Melbourne oud op nieuw

En hele week Melbourne was en leuke afwisseling voor ons na 7 maanden Perth. Je voelt meteen en ander ritme van de stad en veel minder regels voor cafés en restaurants. De architectuur is prachtig, het lijkt en beetje op New York en Parijs; iets tussenin. Skyline is wel zoals in VS, maar in de kleine straten (zoals in de Italiaanse wijk, maar ook de binnenstad) wacht altijd en verrassing.

The inner city

'Dondon' is een lekker Japans 'fast-food' restaurant in de binnenstad. Wij hebben de 'Dondon schotel gekozen, 8 Dollar voor en complete maaltijd. Veel studenten komen hier: snel, goedkoop en toch voedzaam!

Trams in inner city

Wat leuk om weer het geluid van trams te horen, dat is wel kenmerkend voor de stad. Ook een historische circle tram (free ride) brengt je rond de binnenstad.

Brunswick area

Het voelt en beetje als Berlijn in de jaren '90. Wijken zoals in het oude Oost Berlijn zijn er nog te vinden, een beetje kapot, maar wel met flair. Graffiti is er ook aan elke muur, maar wel kunstwerken. Vele 19de eeuw huizen staan er nog.

Oud op nieuw hebben we dichtbij deze plaats gevierd.

Trein stations

Parks

Captain Cook's huis is gekocht door de stad Melbourne uit UK en steen voor steen daar afgebroken om vervolgens hier weer opnieuw te laten opbouwen; ergens in de jaren 60 denk ik.

40 degrees op 2. Januari - everyone seeks relief in the museum

Cafés moesten sluiten (bij arbowet) omdat de temperatuur boven 40 graden was. In het museum waren er dan ook veel mensen onderweg, het is gratis, net als in UK.

Conclusie: Melbourne, see you soon again!

Blaue Weihnacht

Heute ist schon 'Boxing day' und wir haben unser erstes Weihnachtsfest unter blauen Himmel, Sonnenschein und 31 Grad verbracht. Heilig Abend ist den deutschen heilig, also haben wir bei Christine, einer deutschen Kollegin, gefeiert.

Wir haben eine 3 kg Gans in den Ofen geschoben, 3 Stunden gewartet, in der Zeit eine Schwarzwaelder Torte 'versucht'. Naja, es hat gut geschmeckt, aber die Lagen sind dann doch einzeln zerfallen.

Die Gans war garnicht so leicht zu zerlegen, Christine hat mit der Schere in all Richtungen geschnitten, guten Appetit.

Our first guests were Shona and Andy, and the car. A Lotus. Well, I had to document that moment. Shona is our secretary and takes care of the daily routine at the Australian Institute of Marine Science, I work for them.

The table was completed with Sueli, our former financial administrator at the Oceans Institute. She has now a new job. She brought her tasty vegetarian food, an italien speciality.

Wir hatten auch einen Weihnachtsbaum, etwas anderer Art. Sah mehr wie ein Herbststrauss aus. Christine hat Plaetzchen gebacken fuer jeden, nun habe ich also einen Ersatz fuer Martin's jaehrliches Weihnachstpaket das wir sehr vermissen.

Geschenke hatten wir auch, am 25.12, ausgepackt vor dem Beach Ausflug. I got an Eco T-Shirt in a green pot and my coffee perculator made of stainless steel. Andrew got the Tom Tom (kind of Save Dutch Economy act) for our lovely Ford Ka. And he got his new snorkel kit, all included, ready for Ningaloo Reef, our big coral reef at the western coast.

Yes, we did it, we spend Christmas Day at the beach in our new tent with Tapas. We used Andrews new Tom Tom to find Swanbourne beach, a lovely place. Weather was great and I even plunched into the Indian Ocean, at least 25 degrees warm water. No sharks this time, I stayed 5m from the shore to be sure. Few beaches are closed because of shark sightings.

Well, that was a rather different Christmas. We missed one tradition in Australia, the Chrsitmas Sales. All over Australia the shops sell everything for 30% less.
The North and Victoria were not so lucky with the weather, they were hit by a strong Cyclone with hail as big as golf balls.
We are off to Melbourne soon and hope that the storm has passed.

Merry Christmas!

Just doesn't feel like Christmas

Iedereen is volop bezig met Kerst-inkopen en afgelopen week konden wij aan de Uni van de ene naar de andere Kerstborrel hoppen. Hier begint de borrel zo rond 12.00 'smiddags tot ..???. Jens zit bij 3 verschillende instituten, dus heeft hij 3x een Kerstfeest. Afgelopen donderdag hadden wij gezamenlijk de Kerstborrel van de School waar wij samenwerken (School of Eart and Environment) gevierd. Het was aan een baai, achter de campus van de Uni waar de Swan River stroomt. De opkomst viel erg mee, zo'n 90 personen.
I finished my X-mas shopping yesterday. So I can relax and enjoy the festivities now. On X-mas eve we're visiting Christine, a colleague from Jens of Oceans Institute, together with 2 others colleagues. We plan to cook a goose! But all the decorations and X-mas carols still can't put me in the mood...cause the weather keeps getting warmer and hotter. That can't be Christmas??
I'll leave you with some photos of our X-Mas party down at the river.

Chris was here

Our first visitor has come and gone; a week we had the company of Chris, our friend from Nijmegen. Unfortunately he visited us alone, since Ryan is busy with the end-of-the-year-dealings at his office. We are pretty sure he liked it, cause Perth is in many ways similar to Nijmegen, just a little bit larger, slightly younger and more crowded. But the lay back attitude is the same and the people over here dress as bad as in Nijmegen, or maybe even worse. But...at least they are friendly which can often not be said for Amsterdammers.

The weather was great, not too sunny and a nice breeze in the evenings. Swanbourne Beach was a short drive (yes, we have a car: Ford KA, year 2000 with 70k on it), but you needed to shelter ones self from the hard wind that kept blowing sand particles. Next time, we're taking a tent with us as protection from too much sun and wind (and maybe a shark shield, cause there have been a few -fatal- attacks lately)

Talking about sun, this week we're getting our first taste of spring:

Preparations have been made: we bought a portable fan which will be on most of the night in the bedroom. Also we've fitted a removable bug screen to a window, so we can leave it open during the night. Living room has airco, so no problems there.
Last weekend was also Pride-weekend, with a parade at night! Probably, because of the weather conditions here, it's better to have the parade starting at 8.00 pm. It was actually not bad at all. The evening gave it a special dimension, together with the city's exuberant X-mas decoration.

More photos of the parade will follow, cause there still on Chris's mobile phone and he's currently in Kuala lumpur. Hmmm...wondering what he's doing there??!!

Beaufort Street Festival 2011

Wir konnten am Samstag das erste Nachbarschaftsfest geniessen, das Beaufort Street festival auf unserem 'Coffee Strip' nicht weit von zu Hause. Die Strasse war sogar abgesperrt fuer Autos und das in Australien, wow. Kunst, Kultur, Musik und viel Kulinarisches entlang ein paar hundert Meter Strasse. Viele Tausende waren unterwegs bei bestem Sonnenwetter. Wir haben es genossen, zumal der Fruehlung in voller Bluete steht, was man entlang jeder Strasse bewundern kann.

Abends sind wir noch zu den Musik Buehnen gegangen, fuer ein Bier mussten wir anstehen schoen in der Reihe und dann nur im abgesperrten Gebiet austrinken. Schon ein echter 'Nanny State' dieses Australien, man wird so richtig an die Hand genommen sobald Alkohol im Spiel ist. Hmm, muss es wohl einen Grund geben.

Mit dem nahenden Sommer steigt die Zahl der Festivitaeten. Schon naechste Woche das Freemantle Festival, dann das Uni Festival welches bis April dauert. Auf dem Uni Campus gibts dann Open Air Cinema, 'fully licened' fuer Alkohol und Picknick unter Suedlichen Sternenhimmel. Natuerlich nicht umsonst, die Dollar muessen reichlich fliessen. Also, an Kulturfestivals fehlt uns echt nicht.

Koalas in the Wild

It is already some time ago that we, for the first time since arrival, travelled to the other side of the continent together. First a day trip (7 hours flight) from Perth via Brisbane to Townsville in Queensland. I was already in Queensland for a mountain retreat meeting of our research group, a kind of team building exercise. We slept in small wooden houses in the middle of the mountain rainforest and all discussions and presentations outside.

After the retreat I met Andrew on Magnetic Island, our main destination for a long weekend. Our goal: Spot Koalas in the Wild. Magnetic Island is a small tropical island 20 minutes by Ferry off Townsville. We stayed in a lovely apartment close to the beach with Rock Wallabies (a small kanguru) and Possums (Beuteltier) in the Trees around us. But the most exciting experience we had was the 2 green frogs in the toilet every evening. Dont ask me how they got there.
Well, second day we went off to the Koala track and yes, we spotted the Koalas, an entire family with baby. Watch for yourself how cute they are.




We have already adopted a koala, we are now proud parents of Kane, born on the 9th November 2009, the 20th anniversary that the Berlin wall came down. What a coincidence.

CHOGM - Birthday party

Vandaag vier ik mijn eerste verjaardag in Perth. Helemaal alleen! Dat is, thuis ben ik alleen, maar op straat is het een heuse feest. Het is ook een nationale (in Western Australia dan) vrije dag. Vanaf vandaag begint de Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) hier in Perth met als voorzitter en uber-opperhoofd Queen Elizabeth II. Vrijdag t/m zondag is er van alles te doen in Perth. Natuurlijk veel buiten activiteiten, want onze lente is in volle bloei.

In honour of this event, probably the last time that the Queen will visit Oz land, they produced a golden coin of over 1.000 kg. Might have been better to take the money, AUD $ 53 million, and put it to good use on the public transport sytem here in Perth. Within the CBD you're able to access all places very well by (free) public transport, but as soon as you need to travel > 3 km out of the city the necessity of a car surfaces. Also after 7.00 pm weekdays or weekend, the frequency of public transport slows down to less than once every hour!

We hebben ons zelf wijsgemaakt, dat een auto toch echt noodzakelijk is, dus hebben we een oude Ford KA uit 2000 laten kopen in New South Wales (de staat waarin Sydney ligt) en op de transport hier naartoe laten zetten. Over een week zullen we de auto vanaf een depot in Perth kunnen afhalen. Chris komt op 14 november voor een kort bezoekje, dus kunnen we de directe omgeving met hem per auto gaan verkennen.

Now it's time to leave home and enjoy the festivities in the city, which has been closed of for most transport since Monday, due to security reasons. Well because of CHOGM i had the oppertunity to see (not meet) Premier Julia Gillard on Tuesday and the husband (Prins Phillip) of Queen Elizabeth on Thursday while they were visiting the University of Western Australia. So much for exciting highlights...