My Australia Experience - Review And Closing Words

Hey folks!

I've got some good news for you: After publishing 39 articles on the greatest adventure of my life in German, I decided to write my first ever blog entry in English. Originally, this blog was mainly intended for my friends and family in Germany to keep them up to date on my experiences abroad. So some of you may ask themselves now: How come I'm writing an entry in English now? The answer is easy: During my 40 day trip from Melbourne to Cairns, I met so many lovely people from all over the world that, in my opinion, it would be simply inappropriate not to dedicate an article to them which they can actually understand. Oh, and besides, I really like writing. A lot of people already know that, at least those who play in my football club SG OASF/Barweiler or support it since they had to read my long match reports in the local newspaper - and on our Facebook homepage - at least 27 times a year from 2012 to 2016 😉 By the way: Don't worry, my dear Kiwi friends, I will definitely write an entry in English on my time in New Zealand after leaving this country in late August/early September 😊 Anyway, after spending six months in a row in beautiful New Zealand I decided to explore a new country by going on a trip along the world famous East Coast of Australia. These 40 days were filled with many wonderful and exciting experiences and adventures that I would like to sum up in the following review.

MELBOURNE (for pictures, see the entry 'Melbourne - meine Premiere auf australischem Boden')

It all started at an airport. Melbourne International Airport, to be more precise. I arrived very late in the evening, so I had the pleasure of staying at the airport all night long. Yay, what a great experience 😉Never mind though, in the early morning, I went to my hostel, started exploring the city, joined a free guided tour, and went to my first ever Aussie football game in the MCG, the colosseum of Oceania. It was such a wonderful experience, with 60.000 enthusiastic spectators creating an incredible atmosphere. I have been to several football games in Germany, I have been to an NHL game in Canada, I have even watched the All Blacks, the New Zealand national rugby team, at Eden Park which was sold out that day. But the atmosphere at the MCG was the best I've ever experienced. It even made me forget I had been awake for some 40 hours. During the next two days, I really fell in love with Melbourne. Such a beautiful and vibrant city with a lot of green areas and beaches, one of them even being decorated with colorful boxes. Nice! Otherwise, especially the view from Eureka Skydeck was magnificent 😊 I would have loved to stay longer. But my next stop was already waiting: Sydney!

SYDNEY (for pictures, see the entry 'Sydney – Die nächste Großstadt')

But first, there was another night to be spent at the airport. Woohoo 😆 After arriving at the hostel, my first destination was Bondi Beach. The beach itself was good, but the coastal walkway starting there was simply amazing. During the next days, I – what a surprise – got to see the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge which were really impressive, as well as some other good spots, and made a trip to a must see attraction, the Blue Mountains. What a fantastic place 😊 But only if it's sunny 😜 I made the brilliant experience of sitting at the tourist info for 3 hours, waiting for the big grey bank of fog in front of me to disappear...but it didn't disappear 😔 I hadn't seen everything before the weather was getting that bad, so I guess I'll need to go there for a second time 😉 However, I'm really glad I'm coming to Sydney again soon. There's still so much to see and do and besides, I'm sure I'll have one of the best birthdays of my life there on 3rd September (it's 95% sure that I'm my in Sydney for my birthday) 😊

BYRON BAY (for pictures, see the entry 'Byron Bay – schöne Zeit im tiefsten Osten')

My first overnight bus ride in Australia was very hard at the beginning. A baby crying non-stop for like 90 minutes – what a great start. Thank God the family left at the first stop. Byron Bay was great, I got to see the lighthouse and also saw the sunset from there, went to the beach, stayed at a great hostel and went kayaking with dolphins. What a wonderful adventure. A dream came true for me, I had never seen wild dolphins before. In addition, I had a lot of fun with my group. In the evenings, I spent my time with great company. Julia and Leonie, two lovely girls from Germany that I hadn't seen for five months joined me on my first day – for now, they're still the only ones I've come across in both New Zealand and Australia. Otherwise, I met a girl called Anna at the hostel who was later dancing on the beach with twinkling headphones on – that's what you call a silent disco – Jeremy, a guy who almost got killed in the outback, and an elder man called Wayne who lives in a van. Very interesting encounters, it was great to meet you 😊

SURFERS PARADISE (for pictures, see the entry 'Strand, einheimische Tierwelt und AFC Champions League')

Every trip has its disappointments, and in my opinion, the Gold Coast was one of them. I'm sure it can be brilliant – but only if you actually want to spend a lot of money. Otherwise, this place doesn't offer any activities for free apart from going to the beach. At least I found some nice people to spend my time with at the hostel, e.g. playing jenga or just talking, but I could easily have skipped this place without any regrets.

BRISBANE (for pictures, see the entry 'Strand, einheimische Tierwelt und AFC Champions League')

My third city in Australia was waiting to be explored, and I really enjoyed it. Walking along the river and seeing some nice buildings like a pagoda or an artificial beach was really interesting, and I had a lot of fun during the Peterpans party in the evening, especially with Calvin and Tina from Germany. The highlight of my stay in Brisbane was the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary though. I got to hold a koala for the very first time, came extremely close to kangaroos, fed lorikeet birds and saw several more Australian animals. And, last but not least, I saw my first Champions League game! Okay, it wasn't UEFA but AFC Champions League and there were only 5.567 people in the stadium instead of 55.670 who may have been there if the game had been in Europe, but who cares?! It was a Champions League game. And Brisbane even won.

NOOSA (for pictures, see the entry 'Eine nervige Krankheit und ein großes Abenteuer')

I came to the next destination with great expectations, but my body just didn't cooperate. I had to leave a party incredibly early because I was feeling sick, slept for no more than 3 hours the following night and then just threw up in the morning. No everglades canoe tour, no stand-up paddling, just a walk along the cliffs and to the lagoon. Doing more than that would have been simply irresponsible, given my physical condition. What a pity 😔 And the second night was actually a copy of the first. Good prospects for Fraser Island 😔

RAINBOW BEACH/FRASER ISLAND (for pictures, see the entry 'Eine nervige Krankheit und ein großes Abenteuer')

Luckily, I began to feel better just in time. After spending most of the day on the beach, everyone going to Fraser Island had to go to a safety briefing during which I got to meet my seven car mates for the next three days. Five Scots (Claire, Ellen, Emma, Kimberley and Samantha), two French (Lionel and Mickael) and me – car 5 turned out to be a good combination. Fraser Island was such an amazing adventure. Not only did we see several beautiful scenic sights, but we also spent the nights together in the middle of a sand island. We cooked together, played together, drank together – in short, we had a lot fun together 😊 And a lot of goon. I had heard quite a lot of horror stories about that drink before and after two nights, I knew why goon is such an infamous drink. I mean, I had never slept on a beach before, I actually never snore, but that's what I did after drinking 'a bit' too much during a card game with car 7. And yes, I know that Nate Ruess had something different in mind when he was writing the lyrics of 'We Are Young', but the quote 'so will someone come and carry me home tonight?' perfectly matched my situation. And I was really lucky 'cause I found someone to carry me home tonight' - Caite, Kathryn and Niamh, some lovely girls who are, just like their friend Karen, definitely among my best Aussie friends (they're Irish but I met them in Australia) 😊 Thank you for carrying me home and finding my phone charger 😙 I was actually shocked when I was told that story the next morning – I couldn't remember anything! Oh, and my apologies to my car mates for torturing you with an abysmal driving performance in the first morning. I'm usually not that bad at driving and I'm glad you forgave me. In fact, I really enjoyed the time we spent in the car and in the camp together. It was a lot of fun and we were a great group 😊 Anyway, after the trip, we returned to Rainbow Beach and after spending the evening together with car 7, it literally felt like I had been a member of two cars during the three days. My time in Rainbow Beach wasn't finished yet though and for the next day, I had planned to go sandboarding. But then something happened that really upset me. It started raining, the trip was cancelled. Two of my friends would have come with me, I loved sandboarding when I did in New Zealand – we would have had a blast. That was really, REALLY annoying. I had been looking forward to that for hours. Besides, all my friends left Rainbow Beach in the evening at the latest (some had already left in the morning) which had anything but a good effect on my mood. Never mind though, at least I managed to take a walk to the sand blow the next day but didn't get the chance to go sandboarding because I had to get the next bus.

AGNES WATER/1770 (for pictures, see the entry 'Ein schönes Niemandsland und ein freudiges Wiedersehen')

At midnight, I was dropped off literally in the middle of nowhere. A shuttle picked me up then and after driving some 20 km, I arrived at my hostel in Agnes Water which is just a bit bigger than Rainbow Beach. The landscape was quite nice there and my hostel had a beautiful garden, but without a car, it was really difficult to get around. It actually reminded me of my home town in Germany which has a population of 145-150. So what can you do in such a quiet area? Take a walk and enjoy the nature, of course. I walked to 1770, saw some beaches and forests and watched a really nice sunset. Additionally, I booked an incredibly cheap surf lesson. 17$ for 3 hours, I think that price is really hard to beat. Unfortunately, I'm apparently not a gifted surfer at all. I managed to get to the beach in the standing position exactly once – yay 😉 But at least it was fun. In the late evening, I took the shuttle again to get to what is certainly one of the remotest bus stops in the world.

AIRLIE BEACH – PART 1 (for pictures, see the entry 'Ein schönes Niemandsland und ein freudiges Wiedersehen')

A long night on the bus was waiting for me, but luckily, I was able to sleep most of the time. And then, after arriving in Airlie, I suddenly remembered that my friends from Ireland might still be there. So I texted Karen and...yes! They were on their way back from the Whitsundays. Perfect! I actually hadn't been expecting to see them again on my way up to Cairns, so that was a very good start into my first day in Airlie. After I had been exploring the small town during daytime, we eventually met at a party in the evening. It felt so great to see them again. And I actually met a couple of other nice people at the party. Most of them had apparently been in the Whitsundays together. Samuel and Svea had been on the same Fraser Island tour as me as well. I think it was quite good that my boat whose departure was scheduled for the next day had a much smaller capacity because I actually prefer smaller groups. Anyway, unfortunately, the party was shut down at midnight since the next day was a public holiday. So we all had to go to bed. When we were saying good night to each other, one of my friends tried to teach me how to give a perfect hug 😂 I promise I will do my very, very, very best not to disappoint you the next time we meet 😉 The next morning, I met my friends again at a restaurant to spend some time together before saying goodbye for the last time (for now). Caite, Karen, Kathryn and Niamh, see you in Sydney! It was such a pity that I didn't get to spend more time with them. When I left them, I did feel sad because I REALLY like them but was also looking forward to my sailing trip to the Whitsundays.

WHITSUNDAYS (for pictures, see the entry 'Wings Whitsundays Sailing Trip')

After Fraser Island, my second big adventure was just about to start. After I had met three English girls at the harbour, Leigh, Faye and Evie who were in fact really nice throughout the entire trip, we figured out that we were actually at the wrong place, so we had to move to another quay. After around 15 minutes, everyone had found their way to the meeting point and it didn't take a long time until the boat started. We were 31 people – still quite a lot but better than 55 – and it was really tight on the boat, especially in the dorms. But I got along with my roommates Ben, Leigh and Lisa very well and we didn't spend much time in the dorms anyway, so that was allright. I also really enjoyed the company of people like Dor, Shira, Fabian, Jessica, Ashley, Jenny, Laurie, Daphne or Iris. During the first hours, we just spent our time lying on the deck and having some snacks before we went snorkelling for the first time. As a consequence of a cyclone, the view under water wasn't that good but still good enough to see various fish and corals. And then I got to see the best sunset of my life. It was simply amazing and even felt kind of surreal. Breathtaking 😍 After that, we had dinner (the meals were exceptional!) and then enjoyed the impressive starry sky while talking about travel experiences and things like that. Day two started with a trip to Whitehaven Beach which was fantastic. The weather was so clear and we had a blast taking some funny pictures and playing beach soccer together. I probably made the best sideways scissors-kick of my life that day 😉 Later, we went snorkelling again and saw some turtles! What impressive and beautiful animals 😍 When it started getting dark, we saw another great sunset, had an incredible dinner, and played a fun swimming noodle game together. I ended up throwing it across the boat like a javelin 😂 After the experiences I had made with goon on Fraser Island, I was much more careful with that drink this time. I hadn't brought any alcohol onto the boat but that was allright since at least 10 others hadn't brought any as well. But no one got really drunk during these days anyway. On the last day, we just went snorkelling again but didn't see anything.

AIRLIE BEACH – PART 2 (for pictures, see the entry 'Wings Whitsundays Sailing Trip')

We arrived in Airlie in the early afternoon and were all invited to join a party with free drinks in the evening. The party was a lot of fun. There was karaoke singing in our bar and some of our group went up to the stage. I didn't 😉 When there wasn't any karaoke anymore, we decided to change the location and went to a crowded pub. The music was good and we had a great time there. In the next morning, nearly everyone of my group left Airlie, but I had to stay another night. I don't know why Peterpans thinks that it's a good thing to spend so much time at that place, but never mind. I took a long walk along the coast and saw a nice sunset, so I think I made the best of my last day.

MAGNETIC ISLAND (for pictures, see the entry 'Magnetic Island – Magnet For Wildlife And Nature)

My next stop was an island next to Townsville. After being dropped off by the bus there, I immediately jumped onto the ferry. It was already getting dark when I arrived at my hostel, so I didn't do that much on my first evening. I met Lisa again though who had been on the sailing trip with me, and Conner who had been part of my Fraser Island group. On my only full day on the island, I rent a bike and went to as many spots as possible. It was a really great day. I saw rock wallabies, parrots, and koalas – amazing! And, of course, the beaches and forests were worth visiting as well. There are quite a few mountains on the island so that I felt really tired when I arrived at the hostel in the evening after riding 40-50 km. I met Lisa there again and joined her and a Swedish girl. It was a good evening and we had some fun watching a competition between some really brave guys who tried to eat a bucket of extremely spicy chicken wings. That food must have been really hot. On the next day, I was on the ferry and on the bus with Lisa again but then unfortunately had to leave her because my next stop was waiting for me while she was directly going to Cairns. But we will see each other again in the future so it was just a farewell for now, not forever.

MISSION BEACH (for pictures, see the entry 'Mission Beach – A Secret Paradise')

I have to admit that I had been rather sceptical about my second last destination before I went there. Most people skip Mission Beach and directly go to Cairns. But now that I've been there, I can say that the only thing you can do wrong about Mission Beach is not to go there. I enjoyed my stay from the first to the last minute. My activities involved eating out with the hostel staff, partying at the hostel bar, playing beer pong with Bella (we lost 😔) going to a waterfall with Jessie, Callum, Frida and Mitch who all work at the hostel, and spending a lot of time with Elisa from Italy. We did literally everything together during my time there. We went to a rainforest, to the hostel pool and to the beach and went running for an hour in the evening. Thank you for spending so much time with me, it was wonderful 😊 Even though you showed me that it will take me a long time to get back to the days when I could easily run 10 km in 40-45 minutes. I've been too lazy during the last few months 😜 It would be amazing if you could manage to be in Sydney at the same time as me. Besides, I got to see Sophia again, but only for a minute or so, unfortunately. She had been on Fraser Island with me and was waiting for her skydive. I had already done a skydive in New Zealand, otherwise Mission Beach would most likely have been my first choice in Australia as well. And I saw a snake at the hostel. It was a bit scary because no one could tell if it was poisonous or not, so we waited for a while until it had gone somewhere else. Just to be safe. Mission Beach is definitely underestimated. It's really remote and calm there, but I actually like that since I grew up in a very small village. And the nature is simply beautiful. Mission Beach really felt like paradise to me and it felt sad to leave this place and all the people I had met there behind.

CAIRNS (for pictures, see the entry 'Cairns – My Final Destination')

Three days were left and I still had some activities on my bucket list. The most important one was scuba diving and I did that on my first full day in Cairns. It was just amazing. We went some 20 meters down to the ground of the sea and saw so many different fish, including Nemo, of course, and also a turtle with only three fins. The view was super clear and it was absolutely stunning. I also went snorkelling during that trip and went on a cruise in a glass bottom boat. On the way back, I got sea sick and threw up, but so what?! I had seen the Great Barrier Reef 😍 Against all reason, I went to a barbecue and a party the same day instead of recovering in bed. And it was a good decision. I met Sara and Charlotte from England and Anna, Eila and Lisa from Norway. We had a lot of fun together. The barbecue was good as well and the food actually stayed in my stomach. I also had some goon and really enjoyed the company of these nice girls. In addition, I added Oslo as a future travel destination. I would certainly have liked to spend more time with them than only this one evening, but that was simply impossible. On the second last day, I went on a day trip with my Chinese roommate Annie. We saw a beach, some kangaroos and cockatoos and the botanical gardens. I also had my very first crocodile burger in the evening. The next day, I made a tour to Mossman Gorge, Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation. These places were absolutely worth visiting. My personal highlight of the day were the crocodiles we saw during a river cruise. Unfortunately, I didn't get to see the Millaa Millaa Falls which was certainly annoying, but that's life.

CLOSING WORDS

All in all, the only thing I can do is to thank everyone I met during my trip. I met wonderful people, made new friends and did things I had never done before. Australia is a beautiful country with unique nature and wildlife but it certainly wouldn't have been such a special and fantastic experience without you! And now that I actually stopped traveling – yeah well, I'm still in New Zealand so technically, I'm still traveling but I'm living a 'normal' and unspectacular life right now – I actually have to think of a quote quite often. It's from the Passenger song 'Let Her Go' and it says: 'you only know you love her when you let her go'. Well, obviously that only applies to one person and goes beyond friendship, but if you change the quote to: 'you only know you like them when you let them go', that sounds like a very wise statement to me. My situation is that as long as I made new experiences, saw new places and met new travelers literally every day, I actually didn't even have the time to be sad about having to say goodbye to new friends. But now that several weeks have passed by, I actually feel that something is different now compared to my trip. And by 'something', I mean that people I got to know and enjoyed spending time with just aren't there anymore. And now that I realize that they aren't there anymore, I actually realize how much I miss them because I really like them and, as a logical consequence of that, they mean a lot to me. And that's why I think the quote is pretty suitable. In a nutshell, you could actually summarize everything in one sentence: 'You don't know what you have until it's gone.' I had the same feeling after my bus trips around New Zealand had ended, by the way. Especially the one in the South Island during Christmas and New Year's Eve. Don't get me wrong though – I'm not depressed or something like that. I'm still enjoying my life which is not a surprise since New Zealand is probably the most beautiful country in the world and of course, there are nice people around as well. It's just totally different now 😊

All in all, it was a pleasure to meet every single one of you and I will never forget you as a part of my 40 day trip along the East Coast. Or, as Zara Larsson would probably say: I enjoyed being part of your symphony 😙

Cheers,

Max

PS: If you ever feel like going to a tiny German village with less than 150 inhabitants and without any shops, pubs, public transport or whatever, but located in the center of the Eifel which is certainly one of the most beautiful landscapes all over Germany with volcanoes, forests, grasslands, lakes, waterfalls and lots of hiking trails, you're more than welcome to visit me and stay at my house in Pomster 😊