The first week

Sunday, 17.07.

My alarm went off at 5:00 am because, of course, I was running late again. So I gathered all the necessary things and filled my backpack with clothes, shoes, etc. The backpack kept getting fuller and fuller until I realized it was definitely too small! What now? Exactly, that's why you have siblings who have friends and who do everything to make sure I leave on time. So Sandra drove to Winterstettenstadt and woke up Meike and Matze - again, sorry and THANKS for that!

After unpacking everything, I had to say goodbye to Betzili and Sändi...

Then at 7:30 am, the car drove to the airport. We arrived at the airport around 10:00 am. With a heavy heart, I had to say goodbye to Mom and Dad, although Dad would have loved to come along and play the luggage carrier ;-)

My flight departed at 12:30 pm and I landed in Abu Dhabi at 8:50 pm. Then it continued at 9:50 pm. Now comes the terrible 14-hour flight and as always, I started feeling sick. But I survived and landed in Brisbane at 7 pm, as I was picked up by the free pick-up service provided by the university. That was really great. Unfortunately, I couldn't take a picture of the sign with my name on it (@Catha ;-)). Two other guys from Germany also arrived with me, who were also studying at the university and were also taken by the pick-up driver... So I had a bit of home and Germans around me right after arrival ;-). It was also reassuring that the guys had no idea how the next few days would go *hehe*. From the university, we went straight to the Orientation Week the next morning, where we took a trip to Byron Bay and met many people (including many Germans)..

After arriving at the hostel at 9 pm and staying awake until 10:30 pm, I still woke up wide awake at 4 am. I fell asleep again at 5 am and my alarm went off again at 6 am.

I got dressed and went in search of a supermarket because I hadn't eaten anything since Saturday evening in Germany. Luckily, there was one right on the street next to the hostel. Well, I already knew that Australia is expensive, but I didn't think it was that expensive. So my first shopping trip was worth 38 Australian dollars (about 26 €).

Here are pictures of the hostel

After breakfast, I went to the train that took me to the meeting point for the excursion at 9:00 am. In the tram, I met a Swiss guy (Lino). There were a total of 3 buses full of international students. The first stop was at Currumbin Wildlife Park, where we immediately saw koalas.

In the park, we saw all sorts of animals, but the most important ones were of course the koalas and the kangaroos ;-)

At 12:30 pm, we continued by bus to our hostel, where we spent 2 nights and dropped off our things. After that, we went straight to hiking. We walked right along the waterfront. Upstairs, downstairs, upstairs, that's how it continued without a break. Our fitness was tested...

But this amazing view made us forget about the effort again ;-)

We then continued to the lighthouse, where there were more beautiful views and the dolphins were swimming very close to the cliffs.

After surfing, we walked around the city a bit and bought an Australian SIM card. So now I can be reached anytime, even without WiFi.

To all those I haven't sent my number to yet:

After picking up my student ID card, I went back to Nici and Caro. We did some uni stuff and decided to have a chill evening again, but this time writing a travel blog instead of watching TV ;-)

I wanted to say thank you to Julia, Caro, Meike, Sabi, and Jenny for the wonderful gift, I'm happy every day when I can hold your bag and take out a new note. That's how the day always starts completely differently :-)

Thanks also to everyone who wrote the notes. You guys are amazing!

Here are my notes from this week:

@Caro, as I said: I'll come back to your offer ;-)

@Ramona, I think it was you, thank you for writing a note for Grandpa for me too :-)

I've decided to write one blog post per week, so I'll let you hear from me again sometime next week. :-)