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!

canberra, wollongong, foottie, bondi market, taronga zoo & manly beach

just very quickly, these are 'some' pictures from this last week. tomorrow i'm leaving sydney and the sherwood family :(
going to wollongong for some days before i head down to melbourne in the weekend!

1 to 7 canberra, thursday april 26: parliament, war memorial & biking around the lake
8 to 10 wollongong, friday april 27: with emma & litle ruby @ mount keira & the harbour
11 & 12 foottie game, saturday april 28: sydney swans against melbourne, the swans won...big time!
13 bondi market, sunday april 29
14 to 25 taronga zoo, monday april 30, fill in which animals you see yourself!
26 manly beach, tuesday may 1: @ manly 30 min by ferry from sydney city

blue mountains

kate & i went to the blue mountains (about 1 1/2 hours west of sydney) today to see the 2 sisters in katoomba, it was foggy! and rainy...we were just about to just give up and go back home when it got much better, yay!

so down here's the pictures and descriptions again. tomorrow i'm paying a visit to australia's capital......canberra! and on friday it woolly wollongong time, seeing emma again and meeting the kids! :)

1. at the look out point with the 3 sister supposedly behind me
2. great staircase down to the 1st of the 3 sisters
3. some cuddling with a big koala to cheer me up
4. the fog is...clearing!
5. katoomba (main)street
6. a hot strawberry to warm up
7. the 3 sisters came out of the fog, yaay!
8. more 3 sisters
9. the left sister with the great staircase-thingy
10. kate, me & the 3 sisters
11. 3 sisters & me
12. other sight of blue mountains (to the right of 3 sisters)
13. on our way back into sydney, in a suburb called drummoyne to be exact, kate showed me this street! :D

more pictures...from this weekend

again i can't really write much when posting this, but i'm still having a great time down here! as you could see on the pictures of my last post i arrived safely in sydney on tuesday night, was warmly welcomed by kate & her family and have been exploring the city during the next few days.
on thursday i met up with my ex-colleague eva who's here visiting her friend magda right now. we strolled around china town for most of the afternoon, having a really good time! as the night before i met up with kate after she was done at work, this night we had ice cream at darling harbour, *mjammy*

then the pictures below, they're from friday - today! friday i met up with my ozzie-friends emma & shannyn which was really really great. friday night kate & i left for the family's caravan about 3 hours north from sydney at hawk's nest, port stephens. we've been there until this morning, took my first swim in the pacific yesterday and we hoped to be able to go for another swim this morning but unfortunately the australian weathergod didn't agree... :(

anyway, here's what you see on the second round of pictures:
1. meeting up with emma & shannyn (friday april 20th)
2. emma & me
3. me @ hawk's nest beach, you can see yacaaba behind me (saturday april 21st)
4. me & ferry @ tea gardens
5. the boomerang @ tea gardens
6. on the beach, getting reading for yacaaba
7. with kate on the beach
8. still on the beach
9. our little mermaid pic on the beach @ bottom of yacaaba
10. we took little wee with us to have some pictures during our climb as well
11. nice!
12. almost halfway up to yacaaba we met a sweaty guy who was willing to take a pic of us & the view (though he didn't think it would come out!)
13. zoomed in view from yacaaba, the bridge with hawk's nest on the left side & tea gardens on the right side
14. higher up on yacaaba we watched the sunset for a bit
15. this was as high up as we could to be able to make it down before it would be dark, very tired!
16. relaxing back at the caravan
17. we went out for dinner @ tea gardens, a scone of fish 'n chips
18. me & my scone, it was gooooooood (fresh fish!)
19. kate locking the caravan before we go (sunday april 22nd)