Ein Griff ins Klo (no translation possible)

Hello! Ugh.. what a short and unpleasant night. We both didn't know what to expect when we came to this place. Our flatmate is such a lovely person and the house is really comfortable. Unfortunately, it is located right next to a street which is, despite its small width, immensely used 24/7. Further more, there is the CityLine rail and some inter-city rail traffic going right by 24/7. At the same time, the house is pretty clairaudient. Closing the windows hardly has any effect. As if that was not enough, the entry lane of the international airport is pretty close to the house. It is the hell on earth when those A380s fly by, I can tell you! We did not get much sleep, the constant high level of noise is nerve-wracking - freaking us out and we seriously think about moving again. The problem is only: Where to?! I am hitting the keys since hours to find a new place to stay ASAP. But this is not so easy.
Ein Griff ins Klo also..


Still, we tried to have some fun today and it worked quite well thanks to Michelle and Lucille. We went to two different markets, enjoyed ourselves having tried all sorts of bakery products, fruit and stuff. The weather was okay, sometimes it rained a bit but it is warm and humid.

Mishelle, Lucille and Jasmin at the market having yummy things..

Judged on this photograph I cannot promise that there won't remain any damage from the noise.

Now it is Saturday night, we are both wrecked because of last night and we will try to eat left-overs from the feast, to get some rest now and to ignore the background noise.
See ya..
T.

On the move

G'day mates! Yesterday (Friday) night we moved to another place. We share a house with a colleague of Jasmin's from Macquarie University now. She is also a friend of our previous hosts. At this occasion, we celebrated a bit of a feast having our first barbie downunder.

This 16 year-old Australian Shiraz is called The Dead Arm because it was made solely of the grapes of very ancient vine. It was one of three different Shiraz we had and it was umwerfend!

Some Angus beef.. before it was kissed by the flames..

We had all sorts of vegies, salad, pasta salad, really good beef and an amazing wine tasting. One of our former house mates is a passionate wine collector. She introduced us a bit to what is going on in a bottle during the aging and all sorts of things. The wines were incredibly delicious (and so financially way-out). That was a good start to be here in this place.
Catch ya later!
T.

Australian Museum - the first impressions

Hello there! Just a few sentences about my first day at Australian Museum. My host is still on the road and will not return before Monday. So I went in only for a few hours on Thursday (now it is Saturday) and met Luana (another isopod PhD student) and some other people. It is an amazing Building with loads of collections and labs and offices. Very impressive - not only the building itself. I will post some pictures another day.
I also quickly went through the exhibition and liked it very much. I will certainly enjoy being there!
Cheers!
T.

First sight seeing and wildlife encounter

Wow Sydney is great! It offers a great number of interesting bird species, beautiful places and intermediate weather. Just good enough for us people from the north! Here you can see my girl and myself in front of the famous Sydney opera house. Great, isn't it?

Here you can see some of the nice little cuties which are so typically Australia's wildlife: different marsupials (in this case: models and stuffed specimens handcrafted by Chinese artists of unknown age).
As shown here, it is hard to resists the massive impression overload of Sydney's great souvenir shopping area China Town.

Some people have more, some have less problems to resist. It was a fight, I can tell ya, to keep Sheila out of that shop!


Larus novaehollandiae: This otherwise (e.g. in Europe) rare species is relatively common in Sydney. Great isn't it? I am still thrilled to have approached it so close.


Also a rare one: The Australian White Ibis Threskiornis molucca has never before come into my sight. Awesome!
You'll get more from me soon!
Catch ya later..
T.

G'Day mates!

Hello everybody! I have safely arrived in Sydney. The flight was very pleasant and comfortable.

The A380 is an impressive bird and Quantas offered a lot of comfort and convenience. I am impressed and have nothing to complain about - a fact that I as a German traveler can hardly handle. The trip was rather long - more than 36 hours altogether. I am jet-lagged but arriving late in the evening was perfect to get some (almost) immediate rest. Read more soon..

Cheers!

Hey ya!
Here I am again - after quite a while! Tomorrow early morning I will start a trip to Sydney. Downunder, here I come!
Cheers!
T.