FunConcertsFutureDownUnder...

Time flies when you're having fun eh?! Well i think that's definitely the case for me lately, not only am i busybusybusy with my job also i have been occupied with going to concerts, a bit of partying, a business trip to Melbourne & making plans for the future .

Future plans are very exciting, but mean i really have to put myself on a budget right now...i spend too much money on stupid things! Future plans are also something i don't want to write too much about yet, if you want to know i'll gladly tell you in person (or e-mail :P) but right now i feel like i'm jinxing my plan/dream if i scream it out too loud.

Concerts...yes lots of them Mêlée, Sneaky Sound System, Saybia, Maria Mena....they were all great! And my new addiction is to film some songs during each song, if you want to have a look just click on my youtube films on the left.

And so i have also been Down Under again, my boss asked me to participate in an Agent Training Week at the Monash University in Melbourne...well you don't say no to your boss in those cases do you?! ;) Will post links to the photos of that trip soon!

Here's just a couple of photos from concerts & the Melbourne trip to end this blog with....


Nighttime in Melbourne


Tine, Nicole & me with Melbourne behind us


With James (from Monash Uni) after the farewell dinner


With Emma on Saturday-Emmaday!


Sneaky Sound System at Paradiso Amsterdam, yes i was front row!


Binkie's still with me too...or is he?!


Saybia was wonderful!


And Maria Mena at Paradiso was magic, goose bumps all night!

sydney - hong kong - amsterdam - oslo

leaving australia after 3 months was strange, arriving in the madhouse that's called hong kong was even weirder especially since it was one hot & steamy madhouse, coming home a few days later was actually not that weird at all...what made it madness was that i hardly had 3 days before i was off again, this time to norway with 38 guests following me.

my jetlag was still there, my cold was horrible and my ankles were still swollen...but i had a great week, thanks to a nice & funny driver, a great group and weather that cleared every day!

now i'm home, for 4 days until i'm off to the north again. next week i'll only have 15 guests (what?!) & we'll start in stockholm, yay!




from hong kong to the fjords within a week: different countries, different scenery!

let's see if i can do this...

even if blogger is in japanese today!

blogging from my hostel in central sydney @ the moment. left byron bay last monday night, after a 13 hour bus trip i arrived back in sydney, to directly take another bus out of the city again...to wollongong! normally you take a train by the way, but because it's schoolholidays they decided to work on the traintracks.
in holland this would cause TROUBLE for those wanting to get somewhere after all, in australia they hire a bunch of pensioners as volonteers who put signs everywhere around the station and make sure nobody misses out on knowing where the busses to wollongong and thirroul are leaving from...and those busses are also really there, and leaving as regularly as the trains would, you can see i was impressed!

anyway, in wollongong i stayed @ the fabulous hostel 'the gedges' again until friday. even though emma & hubby brett had some sleepless nights because 2 out of 3 kids were sick i never slept better, finally a room for myself after over a month in cramed, smelly & noisy rooms on the east coast.
my last night we were invited over for dinner at brett parents, which was really nice. they made me try yelly...wasn't as bad a i thought haha!
i'd showed off some of my dutch cuisine cooking the night before by the way, made pancakes with bacon & maple syrup ;) the kids loved it!
and to make my OZ-experience complete i had toast with vegemite on my last morning...which was actually ok too! :O

so friday i said goodbye to emma, :( then took the bus back into sydney and moved into this hostel on kent street for a couple of nights, kate's coming back from her holiday tomorrow night so i will spend my last couple of days in OZ over @ her place again.
this weekend i've most of all been relaxing while wandering around town, found out i still know my way around the city which is good. didn't do much special apart from sight-seeing & window-shopping. up until today the weather was pretty good, but today it was just pouring with rain, if it's like that again tomorrow it'll be a museum day, if not i'm thinking of finally talking a walk over the harbour bridge.



i'm not sure if i'll be blogging again before i head off to hong kong this friday, the 13th haha, hopefully i'll be able to blog from there next weekend though! will be landing back in little NL on tuesday morning 6:45 (am that is!)....to leave again 3 days later! only to norway this time thought...hard life as a travelguide eh? ;)

byron bay

for the past 2 days i've been here in byron bay. it's a bit of a hippie-town, quite alternative and really laid back, love it! my hostel is even more alternative than alternative, called the arts factory. all in all it's a really nice place, and it's been really nice & sunny too the past days (but still only 20 degrees), the nigts are FREEZING though!

went on a whale watching tour this morning, really cool and apart from whales we saw some dolphins as well. wasn't able to get anything on camera though as everytime you see a whale (and it was from like 100m distance, your're not allowed to come closer unless they come to you) they disappear...fast! plus the boat was pretty bouncy :P
went for a walk up to cape byron's lighthouse (australia's most eastern point) this afternoon, and from there i saw some dolphins & whales again, this time i was able to get at least something on camera...

tonight i'm taking the nightbus back to sydney, (almost 13 hours!), staying with emma in wollongong for the next few days! :D

me on whale watching boat this morning

































cape byron lighthouse

dolphins!

that water splashing down in the middle was a whale, yes i'm positive!

brisbane & surfer's paradise

after my last blog from noosa (& some rainy days there) i went to brisbane last week. spent 2 days there & have to say it was great being in a big city again!
even if brisbane is australia's 3rd largest city i don't think it's australia's 3rd nicest one though. did a fair bit of sight-seeing though and finally went to a museum again!

after brizzy it was time for the gold coast, or australia's benidorm as some people call it. went to surfers paradise there for 1 day & night, let's just say the hostel was really nice & i had a nice time going out at night with some people there, other than that i didn't like it that much.

brisbane seen from the rooftop of my hostel














me & brisbane skyline














surfer's paradise, pay special attention to the parking ladies in gold bikinis

crikey!

yup, i went to steve irwin's australia zoo yesterday!

it was very much steve irwin (& family, that bindi girl is annoying the hell out of me), as my friend sharon said 'it's all just a big temple for steve!'...the croc show was quite a disappointment, luckily we saw a tiger show that made up for it.
other than that we just saw lots of steve memorabilia in the shop & all around the zoo, some cute parrots, kangaroos & koala's (plus lots of other animals, but don't want to bore everyone too much with animal photos) and i fed an elephant. on the way back to noosa in our free australia zoo shuttle bus i couldn't be bothered to watch any more steve irwin video's on the tv and had a nap instead ;)

fraser island

last week i did my last tour here in australia, a 3 day 4wheel drive safari on fraser island!

we all met in our hostel in hervey bay the night before departure, where we had a briefing and saw some video's to prepare & warn us, for dingo's amongst other things.
the next morning we left the hostel at 7 am, to go to the camp & car hire thing, where we got our car and all our camping gear. from the hostel we got huskies with our food & we bought some beer & goon there as well, which prooved to be very much needed!

here's the 3 days in photos:

day 1 wednesday june 20th
these signs were everywhere!


me always enjoying nature, same in this rainforest


with sharon @ lake basin


we camped in the wild, next to the beach, and this hole that everybody's standing around was a very important part of our camp (yes, our toilet!)


late afternoon walk to lake wabby


@ lake wabby, from left to right: yanice (germany), lorainne & ross (ireland), sarah (germany), sharon (israel), zilo (denmark/sweden) & me


dinner in the rrrrrrrrrrrain!


drinking the night away in one of our tents, quite steamy (on the left is matt from france by the way)


and funny!


day 2 thursday june 21st
our 4wd on the beach


at the maheno shipwreck with all the girls


dingo!


view from indian head (our car is somewhere down there as well)


me @ indian head (where we did see some whales, but too far away to see it properly)

putting up our camp for the 2nd night


sunset, things finally looked a bit better for the last day (you know what they say about a red sky @ night)


day 3 friday june 22nd
sun at last! putting everything back on the car


group photo! (doing our dingo danger movement


enjoying our last hours in the back of the 4wd


visiting the shipwreck again, this time with a blue sky, yaay!


me @ lake mckenzie


sharon & me swimming @ lake mckenzie, it was bloody cold!


photo of our lovely group at the lake


waiting for the barge to bring us back to civilization


while doing that we decided to finish our drinks!


group photo back @ the car/camp hire place


lorraine & ross enjoying themselves

zilo & sarah, this is what happens when you spend 3 cold & wet days on an island


we were all a bit mad during our last night @ the pizza hut, this is yanice & me by the way


yanice, me & sharon trying to act normal