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! Here in Sydney, we had a nice holiday within the possibilities, but let me start from the beginning.

In the last week in Melbourne, I often went to the Yarra River in the evening to watch the sunset. It was very beautiful and one of the few things you could do in over 44 degrees Celsius. Even at 10 PM, the temperature was still over 37 degrees Celsius.

When the forecast finally dropped below 30 degrees, I signed up for my first official trip to the Great Ocean Road. I was picked up at 10 AM by the guide Chris, and at the next stops in the city, we picked up a large number of Chinese people...

After a 2-hour drive, we arrived at the Great Ocean Road, a road that, as the name suggests, runs along the ocean for almost 250 kilometers.

The landscape here was simply breathtaking, with a lush cliff coast on our right and kilometers of beaches on our left.

In addition to this spectacular view, you also get a glimpse of the wildlife. So, at one of the stops, I saw a wild koala for the first time. I did take a photo, but my cellphone camera wasn't good enough to see more than a eucalyptus tree.😅 However, during lunch break, a pretty big cockatoo sat next to me and wanted some of my bread.

After the sunset, we drove back to Melbourne for 2 hours, and I was back at the hostel shortly after midnight. In summary, this was a truly special trip and worth the money!

On my last day in Melbourne, I went to Brighton Beach. It's a relatively small beach that is famous for its small, colorful bathing houses. Honestly, it was rather unspectacular, and with the sight of the large number of Asians taking selfies, it seemed more like a hotspot for taking new social media pictures. Nevertheless, here are two photos for completeness 😉

On December 23rd, in the morning, I left Melbourne and got on the train at 8:30 AM. At least that was the plan, but the punctuality of trains in Australia showed me how reliable the German Railways actually are... my train arrived at my starting station in Melbourne with a 1.5-hour delay, and then the 13.5-hour journey to Sydney began.

During the journey, I saw thousands of sheep and hundreds of kangaroos. Due to the bushfires, there was often so much smoke in the air that the visibility was only 400 meters. The small towns where the train, which was not faster than the subway in Hamburg, stopped, felt like they were stuck 30 years in the past. Despite a 2.5-hour delay, Jonas and Louis waited for me at the main train station in Sydney, and after a quick and hearty meal at McDonald's, we went to our Airbnb room in Annandale, which is practically located right in the flight path of the airport.

The next day was Christmas Eve, and we tried to get into the Christmas spirit. So, we played a Christmas playlist all day and cooked a high-class festive meal. We had fried potatoes with broccoli and chicken. Well, we picked up the chicken, but it was truly a culinary delight!

Right on time for gift giving, we set up our makeshift Christmas tree, and then we had our gift exchange. All in all, it was a successful day, even though the family was missed.

In the next blog, there will be pictures from the city, which we will explore in the next few days.

Until then, greetings from Sydney!

Your Max