Toranga Zoo

30/07/2009 11:51:11 - 200 mm - 1/640 - f/5.6 - ISO 200 - view location

Today I got up at around 9 witch was a bit later then usual. I still felt kinda tired witch was the fault of this religious Californian couple. They were packing bags till 1am and early in the morning they woke up the whole room with their 4 separated alarms and their loud packing skills. So after some restless turning I got up, showered (forgot my towel :rolleyes:), packed my stuff together, went downstairs and had the same breakfast I always have. Witch is eggroll bacon with apple juice and tea. I'm starting to get tired of that but I won't survive the day on the other menu options. Anyway enough of the jibbar jabber ( :p ) I went to the Taronga Zoo witch ended up to be a far better experience then the aquarium thing I had yesterday. It was sadly enough also a bit more expensive but it was worth it (for Sydney Standards). The ferry took me to the other side of the Harbor Bridge and I stepped onto the Toronga soil at around 11am. The zoo is big and you spend nicely a full day watching a diversity of animals or listening to the keepers speak. The bird and seal shows were very nice. My camera and I had a good time but I didn't make any new friends during my visit at the zoo though. :/ The zoo left me a more human and animal friendly impression then the last zoo I visited when I was back in Japan.

At 4pm the zoo started to drain empty and it started to get a bit chilly. I hopped back on the ferry and headed to the Travellers Contact Point to check on my flight. Again the wifi was not working; "The what??", "Your wifi is still not working!", "Our WHAT isn't working?", Sorry, I ment that your 'wireless' still ain't working. "Yea we will fix that tomorrow." Ok so they don't know the word 'wifi' but I get the same answer everyday. A few days ago I just unplugged the utp cable of an internet computer and it worked just fine. My lappy had fast internet! But I can't do that anymore because they have a guy working there that knows about computers. Not unlike the 2 girls at the desk wich granted me a few days ago the permission to plug it into my laptop. While checking my flight I met another fellow traveller, we will probably hang out tomorrow. Today is my last night here at the Wake Up hostel and my flight at Darwin is on Sunday so I need 2 more nights of shelter in Sydney. He told me about his cheaper hostel witch made me choose it over the YHA. I'll be moving in first thing in the morning.

So that was it for today. I'm going to get ready to meet up with a friend. We met in Japan and he's living in Sydney. He almost finished work at only a few streets away from here. Hope it will be a fun evening!

Planning? Nah...

29/07/2009 09:43:03 - 22 mm - 1/2000 - f/5.6 - ISO 400

Like an early birdy I got up at 7am today and went to Darling Harbor. I wanted to see the Fish Market but I lingered around making photos along the way so I kinda missed out on that. Darling Harbour is great, again very nice weather and joyful people everywhere. I went to see the aquarium but I shouldn't have bothered doing that. Now I know for sure that I'm not into attractions like that. Wierd shaped glass and dark rooms prevent you from shooting any good pictures. But they got really nice and big fish in there, just wondering how it would feel swimming around all day listening to the same ambient track all over while screaming kids doing hyperactive trying to poke you through the glass. Maybe the whole Spongebob theme got something to do with the kids beeing all hyper. Seriously, Spongebob and his friends popped up everywhere, even inside the aquariums. After Darling Harbor I went for a walk around the opera building because I didn't got a chance to see it up close. After that I headed to the Travellers Contact Point via the Botanical Garden. I actually wanted to do alot of planning today but I couldn't resist to go out and see some other parts of Sydney first. I stopped by and bought some shades because I feel my eyes hurting allready. The sun may not be very hot but it sure is bright. So after paying first sixteen and then sixteeeeee dollars (yea it hurts) I got my slide-on-shades and went towards the Travellers Contact Point to do some planning. I have booked a flight to Darwin, the upper north of Oz. It's about 30-32 degrees there right now and it's not going to get any colder. When I'm in Darwin I'll travel down again, taking the summer and sun with me to the south. Today is goodbye for my first friend I made here. He is going to the west, about 6ish hours of travel from Sydney. He wants to work and gain some cash. Maybe we will meet up later again cause he is also going to the North.

Oh yea I forgot, I have seen a platypus today! I'm a happy man!

First hike

28/07/2009 15:05:53 - 24 mm - 1/2000 - f/5.6 - ISO 1000

It's 6pm and I'm training back towards Sydney. I don't want to fall asleep just yet so I'll use the 2hour ride back to write today's post. I've got up early today to hike the Blue Mountains. I wanted to do that 2 days ago on Sunday but that happened to be a rainy day. So today was my little city escape. I arrived at Katoomba around 10:30 in the morning, walked all the way down the main street and bought a map at the tourist centre. Didn't bother to take a tour bus like my 2 Korean friends suggested. Thanks for the tip, Kevin and Andrew! I shouldn't have bought it cause the whole tour had signs that told you where to go and how much time it would take to get there. I didn't expect it but it was kinda obvious it would be a very touristic place. I decided to make a bigger tour then must people do, because the 'big' one was only 3hours of walking. So I added a few hours and went on the hike. It was nice, good walking weather, coldish, but with the sun in your face. I went from the 3 Sisters (the 3 pointy things left in the picture) towards Leura Falls, went back but via the Federal Pass witch led me all the way to the Scenic Railway, wich I didn't took. It was 10 dollar and it wouldn't let me take pictures because of the safety netting. The thing seemed to be kinda fast to and would perfectly find a place in an amusement park. Because I wasn't hiked out just yet I decided to take the Furber Steps and continued back to the starting point. The trail back was nice because I found it had the greatest views. The sun was already dropping and made the Blue Mountains a little less blueish and a bit more golden. First I thought my white balance of my camera was acting funny, but no worries, the Blue Mountains have indeed a natural blue haze. The eucalyptus in the forest is the reason for that blueish effect. I hiked around all day with all my gear I couldn't leave behind at the hostel, my lappy, camera + objectives, extra clothing, Lonely Planet, water, anyway enough stuff to make the daypack heavy. It made a good test hike for my foot, and it all went fine. It's not hurting or stretching so I'm kinda happy. I finally bought a lock in Katoomba to protect my belongings back in the hostel. So next time I go on a day trip I can leave some precious stuff behind. I won't be doing a lot tonight, think I'll fall asleep as soon I get back in the hostel, or maybe even sooner. It's not my condition, it's jetlag!

Manly

26/07/2009 12:32:10 - 18 mm - 1/800 - f/4.5 - ISO 320

I'm kinda tired of writing these post so I think I'll be shortening my comments lets try bullet style for today:

• went to tourist info to get a descent map
• went out to Manly, getting the Ferry at Circular Quay
• met some new nice people, a photographer from Germany that is going to study here. And a French couple, the girl studying art here and the guy working.
• had a nice walk but not that great weather
• returning long walk back to bus and starts raining.
• making remarks about hitch hiking, 5 seconds later Aussie guy stops and gives us a lift to the ferry terminal. Aussies are great! Thanks again m8.
• saying goodbye to my country neighbours and went to mcDonalds again to try wireless.
• the wireless sucks
  
• I get wireless at hostel for about 6 AUD, expensive. seriously
• I'm wiriting up the whole blog till now (before I forget it all)
• giving a try to get it all online.
• sleepy!

Sydney, a friend a day

25/07/2009 04:24:27 - 18 mm - 1.3000003394828" - f/3.5 - ISO 200

Got up at 4am and hit Sydney at night with my camera. I went on to the Harbour Bridge and shot a few pics of the opera house and the surroundings. Later on that day I went out to check out the east side beaches getting all lost doing it all on foot and without a decent map. I soon realised that Sydney is really huge. So decided to take the bus and bumped into 2 Korean guys. One studying English for a year, like so many others, and the other one, a colleague, being on a vacation while leaving his shop closed for about a week. We headed out for Watson Bay and dropped down towards Bondi Beach. Nice place even though the aussies are complaining about the so called 'cold weather' but still, surfin dudes all over. I'm surely going to try it once I'm in the hotter North and once my foot is a bit more flexible and reliable. So far no pain but running over the street, trying to get the green light still kinda hurts. So After Bondi Beach we shared emails and got our separated ways. I stopped at MacDonalds on George Street, not that far away from my hostel, and gave the free wifi a try. While beeing on my lappy another person sits in front of me and starts a convo. She's a dancer and is doing Sydney for about 2 years on a working visa. She really wants to stay and is doing her best to start a life here. She going to have auditions tomorrow, hope she gets the job. It's really funny how easy you make contact with other people. Facebook would probably crash if everyone in Sydney would friend the ones they meet. Went to the hostel and met again a new roomie, interesting guy, travelled alot, lived everywhere. Had a good and interesting talk with him and went along to the party downstairs leaving my papers and planning on my bunk bed. While beeing at the Christmas party i met his 2 friends, 2 girls studying English at the uni. (like half the people I meet) Yea, christmas party, it's winter and sunny and not snowing and it ain't going to get any colder so lets pretend it's christmas. Nice party, great people, but I was to damn tired and I left the party at a bit past midnight. Falling asleep right away once I touched my bed.

Not quit there yet

23/07/2009 12:30:23 - 50 mm - 1/60 - f/2.8 - ISO 1250

I got a bit of time-zone-head-banged so my bio clock doesn't really know what time it is. The sun is doing wierd things and I don't know whether I should sleep or try to stay awake. I will fly from London to Singapore to Perth and finally to Sydney. In Singapore I'm going to meet up with my friend Cui. I had a fight with my new phone and realised it was futile to communicate with that damn thing. Provider Issues I presume. I had about one hour before boarding time so I tried to do as we agreed and went to the only place we could see each other, being me still in transit zone and she being in Singapore. I hopped around from the left entrance point to the right, but didn't see her. Later on someone told me there is a way to let transit-people talk to people who are in Singapore via a glass wall and speaker thingy. Maybe she was there so I went to that place but again, I didn't see her. So I decided to do a little workout and cycle the 3 points. After a while I realised she was not going to show up, maybe I was at the wrong place or maybe she's stuck in traffic. So I check my watch and the screen-with-the-gate-info and went like fuck-my-gate-is-closing! So I started running towards my gate wich was number 25 meaning it's like far far away. Luckly I got there just in time but all sweaty and with a good breathing. I got another security check while the woman was looking at me in a very strange way. Thought she would pop the words 'Mexican flue' but fortunately she didn't. Allright! On my way to Perth!

Once arrived in Perth I met a guy and a couple from France, both plane-waiting for about 6 to 12 hours. I was lucky I only had to wait about 5 hours in terminal 2. It should be 'airport 2' cause it was like a 10 minutes drive with the shuttle. Once arrived we ganged up with the rest of the terminal-sleeping-beauties and went for a 4 hour sleep next to the transport belt. Later on some other guy nested himself and his belongings next to me and started snoring like a pig on steroids. So I ripped 2 pieces of tissue paper and twisted those into my ears. The guys snoring was less noisy but I couldn't fall asleep. When it was about time to check in I rolled up my sleeping bag and tucked everything back nicely into my backpack. Doing so I realised that I only pulled out one ear paper plug and that the other one is still in there. So I tried to get it out but pushed it further away, I started feeling pressure deeply in my ear so I hurried up with the packing and speeded to the toilet. Didn't got it out, kinda made it even worse and it really started to hurt. So went on a quest to find someone with tweezers. It's harder to find then you think. After asking a bunch of people I managed to persuade a girl at a food store to get it out for me. She had a medkit in the back so she invited me over to do some ear paper picking. It was out! yeay happy me. I'm not even in Australia and I'm already in need of medical attention. Anyway, next stop Sydney!

On my way

22/07/2009 21:21:48 - 50 mm - 1/1600 - f/4.5 - ISO 1250

Today's the day. Packing the latest things and sayed goodbye to Fay and Anthon. Hugged her firmly and realised I'm going to miss her like mad. She would love the hikes, we always hiked together. My mum drove me all the way to Brussels airport. It felt kinda wierd, a few tears later I was on my way to Australia. First stop, London.

Ghent and Antwerp

18/07/2009 21:09:22 - 50 mm - 1/100 - f/1.8 - ISO 800

I slept out cause it was kinda late last night. It's great to sleep out in a nice double sized comfy bed. Geert and I went to 'De Gentse Feesten' (Ghent is doing festivitys for a couple of days), stayed for a few hours and then drove towards the house warming party of my friend Kenzie. We had a nice evening filled with friends, great food and plenty of laughs.

Bye bye car

17/07/2009 15:42:02 - 200 mm - 1/100 - f/13 - ISO 500

Drove towards Brussels after I picked up my AUD's in Bastogne. I need to return the car to my company and did a little detour to fill up the tank again. By doing so I passed the guy you can see so much at the Koekelberg junction. He seems like a nice guy and is always sending positive energy towards the car drivers. Interesting individual. I got rid of my car and Kris, a friend/colleague, gave me a ride. Later that night I went to see the funny Alex Agnew with his new show. Thx for the ticket Geert. (Think I still have to pay you :/ ) I will be staying the weekend with Geert. A fun weekend ahead, hooray!

Connected

16/07/2009 14:51:33 - 18 mm - 1/50 - f/3.5 - ISO 500

We got internet, hooray! Now I can checkup on things for my trip, chat to friends and let my sister see the house via Skype!

Grandmother

15/07/2009 16:42:20 - 20 mm - 1/125 - f/5.6 - ISO 400

Drove all the way to Turnhout to get the gps unit for my camera fixed. I bought the unit with the money my friends/colleagues gave me at the farewell bbq party last Friday. Thx again guys, really, it's a very big present. But the thing is I never got it to work, the unit was working fine depending on feedback of the lights but the camera just couldn't seem to read the data. I explain it to the camera store guy so he puts in the cable, walks outside, takes a picture and it works. I'm like wtf, it can't work! I'm running around with that thing for like 1 week and it never worked! Why does it work now? You've got a satellite pointed right at your store or something? The guy is laughing at me in his crowded store and doesn't supply me with a answer. When I got outside I found out he plugged the cable just a bit further then I did. Great... Anyway the thing seems to work so I left Turnhout with a grudge and drove further towards my grandmothers place because I didn't had a chance to say goodbye. Spend a few hours there, ate some ice cream together and talked about the trip, and then began the long drive back to Mousny, trying to catch the dinner at the hotel.

Back to the stone age.

14/07/2009 17:43:04 - 20 mm - 1/250 - f/3.5 - ISO 200

Boxes, furniture and building materials everywhere, the current landscape of my parents new home. I helped out but didn't do much concerning my trip. No water, no electricity and no internet makes us stay in a hotel about 200 meters away from the doorstep. It's run by nice people and the whole family is helping out.

A new home

13/07/2009 11:28:12 - 82 mm - 1/80 - f/5.3 - ISO 500

Drove all the way to Mousny, my parents new home. It's a 1 street town and It's dead silent, the only thing you can hear is the wind and occasionally a far distance bark of a dog. The views are amazing as well, you can see far over the hills and spot cows and horses along the distance. A very very nice place for my parents to retire.

Goodbye

10/07/2009 20:49:52 - 70 mm - 1/125 - f/5 - ISO 640

My colleagues have thrown a BBQ goodbye party. It was great, everyone chipped in and made it an evening to remember. They made a giant funny card and I got a present which I did not expected. Thanks a lot guys!

A new home

12/07/2009 16:41:05 - 18 mm - 1/2500 - f/3.5 - ISO 200

My parents left a while ago and are heading to their new home in Mousny, a little village that lays deep into the Ardennes. My car is so stuffed that Fay and me hardly fit in. But before I leave we are walking the fields behind our home a last time, saying goodbye to the cows, horses and sheep.

Postponed

07/06/2009 12:15:17 - 50 mm - 1/400 - f/1.8 - ISO 400

Australia trip postponed, I broke some bone and stretched my ligaments. Not that painful but I can't stand on it. It all happened during one of the last activities of the Hercules Trophy. It's a company event and holds all kinda active sports like pocket biking, bobsledding, bmxing, etc. The tag rugby was the one I should have passed. I tried to tag one guys of the opposite team and then cracked my ankle. Now I just got back from the hospital with this plaster around my foot. A new plaster will be put on next week and I will try to move around with that for 2 weeks. After that I'll be needing kinetherapy for about a week or 2. Sigh...