Visiting Friends - In der Welt zu Gast bei Freunden: May 2012

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

vivid 2012–Sydney’s Lightshow

24 – 30 May 2012

Once a year, for a couple of days, the coloured lights go on when the sun set behind the Harbour Bridge and the vivid festival starts. The Opera House becomes a screen for German artists and the skyline gets coloured with a lot of spotlights and sculptures. What a great event – for free! Even with my small camera I took some nice pictures. Get ready for an awesome lightshow – just brought to Sydney for me, I guess.

vivid 2012

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Additionally we enjoyed Sydney’s nightlife, went to the zoo and had a great time in one of my favourite cities around the world.

Last but not least I bought a Queensland Explorer Pass, a train travel pass which allows me to travel around Queensland for 3 month as much as I want. However, the friendly man at the travel agency wouldn’t recommend me the pass and the guy at the train station never booked any train with this pass. Finally I got a train ticket for Sunday, 31 hours from Brisbane to Cairns. Yes thirty-one hours, believe it or not. One train, one trip, one new experience. But now I have to catch my flight to Byron Bay first. 20 minutes to boarding.

Thanks to Brigit for those great days in Sydney!

Next stop Queensland…

PS: Malton, my travelmate from New Zealand, sold our van for a quite good price. What means, that New Zealand was not that expensive and the decision to buy a van was good. I trusted Malton and gave him the van and he sold it for us! Could it be better! Greetings to Malton in NZ and have a great trip bro!

Thursday, May 24, 2012

Falling in Love with Sydney

20 May 2012 – Hallo Sydney

A short 3 hours flight later, I arrived from Christchurch in Sydney, where Brigid, a friend of mine who I studied with in Dublin, picked me up at the airport. She gave a warm welcome to me and we drove to her nice flat close to the city centre.

21 May 2012 – The Opera House

Sydney is known for its beautiful Opera House, therefore, Brigid and I went there firstly and had a coffee. What a beautiful building – more art than architecture! The whole city is like a museum, whether the Harbour Bridge or the Harbour, everything is just amazing and I was overwhelmed while walking through it. In the evening, I went to the “classical viewpoint” to enjoy the sunset.

But if you have a closer look the snow white opera is a bit dirty. Nevertheless, the most beautiful building so far.

22 May 2012 – CeBIT for free and kenguru for dinner

Since Brigid had classes today I planned the day by my own. I checked the events in Sydney and saw that there is the CeBIT Australia currently hosted in Sydney. By googleing the ticket prices I found a promotional code for free tickets, tried it, got a free ticket and went there. At the event centre I also got (took) free coffee at a graduation ceremony but felt a bit like an impostor.

Brigid’s flatmate Claire made kenguru for dinner - real Australian food, delicious taste. Afterwards I was jumping around the whole night. Did you know that kengurus are nor rare in Australia? They are a plague, Brigid told me.