Road to Gold Coast Part 1 - Newcastle / Charlestown

We had the skill, we had the will and we also had the car to go from Sydney to Brisbane ... by car. When we started, we didn't know where we are going to stay for how long. It was in the middle of the road when we decided that our next big destination was to be Gold Coast instead of Brisbane. But let us not get ahead of ourselves.

While booking with airbnb, I had to decide between a room at the sea and one in the forest. Since Diana loves the forest but we didn't have many chances to be in one, I went for the one with the trees. We will look into that into the future but the important point is that we lived not in Newcastle but in Charlestown. Now that I think about it, it is not important at all.

Nobbys Head

On the way to Newcastle, we did a stop at the Entrance where I apparently made no photos at all. The Entrance at the first of a row of bridges that connect small islands. We arrived so late that there was no sunlight at all, so the place wasn't as impressive to look at as it should be and it was almost deserted. We did a break anyway and went to a restaurant close to the water called "Cantina". They had Bachata music playing, so although there was no dance floor we danced a couple of songs while waiting for our food. There were only two other tables with people and they seem uninterested. We had fresh fish and tacos and it was surprisingly good. Then we went on.

Nobbys Point

We stays at Charlestown for two nights. On the first day we went to Newcastle and visited Nobbys Head which sounds perverted but is just an elongated bit of land protruding into the ocean. It was a nice walk but really windy as soon as you walked out a bit. So windy that I was surprise to find someone going there on a bike. When we got back, we wandered around a bit in the centre of the town which has a row of cafes and restaurants that were much more charming than the rest of the town would let you assume. We had some Japanese food, a milkshake and went home full and happy.

Rainforest

After the second night and before going on the road, I found out a spot of rain forest we could visit because the place we slept, although it had lots of trees was not foresty enough and I still had to keep my forest promise to Diana. So we went to ... (wait for it) Blackbutt reserve. Hahahaha! It says "butt".

Owl

The most exciting thing that happened there was we were at a part in the edge of the forest where noone else was around and when we arrived at a big tree, we woke the bats who were sleeping there. For the next quarter of an hour, our walk was accompanied by bat screeching and bats flying over the trees.

Reptile

After our walk we visited an intergrated small zoo. The pictures are more exciting than anything I'd have to say, so here is a picture dump of the rest of our visit.

Bird ... with colours.

Frogs

Snake

Evil panda of death

Ducks commenting on other ducks in the pond

Goodbye!

Hans Zimmer Revealed

It's the first and perhaps the last time, I reacted to a facebook ad. I was probably looking at too many videos about film music, so facebook decided to serve me an ad about Hans Zimmer Revealed which is a concert with a selection of his music. I always wanted to listen to a live orchestra and since I can only listen to the most famous pieces of classical music pieces and would be bored by the rest of the concert, if I went to one with classical music, my best chance of experiencing the orchestra would be film or game music. So we went there.

Please don't stop the music.

There were three problems.

The first one is that Hans Zimmer is better at creating ambience than composing multilayered melodies. Compared to other composers his music loses more when not accompanied by the pictures it is supposed to dress. The selection we heard oriented itself more at the popularity of the films and less at how well the music lends itself for a concert.

The second one is that the orchestra was second place in importance to the Apocalyptica-style electric music instruments.

The third one is the horrible sound quality there. Compounded this meant that often we reached the end of a music piece with a crescendo of (electronic) noises where you couldn't tell the instruments apart because of the sound quality.

The concert managed to have some good phases and even some great pieces with Pirates of the Caribbean and Lion King but all in all, I can't help but feel dissapointed. The evening was still a success because concerts are an experience that I don't often make and because of my company.

Sydney Northern Beaches

In my ultimate search to find a place to live close to the beach and after being dissapointed by the beaches on the southern side, we did two expeditions to the north. In order to reach the north, we had to take a boat. A boat to Manly.

Boats.

The boat rides happen every quarter of an hour and like the rest of the public transport system in Sydney, they are comparetively cheap. I mean, it costs significantly less to take the boat for half an hour to reach the other side of Sydney than to get from Backnang to Stuttgart. This is just wrong.

So we arrived to Manly and I right off the bat, I had the best Chicken Teriyaki ever at a small stand in the harbour building. So I am already kind of happy. As expected the names of half of the shops there are funny. It's Manly Martian Arts or Manly Hairdresser. We walk through the pedestrian zone and arrive at Manly Beach.

Manly Beach

It is wide, the water seemed good, and there is a row of trees. It's also relatively quiet. So far, so good. But we were told the real gem is Shell Beach, so we continued walking. Shell Beach which I can't write about without automatically thinking about Dark City, is at the end of the path to the south and a bit secluded. It is our favourite beach up until now. The waters are quiet and the beach is surrounded by trees.

Shelly Beach

I think we slept a little there, I went for a swim and that was it for the day. I don't need anything more. Life is good.

A couple of weeks later, I wanted to see more, so went to Manly once again, this time aiming to go to the north until we didn't want to go anymore. I made a photo with interesting light on the way.

Interesting light

When the beach ended, we walked on a bridge and then up some stairs and then ascended some more over a very small peninsula and then decided that even though the houses in the neighborhood and the place seems beautiful, it's not practical to live there without a car because it was so exhausting. Now that I think about it, I am old but what is Diana's excuse? We went down on the other side and arrived at Freshwater Beach.

Surprise! Another beach.

Lots of surfers here but pretty quiet. We decided to stop here, make a break and after that go back because it was getting dark and Diana didn't have enough sleep and was tired. We had some romantic time there, I proposed we spent some more time together, we walked back a bit and waited for a bus which comes every 15 minutes and had a 12 minute delay. Australia, fuck yeah!

Manly pedestrians.

We stopped at a pizza place that was got the award for best pizza place in Sydney from Mastercard or something and the pizza (and salad) were indeed deliziosa. We packed our things, took the boat, enjoyed the lights and went home.

Manly lights.

We were happy.

Fiftienth Base - Blue Mountains

In the beginning God created the Blue Mountains and the hotels. Now the hotels were booked and full, nothing could be found in the time of Easter and the spirit of Pasco was hovering over the internets searching.

And God said "Let there be a single room freed" and there was a single room free. Pasco saw that the room was good and booked it over the internets. Pasco called it a night and it was one day before the visit of the canyon.

And the receptionist said "Let there be many beds" and there were many beds. Pasco was assured that there are no additional charges and it was good. So there were some single beds and a double bed but not enough mirrors.

It was good.

And Diana was cold and said "Let there be warmth" and there was warmth. Diana saw that the warmth was coming from the air-conditioning and the electric blanket and it was good. The mountains were cold compared to the Sydney and the blankets would keep us warm.

Diana and Pasco got in bed and it was very good. And there was night and there was morning - the good night's sleep.

Blue Mountains - Juggler Canyon

We don't know how brains work and we know even less about how Diana's brain works. She comes up with ideas that are all over the place. It is my responsibility to filter the good ones and help make them happen.

So I don't know how and where it came from but she put it into her head that when we went to the Blue Mountains, she wanted to do "abseiling" and "canyoning", two words that I still have difficulty using. The first one is German and it sounds wrong to use it in the English language and the second one is a verbing of a noun for x-treme marketing purposes.

Blue.

After waiting a couple of weeks for the rain to subside completely, we booked a tour for the day before Easter only to find out that every single hotel and hostel and airbnb room is booked. I looked every couple of hours and found a single room sometime after midnight. On the next day, we took our car and went to the Blue Mountains. We checked in the hotel, went further to the town, walked around and had some great risotto and vanilla shake. Since Diana had a cold, I asked for a whole lemon for her to make some hot lemonade at the hotel but they told us, they don't use lemons in their meals because they are too expensive!? On to the main dish ....

Green.

The day of the reckoning has arrived, we made our way to the Adventure Company offices where they gave us equipment, an extra jumper/jacket for me because mine was not going to protect me if I got wet. I also got shoes because we were going to step through mud. We were told a few words about securing ourselves and our plan for the day and off we went.

Many colours.

Our team was pretty small. It was our guide, a young girl that was doing an internship, a woman that was a bit older than both Diana and me but still made it through without problems and us two. First we went to a place which was pretty much still near the top of the mountain for practice, on a 5m wall and then a 15m drop. We took our bus to pick up our sandwiches and then to the start of our trail.

Black, blue, red and yellow on green and brown.

We were told to wear long sleeves and it was a good idea because for the most part the trail didn't have much "room" between the plants for even one person. I don't know how to describe our walk and rope without using superlatives. The scenery our excursion brought us through belongs to the most gorgeous nature I have ever seen in my life with distinct highlights every couple of meters. It couldn't have been better if it was designed by hand.

Colorz!

We had four drops and Diana got a bit wet through no fault of her own. She was the best. One would assume that climbing down those walls is physically demanding but it much less so than it seems. The biggerst problem is the pain you feel by the belt forcing itself into the waist while hanging. I have the feeling that you can avoid some of it with the right posture but didn't figure it out till the end.

Tea time.

Again, like if it was designed by hand, we arrived at the opening with an easygoing waterfall pictured above where we stopped for half an hour to have the rest of our food and some tea/coffee with a spectacular view. We needed the strength because from this point on we would be constantly ascending for the next three quarters of an hour.

On the way back.

The way back had more distinct paths, partially with real man-made steps and more people than us. Although beautiful, it felt less like an adventure and more casual even though it was more tiring. It didn't make our day as a whole any less noteworthy.

After all the fuss, the only scratches I got were not from climbing walls but what should be easy climbing through some holes between stones pictured above. I even bled without noticing which was pretty painful when I went into the salty seawater to swim the next day. Don't do that!

Fourteenth Base - Bondi Junction

Now this is a premiere. I have always been way behind with writing these posts. This is the first time I am writing about a place we lived in while we are still living in it. But since there is a queue of posts now and this one will be posted after we left, I might add some things in the future. Probably not.

I was right (again).

Bondi Junction is the last stop of the train that goes in this direction and and a bus port where there are immense queues (there is this word again) of people who want to enter the buses. The shopping centre that stretches to two blocks and five floors is also immense. Just finding out about everything  that is on offer there takes half a lifetime. I don't know about you dear reader but I find it almost anxiety inducing to have so much choice. There are about 18 gyms in the close vicinity! Also lots of restaurants although most are closing pretty early. There are two huge Coles supermarkets that are less than 100m apart.

I got loads of weblog entries written here.

The apartment is pretty good. For the first time ever I have a real and surprisingly comfortable desk chair which is one of the reasons I have been so productive with spitting these posts out. I didn't realize until now that most people don't have a need for a desk and a chair in their home or that they don't care about it. The only problem with the apartment is that you can hear what is happening outside with closed windows as clear as if you had them opened. The neighboorhood can switch between quiet and loud pretty randomly throughout the day. We had people fighting and screaming at each other on the street approximately four nights now.

Our neighbours.

Did I say the only problem? Wait! There is another. I was the only one that had a look at the apartment before commiting because Diana was occupied elsewere and the only reason I said yes was because I saw a Playstation 4. I haven't had one yet so I thought it was a good chance to try it. So we move in and I see the game on offer. Here is a complete list:

FIFA 17

We moved in a house of sinners and criminals. They try to hide it under the abundance of crosses that decorate the apartment but I am on to them. I went to EB games the next day and bought some games for $10 each. You can eventually read about them on my other weblog.

Car Purchase

The master plan was to fly from Sydney to Brisbane, stay there a bit and then get a car, drive along the east coast to Cairns and fly to Darwin. That was after Diana reluctantly agreed to it. She finds roads boring. After arriving in Sydney, I introduced the idea of us going to Brisbane by train because A) there is a train connection and B) we can take our time, do some stops along the way, especially at the Gold Coast. Diana thinks that trains are even more boring than cars, so she agreed to go to Brisbane by car. Victory!

We looked at different options and decided to buy from a car dealer instead of a private person for more reliability. Ha!

Lady in red.

We looked up some cars on the internets, we chose one and then we took the train and the bus to the car dealer which almost took an hour. He made a joke about car dealers being scammers and ruining the reputation of the profession and I laughed. We noticed that one of the break lights didn't work and a the cover of a rear light had a hole in it. We told the guy that we will only take the car if those two things are repaired and we wanted that written on the contract. He told us, there is no need to write down the repair of the break light because he is only allowed to sell the car if is "road worthy" according to Australian law and that is included. So he said he is only writing down about the hole in the casing as we was writing about the break light. I didn't check. That was a mistake.

The car could be ready by tomorrow, he said. He told him, we can wait a few more days if needed. So we agreed on Monday next week.

On Tuesday he called us to tell us to pick it up the next day.

We went there and the hole in the case of the light was still there. After telling his colleague who was the only one there that we won't pay for the car if the light isn't repaired, he told us that we should pay on the spot, take it and they will repair the light later. We refused. He told us the repair of the light would take weeks. We didn't care. He threatened us that he will give us our deposit back and will sell the car to someone else. We agreed. He forgot about he just said immediately, he gave up and told us they will repair the light and they would call us. Diana spoke:

- Don't do that again! We wasted three hours coming here.

- You could have paid for the car.

Diana just looked at him and that was it for the day. The next day they called us to tell us that the job that needs a couple of weeks to get done was miraclously done in a day. The day after we got there, paid for the car, picked it up and went home but not before the original guy tried to make us pay for the repair of the light. First we nervously laughed because we didn't know what he was on about, then we refused, then he told us he tried to by friendly and we are "mean". When we tried to speak, he interrupted us.

I will probably name the dealership when the guarantee is up and I am sure I don't need them any more. Come back in three months!

On the road.

Until then we are travelling.

Thirteenth Base - Alexandria again

After our two day stay on the first room in Alexandria, we moved to our main base for the next two weeks and it was good. The room was big, it had a good view although it was a bit problematic with the windows looking to the east because the sun could easily wake us up prematurely if we weren't careful.

Dis good.

The room had a walk-in wardrobe and it's own bathroom with two shower heads! There was a big TV but of course no decent speakers because the only reason people spend a lot of money on TVs is for the illusion of caring for a good movie experience, not because anyone notices that the post-processing enabled by default fucks with your picture and your sound just cries in the corner because of your negligence. Shame on you all!

A view to a kill. Or from the balcony. One of those.

There was a guy there that was a friend/colleague of our host and he just came every workday and worked on the product of their own company which was uninteresting because it was something about beer and nobody cares about beer. At least not anybody that matters. More interesting was that he worked for the motion capture company that worked on the animations for LA Noire and Mad Max Fury Road. He told me about his meeting with George Miller and how down to earth and how much of an excellent human being he is. This fills me with joy. Also George Miller is Greek which is something I didn't know or something that I forgot.

The Grounds of Alexandria

The neighborhood was nice and pretty quiet but it didn't have a great selection of (good) restaurants and not many shopping options. The Grounds had very nice ambience and also a giant live pig walking between the tables but I couldn't get on with their food.

We also spent some time at a gym there for a week which had a swimming pool for me and Jacob's ladder for Diana, her new favourite contraption. The first week was free and we wanted to go there for a second week but they managed to behave like dicks to Diana on our final free day so we didn't go there any more.

All in all we enjoyed the two weeks there.

Sydney Southern Beaches

The tour guide I got from my colleagues at my last job said we should walk a trail from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach. That seemed like a good place to start getting to know what the beaches have to offer so we got on the bus from the museum station and it was already full so he had to stand. At Bondi Junction some people got out which gave us room to sit down, but even more people came in. Seemed like there were many people who want to go to the beach when the weather is warm. Who knew?

Bondi

Reading this weblog you might expect that I find ways to disklike everything popular if I set my mind to it and so it was with Bondi Beach. Being at the sea you are surrounded by cars instead of something nature-like which sucks but then you also got noise. You also got the pronunciation of Bondi which is bond-eye. Sydney also has a Wolli station which is pronounced wall-eye instead of Wall-e. Who comes up with these silly ideas?

Salt water pool at Bondi.

The walk to the south was luckily more exciting. We walked up and down and past a pool filled with salt water which is warmer than the sea water because it is more static. There are apparently around a hundred such pools at the east coast of Australia.

Best photo of the day.

Then we went on past a lot of joggers and another beach. It looked beautiful but narrow and with a lot of surfers, so it seemed to stressful to swim there trying to not get hit by anyone. I wondered if the surfers don't worry about being pulled by a wave towards some rocks. Apparently in Australia, living on the edge is the only way of life.

I don't think you're ready for this jelly.

In the end we arrived at Bronte Beach which I still wasn't entirely happy with (I am grumpy) but Diana was tired and didn't want to walk any more. So I did a sexy strip, put on my swimming trunks, went into the water and then was called out by a lifeguard. The waves were too dangerous and it was forbidden to go in. Most of the people there didn't care but I felt watched so I went to the corner protected by some rocks where the waves were severly weakend before arriving at where the people where swimming.

There I was attacked by jellyfish, my arm was hurting and it became red along with part of my belly. I went to the lifeguards, asked if they have a cream for pain relief, they said such a cream doesn't exist. I told them the same thing happened to me in Greece and I got cream that helped noticeably, they told me that jellyfish in Australia is different. I think I sensed some kind of pride in the viciousness of their jellyfish. Joke's on them! The jellyfish sting was considerably worse in Greece and they have no idea what they are talking about.

All in all there were some highlights on our walk but the day left me mostly unimpressed.

Twelfth Base - Alexandria

While in Melbourne we found a good deal for a big room through gumtree which is generally cheaper and less "professional" than airbnb for a big room for two weeks. The problem was that I arrived in Sydney two days and Diana one day before our hosts left for their vacation. We had to find an interim solution for those two days so once again we went to airbnb.

This is a bed.

The apartment didn't have anything remarkable above of being nice apart from the hosts who were very friendly and provided more than one normally expects. Apart from giving us towels, they had bought toothpaste, shampoo, shower gel ... everything one needs in the bathroom. They had a paper in the room with a list of suggestions about where to eat and where to go out. I was surprised. After our first meeting I didn't see them again because they went sleeping at 9 pm which was after I arrived there and went to work before I woke up.

This is an inner yard.

The other thing I remember was the amount of cockroaches in the inner yard. There were none in the apartment or the balcony but a constant companion when walking from the gate to the door. On the one night we went out for a walk, I accidentally stepped on one which resulted in Diana running away from me and shaking.

Fun times!