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Thursday 19 December 2013

"Advent, Advent, die Sonne brennt" - The Advent season in Adelaide!

G'day people,

after a while of travelling, I'm now back in Sydney with the latest photos, stories and news!

Two days before I wanted to leave for Adelaide - I was just sitting down on the couch and moved one of the cushions - I felt quite a sharp pain, similar to the bite of a big mosquito. So I took the necessary measures and thought everything was going to be fine. Instead, the area around the bite started to swell up, turned bright red and started to harden as if something had been planted under my skin. Knowing of a classmate of mine who had been bitten by a spider, I called the 24/7 Poison Information hotline, described the symptoms (itchiness, skin irritation, dizziness, nausea) and was told I could have been bitten by a white tail spider. Further online research confirmed that white tail spiders are predominantly found in bedding or clothes, usually inside houses, trying to escape the heat. They are venomous but their venom is not strong enough to kill an adult human. The advice of an online web page: keep the bite cool, grit your teeth and get to it. Nothing else you can do. I decided that if the bite got worse, I would consult a doctor but after one day and half a night of cooling the bite, the swelling eased and my hand now looks normal again. I just guess it's part of the 'real' Australian experience.

The Australian White tail spider and its bite (the swelling is not really that obvious
but there was a hard lump right where the bite was)
So in the end, I could catch my flight as planned to travel to Adelaide where I wanted to catch up with Matt, a good friend of mine who I met during my high school exchange in Nelson, New Zealand.
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia. Its 1.2 million inhabitants make it Australia's fifth largest city and a tad smaller than Munich in Germany. The urban area is 20 km (12 miles) wide and extends over 90 km (56 miles) from North to South. Adelaide's urban expansion is restricted by mountain ranges to the east and the Gulf St Vincent to the west; this geographical location is equally responsible for the very hot summers with record highs of over 45°C (114°F) in an area of Mediterranean climate. Landing in or taking off from Adelaide, you will notice another very distinct feature of the Adelaidean cityscape: it is basically one huge residential area with thousands of family homes, neatly lined up along tree-lined avenues that are laid out in a gridiron pattern. The city centre is surrounded by parks along the Northern, Western, Eastern and Southern Terrace that mark the CBD's boundaries. Therefore, it is very hard to get lost in Adelaide - as long as you don't cross any of those four Terraces, you're still in the city centre.

Adelaide Skyline (Photo by http://www.photowholesalers.com.au)
Adelaide from above
One of the prettiest suburbs in Adelaide is called Glenelg, accessible via a tram line from the city centre. The little town has a very particular atmosphere that is a combination of beach culture and open-air shopping centre.

Glenelg Tram
Glenelg Town Hall
Glenelg Beach
The suburb where Matt and his family live is called Seacliff and boasts an equally beautiful beach with very clear water and fine sand:

Seacliff Beach
Beach Access
Surprisingly close to these beaches lie the vineyards of the Adelaide Hills, the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale. The South Australian wine production accounts for about half of Australia's wines, some of which are exported even to Europe and North America. Names like Jacob's Creek or Yalumba may sound familiar to the European wine drinker's ear along with a wide selection of full bodied Australian Shiraz, Chardonnay or Riesling.

McLaren Vale vines
Checking out the Australian vineyards
Vineyard estate in South Australia
After this seemingly Italian flair, it was time to visit Hahndorf, a small German town outside of Adelaide that was majorly influenced by the German settlers who came to live there. Besides the German (Bavarian!) food that we had for lunch, there were lots of half-timbered houses, beautifully designed gardens (Oma Gerda style - "Oma" means grandma in German), little cafés and grocery stores that sold Knoppers, Lebkuchen, Pfeffernüsse, Duplo, Kinderriegel, Milka chocolate and many more imported foods from Germany. Needless to say I spent at least $50 there.

Lunch at the Hahndorf Inn
"Trio of Wursts" - Bratwurst, Bockwurst and Weißwurst - for lunch!
The taste of... Bavaria =D
"Welcome to Hahndorf - 'Best Kept Village' contest winner"
(literal translation: "Our village is to become prettier")
The local German bakery - note the literal translation of
"Bienenstich" to "beesting".
The café attached to the German Bakery. Without words.
Back in Adelaide, it was time to decorate the Christmas tree - and yes, the outside temperature was about 37°C. But that didn't matter. Because Christmas is coming up.

Driving home for Christmas =)
Oh Christmas Tree...
Not only green when summer's here, but also when 'tis cold and drear... ah screw that!
Little Gin-Germans at the Central Markets... always on the bottle.
Christmas Puppy
As Christmas is approaching - only 5 days to go - I went back to Sydney and am now looking forward to welcoming my friend Jackie from Minnesota in the US to Australia tomorrow for a Christmas that will be about 60°C warmer than what she is used to! I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for reading my blog during the past year and I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, wherever you might be! If it is a cold Christmas for you, enjoy the snow. Otherwise - do as the Australians do and relax in the heat ;-)

Merry Christmas everyone!

Sunday 24 November 2013

Life's a beach - visiting the Fiji Islands

Bula everyone :)

I've just come back from the Fiji Islands yesterday and thought I'd keep you up to date with what has been happening. The idea behind this trip was to celebrate the end of the semester and spend some quality time relaxing and unwinding in sunny and warm weather, with good food and in great company. In review, I have to say this trip took a rather unexpected turn. As some of you might know, it has always been a dream of mine to visit Fiji - to be more precise: ever since I knew this country existed, I have been eager to go. So here we are, on November 17th which is when the trip began...

For the entire week, it had been raining cats and dogs in Sydney so that being able to escape this weather seemed rather fortunate. Exchanging 16°C / 61°F with 32°C / 90°F sounded like a pretty good deal. So after having had coffee with Didy, a classmate of mine who headed back home to Hong Kong around the same time, we were airborne - destination Fiji.

Inflight Entertainment à la Fiji Airways (onboard the brand new Airbus A330)
On final approach to Nadi Airport, Fiji
Nadi, Fiji - fresh off the plane
Upon arrival, those 32°C / 90°F literally hit us when we got off the plane. Even though the local time was already 7 pm, the humidity was at ridiculous levels, making us feel rather uncomfortable in our pants and long-sleeved shirts. When we finally arrived at our hostel - Smuggler's Cove - the ceiling fans couldn't do much about the heat but from my experience of arriving in Darwin, I thought it only took a little getting used to. The dinner was really nice and of course, we couldn't resist having a cocktail right on the beach - which was basically what we had come for. We also had fresh coconut - straight from the palm tree - which, however, was not as enjoyable. That same night, I met up with Raj, a friend from Fiji who I had skyped with previously but never actually met - all in all, a very good start to our holiday =)

Fiji local preparing coconuts for us
A shop owner from Newtown - who is originally Fijian - had advised us to visit the Coral Coast, which is where we headed the next day. The Coral Coast is part of the South Coast of Fiji's main island, Viti Levu ("Viti" meaning "Fiji" - and formerly "Feejee" - in Fijian). Overall, Fiji consists of more than 300 islands, out of which 110 are permanently inhabited. The total land mass amounts to about 18,000 square kilometres (or 7,000 square miles), making Fiji a little smaller than Slovenia. There are two major ethnic groups in Fiji - the "Fijians" (referring to indigenous Fiji Nationals) and the "Indo-Fijians" (citizens of Indian descent). Hence, three languages are considered the official languages of Fiji: English, Fijian and Fijian Hindi. While we were in Fiji, it was rather interesting to see that both major ethnic groups prefer to stay amongst themselves and that it was particularly Indo-Fijians that owned specialised businesses such as car repair workshops etc. (In fact, the tensions between these two groups have resulted in multiple political and military conflicts such as the coup d'état in 2006) 
These facts aside, we had to find a way to get to the Coral Coast from Nadi, which is in the west of the main island. The trip would take about 2 hours - and although advised by hotel staff to take the public bus to Suva (Fiji's capital) from Nadi town, we opted for a private transfer that drove us from our hostel directly to the Fiji Beach House - where we then stayed for two nights. The downside of this direct connection was that this mini van would stop everytime someone waved at the driver. To get off, simply knock on a window and the driver would drop you off literally in the middle of nowhere. When we reached Sigatoka, a small village (but the biggest village on the way), the driver decided to have a 5 minute break to grab coffee - which was then extended to 20 minutes. This was a phenomenon we would frequently encounter - the locals call it "Fiji Time". It generally means that no one is in a hurry and that you have to allow for at least double the time it would take to do something in Australia in order to get somewhere on time. So, in the end, it took us close to three hours to get to the Beach House. The place, however, was stunning:

One of the thatched huts among the coconut palms
The picture-perfect private beach with crystal-clear water
One of the many hammocks
View from the hammock
Try to spot the dog! =)
Spectacular sunset @ Fiji Beach House
The resort was situated in a small, secluded valley with its own private beach. It offers a complementary breakfast and afternoon tea (including scones and jam!) and a selection of mains for lunch and dinner. The drinks are extra - but there was certainly something for everyone's taste buds. As much as this small valley allowed for privacy, it meant a lot of mosquitoes (mozzies in Australian English). In combination with the free Wi-Fi that was only available at the restaurant and bar, this basically meant that everyone endured the torture of numerous mozzie bites to check their e-mail, facebook or skype with their families and friends. At this stage, my feet were pricked all over and the mozzies slowly started to go for my legs and arms. Why didn't I use insect repellent? Well, guess what: I did but Fijian mozzies don't give a damn. On top of that, both Laura and I were bitten by a dog - it was only a puppy but very persistent and convinced that moving feet were the best toys to bite into. The weather became more and more sweltry over the days, which, however, did not keep me from going horse riding. I know it had been a while since I last sat on horseback but I couldn't resist and Laura decided to come with. After a short ride over to the next beach, we went up into the hills and lush forests of the hinterland, passing palm trees on the way up to a lookout that had amazing views of the coastline. Even further up, we were suprised to find a villager waiting for us with freshly cut watermelon. Our guide then gave the rind to the horses... Back on the beach, he gave me a free rein to canter along the water's edge - which was a great feeling but I need to really get back into horse-riding, it's simply been too long. The shower we took when we got back to the resort was the most relieving feeling ever; realising that my entire face was burnt by the sun was not. Luckily, the resort offered Aloe Vera soothing gel... Oh yeah - and tons of new mozzie bites as well. Fun times.

The day we went back to Nadi, we were determined to take the official Nadi - Suva - Nadi bus, however, when we arrived at the bus stop, another one of those mini vans stopped and we decided to go back by mini van again. $13 for a 2.5 hour ride seemed reasonable, considering that it was Fijian dollars (equivalent to AU$7.50, 5€ or US$7). This time, we should have listened to the hostel's staff's warning that mini vans tend to have more accidents than the official buses... our van blew a tire with only about 20 minutes left to Nadi. It is important to know that these mini vans do not have air conditioning, the only thing that cools you down is the airflow of the moving vehicle, with all windows wide open. Instead, we pulled into this car repair shop and were kept in the dark about what had happened by the driver. The owner of the shop seemed to know the driver quite well - whatever that may imply - and made an effort to get us back on the road as soon as possible. After about 40 minutes and changing one of the front tires while all passengers remained on bord the vehicle, we were able to continue our journey back to Nadi, where we stay at Smuggler's Cove for another night before heading off to the Yasawa Islands - so much for the plan. Following some presumably out of date food, Laura had an upset stomach and cramps that forced her to stay in bed for a day - however, we were still able to board the "Yasawa Flyer" (a catamaran connecting Port Denarau with the Yasawa Islands) as planned.

Our transfer took us straight to the Marinas where we would board our vessel that would take us to Mantaray Island resort in about 3 hours, travelling at high speeds.

The Yasawa Flyer Ferry (photo taken from tripadvisor, no infringement intended)
 The night before we were to take this trip, the skies opened up and unbelievable amounts of water drowned the streets while one of the most intense thunderstorms I have ever witnessed illuminated the skies and tormented the ocean. Hence, it was no surprise that wind gusts and waves, 5 metres in height at least, rattled the boat to an extent that even locals had to make use of the seasickness bags provided by the crew. Shooting up the waves thanks to the powerful engines, we reached the peak of a wave every ten seconds and experienced a moment of zero gravity that pulled our stomachs down before plunging back down into the raging sea, hitting the next wave with such force that the whole boat started to shake. When we finally reached Mantaray Island Resort, we could fortunately disembark in a sheltered bay as none of the resorts have landing piers. Instead, we had to jump down into smaller boats that carried us to shore where we waded through the water to get to shore. To top off the day, my shorts ripped in a way that revealed my underwear so I was holding my water bottle in front of myself during the welcome ceremony at Mantaray.
The resort is actually quite beautiful with an amazing view over the bay and pristine beaches that (apparently) are great for snorkelling. However, with the rainfalls and the persisting heat, this became a trip to a tropical greenhouse without exits. The accommodation was basic - and up on the hill: 20 beds in one shed and a small fan for every four beds - the crowning moment of my hostel and dormitory experience. And as for the Fiji Beach House, we received an equally warm welcome by the mosquitoes.

The front porch
Kayaks on the beach
The pristine waters at Mantaray Island Resort
Panoramic view from the hill-top restaurant (click to enlarge)
The resort was so hilly and the weather was so hot and humid that some of the American guests had to start walking up to the hill-top restaurant 20 minutes before ordering their meal to make it in time. It was there and then that I decided I did not want to stay another night in the 20 bed dorm and on these islands since the heat and humidity became unbearable for me. In addition, the sun was so strong that a mere half hour in the sun or in the water, despite using sunscreen, would have incurred another severe sunburn. The decision was made: I took the ferry back to Nadi the next day.

When I arrived at Smuggler's Cove, the only accommodation that was available for three consecutive nights (before my regular flight out) was in a dorm. Contrarily to what I had been told on Mantaray Island, however, this was not a 6 bed dorm like the one I had stayed in previously but a 30 bed dorm - only this time with air conditioning. Now, imagine what it feels like to enter a room that sleeps 30 people who are sweating like pigs all through the day and through the night... exactly. By this time, I was a nervous wreck and the only thing I could think of was going back to Sydney as soon as possible. When I checked airfares online, I found a one-way flight back to Sydney on Jetstar that cost me the same as four more days in Fiji so I decided to leave the next day, November 23rd. Unfortunately, it seemed like an unmanageable task to the staff to print off my booking confirmation - "Fiji time" a.k.a. a lack of competency. That night was probably one of the worst nights I have ever had in my life - I must have slept for barely 4 hours before getting up and watching a beautiful sunrise in this elusory idyll. After breakfast and after sending out a few postcards, I had lunch with Andy, a German guy we had met on our first night at Smuggler's Cove. We had lunch together - chicken for me, lobster for Andy - before I headed off to the airport to fly back.

Andy and his lobster
The flight seemed endless with two children playing around in the row in front of me, dropping their toy cars between the seats, continuously asking me to hand them back to them. The comfort of Fiji Airways and the "simplicity" of Jetstar were poles apart but this was the only way to get back to more agreeable weather. In the end, the souvenir I took home from Fiji  and that will last me a while (at least until Jackie is here to savour the flavour of Fiji) was a local speciality: Bounty Rum.

Bounty Rum from Fiji - White and Dark =)
Cheers everyone!

Monday 11 November 2013

The end of an era

Hey everyone,

... and another month has gone by since my last post. It's unbelievable how time flies and in the blink of an eye, I'll be back in Germany.

As most of you would have heard, major bushfires in the Blue Mountains destroyed over 200 houses and vast areas of forest in the Blue Mountains - in exactly the same area that Ninia and I visited just two weeks prior to the fires. Although Sydney itself was not severely affected by the fires, the smoke temporarily covered the entire city in black clouds that obliterated the sun and made 3 pm feel like 10 pm. Luckily, the fires are now under control and the biggest dangers have been averted for Sydney - spring is on the march.
The Bushfires in the Blue Mountains (Katoomba and Blackheath)
The Blue Mountains on fire
Black clouds covering a beach
Spring at Sydney Uni (courtesy of Natthaphon Tripornchaisak)
The month of October as well as the beginning of November were probably the most intense time of studying I have ever had. During the last six weeks, I handed in about 22.500 words worth of assignments - for those of you who prefer counting in pages, it's about 50 pages of text (not including reference lists, appendices etc.). Just to put this into perspective: that's more pages than my BA thesis paper in less time and on 12 different topics, i.e. 12 x research, 12 x literature review, 12 x introduction & conclusion. All the more relieved am I now that my second and final semester at the University of Sydney is over - all assignments have been handed in - I'm a free man! Following the example of our class evaluations (yes, they must exist in every part of the world), I'd like to give a little retrospective evaluation of my time at USyd for those of you who might think about studying in Australia. 
First off: tuition fees. There is no degree in the world that is worth tens of thousands of dollars in tuition. Secondly: organisation of the programme. Do not take the fact that the Australian tertiary education system relies largely on written assignments lightly. My entire degree included one mid-term exam in an elective unit - all other assignments were written papers. For those of you who consider themselves better at studying for exams than preparing 15 page papers - keep searching!
Thirdly: the quality of instruction. Highly debatable, highly variable. But not better than in Germany.
The things I have learned from studying in Australia: be organised (so you can handle the enormous work load), use correct referencing styles to please your teacher (varying from one subject to the other and one of the most unnecessary and least understandable phenomena in the academic world if you ask me) and finally: do not contradict or question the Gods of Linguistics (lengthy discussions that reach no agreement or compromise will follow).

Thumbing through my organiser right now, I realise that there's hardly any appointments other than deadlines for papers, essays and reports. In fact, I don't remember much else anyway - so I'll tell you a bit more about some of my final assignments. 
Thanks to some amazing support that I have received from the Centre of Language Teaching at the University of Paderborn, I was able to write one of my final papers on the academic writing skills of German students in English essays. The entire title is as follows: "Writing in a foreign language - The strengths and weaknesses in German university students' English Academic Writing cohesion as represented by thematic progression."
For my cross-cultural communication paper, I was required to carry out an interview with a first-generation migrant who has immigrated to Australia in order to find out how their "linguistic repertoire" affects their "employability". In other words: why do immigrants that don't speak English (well) have a hard time finding a job in Australia? The interview was recorded, transcribed and then analysed in a cross-cultural context.
Finally, the most enjoyable final assignment of the semester was on "Discourses of Globalisation". I chose to analyse images, more specifically photos in travel brochures that represent the local population of the respective travel destination. In so doing, I had a look at Fijians, Africans and Middle Easterners in Australian travel brochures. The interesting - and shocking - result: Fijians are portrayed as servants that will do everything to make the visitor feel comfortable; Africans are attention-grabbing individuals that naturally welcome everyone into their own community; and the Middle-Eastern population live their culture behind closed doors while overly protective men make sure no visitor intrudes into their life. How is this relevant? Well, travel brochures create expectations and attitudes in the tourists who then behave in certain ways towards the locals. In the Fijian case, that can be quite drastic - it's not for nothing that Australians have a bad reputation in Fiji as being particularly rude and aggressive.

The last week of the semester heralded the end of an era for most of my fellow students - including me. With only the marking of our papers and the subsequent awarding of the title "Master of Applied Linguistics" left, it was hard to realise that "This was it" - the last time of sitting in a lecture, the last readings to prepare (for those who did them), the last classroom discussions. We went out for dinner with almost every class and had an international buffet during the very last lecture. 

The divine Tongan fruit drink "Otai"
[made by my classmate Taulama from Tonga, my version in the photo
(the fruit are for decoration, no ingredients)]
It was not till after all the assignments were handed in that I realised that this was the end of my tertiary education and educational career in general. Since I was 6, I've been listening to and observing teachers near a blackboard, sitting exams, writing papers. But this is over now. What's next? I don't know yet but I am in the process of applying for jobs. As a teacher. To eventually end up next to the blackboard again. Only on the other side. While I am currently still working on a translation from German to English (a kind of mini job to earn some money), the next three months ahead can be expected to become the most amazing ever. When I leave for Fiji on Sunday, I will only return to Sydney for a total of 16 days in between my trips before heading home in early February. I can't wait to spend so much time travelling but also, to eventually come home to Germany to catch up with my friends again. Overall, it's been a good year but most of all a great experience of living overseas that makes you realise more and more who you are, where you're from and where you want to go in life. As such - despite some disagreement with the Australian tertiary education - it has been a time that I wouldn't want to miss and that has substantially enriched my life and broadened my understanding of the world we live in.

Saturday 5 October 2013

Blue Mountains & Byron Bay

G'day folks,

I know it's been a while - so I'm just letting you know that this blog still exists and thought I'd write a little about my trips to the Blue Mountains and to Byron Bay last week.

As most of you will know, I'm here in Sydney on a DAAD scholarship. Before I came here, the DAAD organised a preparatory meeting for everyone to get to know each other and give us more information about what was expected of us. At that meeting, I also met Ninia who is studying in Melbourne and who came over to Sydney for a short holiday during mid-semester break.
F.l.t.r.: Ninia, me and Laura on the ferry in Darling Harbour
Ninia and me at Bondi Beach - starting our Bondi to Bronte coastal walk
Tamarama Beach
The coastal walk goes all along the coastline of Sydney's eastern suburbs, connecting Bondi Beach to Tamarama, Bronte and Coogee Beach. Besides the obligatory sightseeing tour of Sydney, also including Manly, we visited the Blue Mountains.
The eastern edge of the Blue Mountains is situated about 50 km (31 miles) to the west of Sydney and forms a part of the Great Dividing Range along Australia's east coast. Once a plateau, various rivers carved their way through the sandstone bedrock to form dozens of valleys that are up to 760 metres (2,490 ft) deep. As you will see from the photos below, this area is second to none in the world and as such is deemed worthy to be preserved. This is why seven national parks have been established in the greater Blue Mountains area. If you want to go there, it is best to visit during the week as weekends are always busy. We stayed overnight in Katoomba from Monday to Tuesday and explored the area (Katoomba, Blackheath etc.).

Cherry blossoms - Spring in the Blue Mountains =)
One of probably ten million cicadas, the size of a hand!
Panoramic view of the Three Sisters near Echo Point (click to enlarge)
Ninia & me at Echo Point
 As you can tell from the above photos, the Blue Mountains got their name from the tinge of blue that the mountains get if viewed from a distance. It is believed that this blue tinge emerges from scattering of light in ultraviolet radiation that may be enhanced in the Blue Mountains area by volatile chemicals emitted by the eucalyptus trees in the valleys.

From Echo Point, we went down the Giant Stairway that goes down behind the Three Sisters. 900 steps after that, we arrived at the valley floor where we took the Scenic Railway back up to Echo Point. This railway was formerly used to carry coals from the mines underneath the rocks to the top - but since coal mining in the area has ceased, the railway was converted to the world's steepest cable-driven train ride at a gradient of 52°.

View of Jamison Valley, 12 km (7.5 mi) long and 10 km (6.2 mi) wide - inhabited by humans for 40,000 years!
View of the Three Sisters from the Scenic Railway platform
The Scenic Railway arriving at the bottom
 Our way back to Katoomba took us past waterfalls and even more stunning scenery before we could finally go to bed around 9 pm - a very long day indeed.

A little creek that drops down into the valley
Artsy photo of Ninia at a waterfall
The next day with a quick breakfast at our hostel in Katoomba. The plan for the day: catch a bus to Blackheath to visit Govett's Leap Lookout and walk to Pulpit Rock. Besides the fact that the bus driver stopped wherever people waved at him (instead of actual bus stops), everyone seemed to know each other and started chatting on the bus before getting off again in the middle of nowhere - again, no bus stop in sight. At Govett's Leap, the views were breath-taking and the weather was fantastic so we decided to do the walk to Pulpit Rock. Estimated walking time: 3 hours return. Considering that buses only run every two and a half hours - challenge accepted! The walk took us down to a little creek that we had to cross and then lead up again to a cliff-top walk.

Ninia on our hike to Pulpit Rock
When we arrived at Pulpit Rock, we barely had time to sit down and have a rest before starting to make our way back to Govett's Leap to be there in time for our bus back to Katoomba. That day, it was so windy that people with small children were advised not to do the walk or to hold onto their children. The view, however, was so amazing that it didn't even matter that the yogurt we brought was blown off our spoons and into our faces.

Panoramic view of Pulpit Rock (click to enlarge)

Our way back to Sydney was exactly like our way to Katoomba - we fell asleep on the train =) When we arrived here in Newtown, it was already time to pack because the next morning, both Ninia and I had to get up early and go to the airport. Ninia went back to Melbourne and I caught a flight up to Byron Bay with Laura, Sarah and Lisette to spend a few days somewhere else before having to go back to uni.

Byron Bay is a very small town of about 5,600 inhabitants that is situated in the far north-eastern corner of New South Wales, more than 770 km north of Sydney. Even though NSW is one of the smaller states of Australia, it took us over an hour to get there by plane. Byron Bay is famous for its hippie culture, its beautiful beaches and good waves - the prime destination for surfers from all around Australia and even the globe.

Leaving Sydney for Ballina / Byron Bay
Scenic flight along the Northern beaches and Port Stephens
Arrival at Ballina Airport - as always, we had to walk over the tarmac =)
Because we had booked everything at short notice, we had to put up with what was left accommodation-wise. We stayed at The Arts Factory Lodge, a small-ish but cosy backpackers hostel outside of Byron Bay. As the name suggests, it was quite alternative and easy-going. Our double-bed private rooms turned out to be permanent tents on the edge of an estuary that smelled like rotten eggs due to the exceptionally high amount of sulfuric acid in the water. The showers were on the other side of the bridge that connected the "Island Retreat" section from the rest of the hostel facilities that included a bar, kitchen, reception, showers & bathrooms, laundry and several self-serve machines.

View of the estuary with a hammock on the right
Our permanent tents - accessible via a boardwalk to not disturb the
bush turkeys and lizards in their natural habitat
Presumably due to the remote location of the hostel, house rules did not seem to be strictly adhered to. But oh well - it's Byron Bay. Who would even bother to put that paragraph about "illegal substances" on their house rules blackboard. Utterances like "Oh man, those mushrooms were the best idea ever" in a conversation between two guys under the shower actually did fit into the picture.

House Rules at the Arts Factory Lodge - not to be taken seriously! =)
We spent most of our days at the beach and in town which was about a 15 minute walk away from our hostel. The souvenir shops and clothing stores were quite tempting, so we looked for good deals one afternoon. Another day, we hired bikes or watched the sunset at the beach with whales jumping out of the water in the distance.

Panoramic view of "our" beach
Cider at sunset while watching waves & whales - priceless =)
Sunset @ Byron Bay
Hippie-style cars and campervans everywhere!
But as always - unfortunately, every holiday must come to an end and so I caught my flight home to Sydney with a spectacular view of Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge during our descent:

Sydney Harbour from above =)
After my mid-semester break, I will have to work on my big assignments as we're reaching the end of my second semester at Sydney Uni already. My semester here finishes at the beginning of November - but that doesn't mean that I'll come straight back home. More travel is yet to come so look forward to the following trips:

November: Fiji Islands, Mackay & Whitsunday Islands (Australia)
December: Adelaide (Australia), Christmas & New Year's Down Under, Cairns (Australia)
January: Christchurch & Queenstown (NZ), Nelson (NZ), Bay of Islands (NZ), Fiji Islands
February: Trip back to Germany

Till then - hang in there & take care!

Your Travel Hobbit =)