We´re a little behind on the blog now ....things are happening fast. Since Vanuatu, we´ve been to Australia again
and have had a week in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and today we arrived in Uruguay,
but since we like to update one country at a time, we´ll write about Argentina and Uruguay later...
After leaving Vanuatu, we flew to Sydney again. Our original plan was to fly to Brisbane and drive to Sydney, but due to the
massive floodings in Brisbane, the plan was cancelled, and we rebooked our tickets and flew directly back to Sydney again.
Once back in Sydney, we found accomodation in Parramatta, about 13km from city centre. We rented a car and decided to drive
around a little anyway, now that we´d missed out on the coastal drive we´d planned. We had five days around Sydney,
and wanted to see something else than the city. Second day in town, we did a day trip to the well known Taronga zoo,
checking out the koalas, kangaroos, tasmanian devils and other to us exotic creatures. It was a nice relaxing day
and the kids loved it. They both got to choose one animal to write a piece about. Leon went with the cute koalas,
and Sofie chose a.....platypus. Never heard of a platupus? Don´t worry - I won´t judge you - cause neither had I.
We´ll it looks like this:
And if you´re dying to find out more, you´ll have to read Sofies blog :-)(when she´s done with her Australia blog, that is :-) )
The day after we decided on a drive to the blue mountains, about 1,5 hour drive away. Patrick had been there before,
and had to be pursuaided to go again, since he didn´t think it was that grand the first time. But we went, and I thaught
it was well worth the drive. We spent a nice day enjoying the mountains from several angles, lookout points,
cable-car ride over the mountains, a walk down in the forrest and a drive up the mountain roads.
Later we stopped at the nearby small town for lunch, and had a stroll down the street.
We bumped into a charming little hotel yard filled with old cars and people all dressed up in 50´s-style.
It was some kind of an annual celebration in town - we never really found out what it was about, but we spent a nice
couple of hours crashing the party, looking at the cars, hearing the band play and wathing people dance.
Had a drink and an ice-cream before we headed back home.One of the last days we decided to drive to Canberra - the capitol of
Australia. It was a three-hour drive, and unfortunatly the drive was a bit boring since it´s all highway. We made a few
stops and a few off-route outings to make it a bit more interesting. And yes - the nature in Australia is grand, and there´s
lot´s of it, even in between and close to big cities. In Canberra we took a walk around city centre, stopped for lunch and
drove by the WW2 memorial buildings, but since it was sunday - everything was closed and the city seemed pretty much abandonned.
There´s really not much else to tell of this second stay in Australia. It wasn´t what we planned, but then we got to see
somethings we wouldn´t have if we´d flown to Brisbane.
Patrick and the kids like Australia a lot. Patrick´s been here before, and I suspect the kids partly like it because it´s
so western-like that it reminds them of home, and therefore seems safe and well-known.
Most people I know have either visited Australia and loved it, or never visited but really wanting to. I don´t really know why,
but I´ve never really felt the urge of visiting Australia - it´s never ranked very high on my "to see - list".
But I´m glad I did, and although I realize I´ve only just scratched the surface of this gigantic country, I´m in no hurry to
come back.There are still other places that I´d rather explore.
As mentioned, we are now in Uruguay, South america. I´ll blog about it in some days.
Some travellers facts from the way :
Until now, we´ve managed:
- one broken laptop
- three (!) broken mobile phones
- some ruined clothing (a minor washing machine misfortune ....)
- a stolen backpack (in Argentina...Patrick will write about it later...)
- a lost (or stolen - we don´t know) wallet
+ some other minor stuff...
all in all, everything has gone suprisingly smooth up til now. We´ve had no major illnesses, no travellers stomachs, all our luggage has
made it through so many flights to the right destinations, we´ve always managed to find places to stay, and so on...
Now that we´ve reached our final continent,although there´s still quite some time to go,
it´s starting to feel as if our adventure is close to the final stage. I have very ambivalent feelings about this.
Although I love the travellers life (suspecting there must be some gypsy blood in me),
I´m looking forward to seeing a lot of people again, and there will definatly be a few things I won´t miss, like;
- the constant packing and unpacking
- the carrying around of the backpack, which mysteriously is getting heavier and heavier as we go (my backpack weighed 9kg when we left home - it´s now up at 16kg...)
- the feeling of never really beeing clean,the sweat odour that´s always surrounding us, and reusing our clothes for way too many days
and especially the airports and everything about them....the waiting, flying, check-in, security checks, the stupid
arrival- / departure cards that they make you fill out when arriving in and leaving every single country
(how normal is it to remember your passport number by heart??? ) and the safety information on board the flight
(shouldn´t there be like a human rights thing about how many times a person can be submitted to a safety information presentation
before it´s called torture? )
While on this subject, there are quite a few things that are starting to bother me about these safety info presentations,
like; Is it really necessary to demonstrate the use of a life vest? I mean, it is a life vest - not a space suit -
just tell us where it is - I think we can figure it out.
Then what´s up with the demonstration of how to use a seatbelt ?
Let´s say I buy the life vest demonstration, but the seatbelt ? Really ? At least give us some credit.
And then there´s the pointing out the emergency exits. I get the point if you´r sitting in a huge boeing or something,
but I´ve seen stewardesses pointing out the exits in teeny tiny aircrafts that only have two exits -
one in front and one in the rear end. If you´re in doubt there, well then you´re probably screwed anyway.
(and yes - I do realize that it´s obligatory and their only doing their job - I´d still rather just be left unbothered with my
in-flight entertainment )
But other than the small annoyments, uptil now we´ve had a fantastic trip that will provide us with memories to last us a
lifetime. Now I´m excited to explore more of southamerica.