The things I did in Ess-Eff

I am a strong believer that getting things done is the best way to keep a clear head. Once old tasks are over and the mind does not have to think about them anymore, they're just done, over, finiti, precious time is not wasted anymore. A believer does not make me a follower though.
I come to conclude that I can be quite lazy, more than I like to admit, but things do eventually get done. A long-delayed task is the "Tales of San Francisco (cont.)" episode. Since the last post, I've been to Heidelberg (twice), Madrid and then Lisbon and it's night-scene hood called "Santos". I won't be going into the how and why for now, I'll just resume where I left last time and get that story done.

Couchsurfing can be a marvelous thing, it can be enjoyed from different perspectives, as a host, a guest, someone meeting people or a site contributor - it's an organization driven by voluntarism after all. Being a guest requires a different kind of efforts than as a host. Lessons learned as one can be applied as the other - take dish washing for example, I can't think of anyone actually enjoying that chore! As a host, it's just lovely when guests have the initiative to get that done for me after dinner. As a guest, it's a no brainer and it takes max 15mins if there's really a lot to clean. In a scale of 1-10, I would rate cooking at 10 and dish-washing at 7-8. Comparing the hassle, dish washing has the best effort/reward ratio! One important detail is to RINSE the dishes, I hate to see my dishes put to dry with foam on them... yuck!!!
Yes, in SF, I did the dishes and we all had dinner at my hosts' place.

So, the first night, with me totally jet-lagged and my muscles hurting from the excellent United Airlines ride on coach - after this one experience, I don't recommend that company to anyone - we went out for some drinks and enjoy local bars & beers. In the Heights, Magnolia (beer experts) and Trax, the gay bar were the first boozing up spots.

Next day, after some more hours of sleep behind me, I was ready to face the city. I met up with Jeanne who drove me around and we spent the afternoon checking out China Town (and discovered the deliciousness in portk buns), Sutro Baths, the GG Bridge and even had the chance to try a slurpy (slurpee?) and enjoy a paralyzing brain freeze. Well, that was a day well spent in company of really cool people. We ended up at a CS meeting which according to the habitués was one of the best and busiest.
This was also the coffee revelation day. J, my host, gave me the local tip, where to get the best coffee. From that day on, Phil'z Coffee was my morning pitstop. The night ended up with Jeanne and her friends at night to check Revolution (live Jazz bar) and the Makeout Bar. Revolution has a cool social feature, a single toilet. Standing in the queue is a great oportunity to start some small (very brief indeed) talk.

The following was a rainy day and Yuri's night. The California Academy of Sciences (CalAcademy) organizes once a week an evening for grown-ups only. Meaning, you need to be 21 and still get a Nightlife ticket if you want to enjoy a museum of natural sciences with a theme (Yuri Gagarin's birthday this time), live DJs and a bar! This kind of museum is usually the place for children, spending a day there is not that easy when all those high-pitched voices decide to scream, yell and party. That night was not less quieter, it was just so much fun, everybody happy and boozed up, checking out animals, celebrating the lizard's wall climbing prowesses, the albino aligator and other wildlife samples. We finished up at Jay's place and had the best cheese toasts.

Herzog & DeMeuron are famous swiss architects. Their contribution to the city is the deYoung modern art museum, just across CalAcademy. The building is EFFIN' fantastic, it has a freely accessible tower with a great view over the city, too bad the exhibits were... oh well, not as good as I expected - the YSL was unfortunately gone by then:(
The night was celebrated with a nice veggie dinner at my hosts'. I brought some recipes and proposed the excellent mango-ginger-tofu. It just happens that my recipe, taken from a webpage was the exact copy of one inside S' (the other host) vegetarian recipe book. It was a fab dinner, crowned by a cleansing shot of delicious bavarian Schnapps!

I was alone in the city for 2 afternoons I think, I dedicated 3 tasks to one of them: find an electronics store to compare netbook prices, find a certain coffee shop (bluebottle) and visit SFMOMA. I only managed to get the 3rd one done and wow... was that one cool museum. Like any other modern art museum, the building caused some controversy when it was built but now it is just well integrated and easy to spot. The first exhibit was ironically about the graphic designs for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Too bad the pictures I took sucked but the pieces, as few as they were, had quite an impressive quality considering the period (for me, everything before 2000 is old). Needless to say that I had a great time at the SFMOMA and spent a lot of time walking with my eyes wide open, enjoying the quality of the building and its exhibits.

Easter Sunday, a children's day spent with grown-ups. I heard that there are more dogs than children in the city. I am not sure if the gay population has anything to do with it. What matters is that grown-ups having fun is equally enjoyable. The Sisters of the Perpetual Indulgence celebrated that day their 30th Birthday. Like for the past years, Hunky Jesus is one of the events at their Easter day spent on Dolores Park. Several blokes (or even chicks) dress up as Jesus and go on stage to announce themselves. The winner was Brokeback Jesus, an announcement welcomed with applause from the happy crowd. There were concerts, the sisters, drag queens dressed up as nuns, walked around talking to people and collecting money for the cause.

Facebook played a role at the end of the event. I had announced my trip to SF on my FB Wall and a couple of CSers I had met in Berlin at Susi's would join us at Dolores tomeet up. It was a win-win situation, they saw an event they never heard of and Y and I went to the BYOBWR (Bring Your Own Big Wheel Race). Imagine grown-ups on little 3- or 4-wheel carts riding full speed down a very curvy slope, Vermont St (even curvier than Lombard St).

This was another day alone in the city, that I ended at Grace Cathedral. An intriguing building with lots of interesting single elements, the Virgin Mary vitral, an AIDS Memorial piece by Keith Haring.
The night was spent in lovely Marin County, up north of SF after the GG-Bridge. Dan and Jeanne were so nice to take me back to the city after we missed the last bus which we did not even see drive past.

It has been a long time since I posted about a travel. I do hope to be able to report about NYC and Montréal this year still. I'll do my best to prepare myself and have enough cash to finance it. The last 2 travels and my first DSLR, the fab-fab Nikon (pronounced Knee-khon and not Neye-kon, like Nike) D90 kind of used up my travel fund:P


live long and travel a lot,
n.-

If you’re going, to Saaaaann Fraaaancisco….

I noticed that Twitter is the blogging tools for either lazy or people with ADHD. I am more the latter than the former (btw, TwitBin is a must-have Firefox add-on for any twitter). The same difficulty as with long e-mails persists, staying focused is hard! But I will make an effort - like I always did - and report about my latest travel, one week in San Francisco.

First and foremost, I agree that the city should not be called Frisco (too whack) nor SanFran (too lame). Emperor Norton was right when he promised a 25USD fine for anyone calling his beloved city, Frisco. He was a nutcase but some people consider him a genius. Didn’t they [the people] say the same about King Ludwig II or any other eccentric figure? Well… moving on!

After spending a week in Seattle, a must-do for any Microsoft employee (now ex-, thank you very much), I was not sure I wanted to get back to the US of A. As a Couchsurfer, the story changed when I met some really cool people from across the pond. Two of them live close to SF (this is how I am going to call it from now on). I initially charted 3 American cities to check out before I die, NY, Chicago and SF. With the spring-break’s cheap fares, SF sounded reasonable even if the fare was not that cheap (the flight-company was) and instead of taking 3 weeks to visit all three of them, I split the plan and decided on the furthest one for a week around Easter .

The first thing I thought when I was back… ok, the SECOND think I thought when I was back was “It’s so great to be a CSer!”. Two weeks in advance, I started looking for people to host me, many were not going to be there (consequence of the spring-break) but I did end up finding a place where they even allowed me to hang out for the WHOLE week, woohoo!!! I was ecstatic, happy to have everything fall into place which it did!The first night, I was introduced to some local beers, the Haight District and a gay bar playing the music along with their videos (a personal dream of mine come true… I am talking about the Music and Videos in case you’re wondering).

That was the first night, the following ones were pretty similar, made of meeting friends of friends, going out, have some beer, enjoying the scene and the people.

I am THE worst tourist in the world, but I love to go to places even if I hate traveling alone. My curiosity for the local tourist spots was equal to zero, I could not care less! You think I went to Fisherman’s Wharf, Pier 63 or whatever it's called, , etc... ? Think again!

If it wasn’t for Jeanne, Scott and Yaffa, I’d be left strolling through the city like an idiot. I did not check all the “must see” boxes in the tourist guide, but I checked those in mine and they are related to hanging out with people.

I’ll leave the intro for now and promise to be back later with some of my stories in the city.

The travel bug is definitely in, I am going to Heidelberg this WE, a place many people describe at first with “Americans love it…”. Honestly, is that supposed to tell me something? I am not going there influenced by that highly descriptive and very influencing impression. It’s supposedly a very nice place and living in good old Germania for 3 years now, I should know more about some of the national spots than I actually do. So yes, this is a cultural effort!

cheers,

n.-

PS: I am taking my flashing new D90 for a spin up there!!!! yeeeehaaaaa!!!

Feng Shui in the mountains?

FENG SHUI
"Wir bieten hier die Möglichkeit, an diesem PLATZ KRAFT zu tanken" - "We supply here at this PLACE the possibility to fill up with ENERGY"

And this is the kind of stuff one can find in austrian mountains, more precisely next to the Hoch Kössen resort - a place they call the Paragliding Paradise.
I should have sat there for a little bit because I am waaasted tonight. All this sun and polen in my lungs brought me down big time, not the hike itself though:P

A calm night sleep is waiting for me.

n.-

after a little downtime

Berlin

Spending too much time at home in the undisciplined and brainless way I do can be so provocatively unproductive. I already knew that but really only noticed it on my way to Berlin.

After hosting those two brilliant girls living in that city, N&A, I accepted their invitation to spend some time 600km up north of mine, check out the start of the Berlin Contemporary Art Biannual and the city itself. The car share I found to ride up there was of prime quality, it felt like riding on a train (my favorite motorized travel mean), calmly sitting, had some leg space, people were not talking... well, it had all it needed to be a quiet and enjoyable ride. After a meditative two hour nap, I picked up my notebook, my camera and started writing, sketching and taking pictures just for the hell of it.


That was the crucial moment of enlightenment, it was just so damn cool and pleasant not to be distracted by TV, internet, e-mails...

Berlin... oh what a city! For a start, on the way into its center, I noticed how Munich, compared to it, is so small. I would like to express my impression of the city with (lots of) simple words, but it's quite hard, there's just so much to see, do and experience over there.

Tacheles, the most touristic squat (not sure if it is 100% a real one) where artists stay to create, express themselves, expose (and sell?). There are other similar and more underground places, the ones not everybody know about (and where tourists do NOT go to) and which I will have to check out another time. When N&A came to Munich, they asked if there was anything like that over here... I know there are (or singular, is...) but they're not as "open" as this one... in the end, the most direct answer would be: no, there is/are none!

That place is a revolution in the making but with a touch of civilization. Hell, there is a bar on the last floor with a view over the yard and the side wall of the nearby building where some movies/pictures are projected. Some of the exposed art pieces are plain and pure crap but there are some interesting items, people and projects blooming there.







Kreuzberg, the brilliant neighborhood. Susi lives there and I can now understand why. A CS meeting was held there on Friday - a great opportunity to meet the local community and the event organizers.

People of that neighborhood are so chilled, restaurants so good, prices quite low (compared to munich), streets so busy, night-life so active, bars so cool...

Gosh... might I be thinking about moving over there?:D:D:D






Who said walking a dog could not be interesting? Lemon, Susi's trusted white, coarse hair, barking partner loves a walk in the park. That dog is a little white alpha-bitch that just ignores every dog or human while walking and sniffing its way, posting some pee-mails to keep the messaging with the other canines up-to-date.

Dog breeds over there are as varied as the hats their owners wear! I am not bitching, but all I see over here in good old M to the u, n, i, c, h are Jack Russell Terriers (cool energetic dog) and Labradors (gentle family dog). I guess/know that this city is trendy in a very classical and boring way.



It is not a city devoid of problems. Going there from where I live makes my eyes and ears open themselves out wide. There are lots of punks but not all are problematic - in the end it is just an attitude, a way of living... but those living on the edge, extreme-right racists can be an issue. I was told that among punks, they can be spotted by their black army boots with white shoelaces. (Note: Punks are just an example community here) The most publicly official statement of that "danger" situation is a nice, large orange sticker on the front door of every tram - the first emergency entry I ever saw.
"We provide protection against racist attacks"



The second time I was in Berlin, we went to a cool italian restaurant and during the meal, this woman with a big package comes in , talks to the owner, takes her harp out of the bag and plays for the well-fed audience (I already wrote about this, didn't I?)
This time around, we went to the b-flat jazzbar, it was jam session night. While the musicians were playing, this guy in a white shirt and thin black tie, jumps on the stage and jam-tap-dances! Some sax players take a turn later on but they never topped the the tap-dancer's act (now quickly say those last words five times in a row...).

I learned a new expression about the city shortly before this travel, "Berliner Schnauze", entirely related to the local city people hospitality. The best verbal picture I could get: the butcher you know for the last two years, still treats you the same despicable way and despises you the same way he does everybody else. The best graphic picture I could put my digital Canon eye on:


For those shamefully not blessed with some vocabulary of this beautifully romantic and sensual germanic language, the sign gracefully reads: "Hey, for your money, you get: warm beer, cold coffee, shit schnaps, old sausage and a bad service, BUT, warm water to wash your hands". They might have a berlin snout, humor seems nonetheless to be definitely part of that expression.


I love cheap useful tricks

Today some friends and I went to Becks Cocoa (in Munich), a comfy and cool little bar specialized in... you got it, cocoa! All the year long, they supply on saturdays and sundays breakfast for free, only drinks have to be paid for - a brilliant concept if you ask me and my wallet:)

I am going to jump briefly to another item...
Recently, a (excellent) photographer friend of mine showed me the most useful camera DIY idea ever - a String Tripod.
As brilliant as my IXUS70 can be, it has no image stabilizer, plus, I hate to carry lots of stuff around (just like everybody else), this is a superb small gadget to have at reach - mainly now that my photographic self (not to mistake with my photogenic self) is blooming.

I am still looking for the fitting 1/4 inch screw and get started, but there I was at Cocoa, capturing some precious moments without it (life still goes on, right...), but still really eager to prooftest the accessory. You know what? It was actually very simple to test the string stabilizer technique, I just held the camera up and with my left hand, pulled the wrist strap down. This causes tension in 2 directions: one down with the strap and the other one holding the camera, up... which actually stabilizes the image pretty well. There you go... TADAAA!!!!

Other than that super simple easy-does-it tip, there are alternative ways to stabilize that picture, I tried one and it looks like I managed to make it happen... it does require quite some mental effort, just check out that needle hitting the red-line on the brainpower-o-meter... yeah baby yeah...



saturday (night) cheers from the evil hypnotizing Dr. No...

n.-

Resuming it up in pictures and words

After a couple of days, I managed to trim the trip pictures down to around 180.

The Australia Show

Here are my quick thoughts on Australia, build up with the cunning use of a list and bullets:)

Australia...

• has the most uncommon and straight-to-the-point road signs I ever saw;
• is HUGE and I mean, REALLY HUGE;
• has an immense desert in the middle with a big red rock in its center (Uluru aka Ayers Rock);
• has the cities as far apart of each other as capitals in Europe;
• 's Queensland is packed with German backpackers;
• has some decent beers, but the best one is still James Boag's from Tasmania;
• is going through an economic boom, people have money and everything's expensive;
• 's ware transport is via trucks, which makes food prices fluctuate directly with the petrol's;
• can be extremely hot;
• has fantastic sceneries;
• has the most amazing sunsets;
• has some VERY touristic spots;
• has some GREAT music going on and I would like dedicate a "The Panics" song, "Get Us Home" to australia (it's unfortunately only a short clip);
• has the best public radio service I can remember of, Triple-J;
  

Australians:

• are easy-going, talkative, like to take a piss at themselves and have no problems expressing themselves;
• avoid the sun as if it was the devil, the skin cancer warning ads are real shockers;
• are real binge drinkers, they just don't know when to stop (just like brits);
• love to party (just like everyone else);
• have a great girl fashion item, the hot pants! Remember Kylie Minogue's "Spinning around" clip?
• have a great coffee culture, some places (like Perth) even kicked Starbucks (who likes that stuff?) out;

The city of:

• Melbourne is my favorite, alternative, cultural, flat, green, clean, the buildings look old, very classy, has a cool graffiti scene;
• Sydney is busy, large, expensive and not so alternative, lots of buildings are very modern and has a great harbor area;
• Perth has a small population and everything is so far apart, hence a desperate car need, but there are cool places and it is becoming more and more expensive;
• Brisbane has a nice Southbank, is kind of a mix between Melbourne and Sydney, tiny though;
• Cairns is totally tourist oriented, not very interesting indeed

These are my opinions based on my experience. I am sure some people would for example prefer Sydney over Melbourne. The fun factor was so influenced (totally influenced in fact) by the people I met, being it friends made in Europe (Judd, Noel or Mike), local CSers or my favorite travelmate, Heydi.

I would recommend anyone (who likes to backpack) to travel through Aus, being it alone or not, for at least 2 months. I leave a word of notice though, take some cash with you because it is NOT a cheap country, prices are very close to the european ones and there are LOTS of things to do and see. Couchsurfing is a really valuable asset to make the interaction with people living there a lot better. If someone's there to just go out, party and shag all the girl/guys he/she meets at a pub crawl, he/she is better off staying at hostels and leave CSing the f*** out of it. On the long run, the most affordable way to travel is to buy a used car, but make sure you know what you're buying:P

Getting to know the aborigines must be interesting and I shamefully admit I only read stuff, attended exhibits at the state museums and heard what people had to say about them:( There are lots of places where people can have the aboriginal (good and touristic) cultural experience, throwing the boomerang, playing a didgeridoo, painting... but then again, it's only part of their culture, the part with "Crocodile Dundee" written all over it and where no serious issues are explained. So a choice can be made, to get to know the dark side or not.

I hope to make this my last post about Aus. One month has passed since I got back to Munich and during that time, I managed to change some little but meaningful things about my CS activity and the way I see people and travels. The ideas for my next travels having been adjusted, I am decided to not travel alone anymore. In fact, more than ever, I believe that traveling with one's girl/boyfriend is a really tough test for the relationship and I sure will "use" that in the future. It's like cutting the crap and removing all the vernish by putting two people together 24/7, sharing the same space, meeting the same people all the time, experiencing each other's initiatives and influence on the decisions to make - every day, the path to take has to be chosen, everyday, at least one decision has to be made, being it simple or not. I particularly like sharing the "leadership", I could never be with someone that would always leave decision making to me or would write the whole travel plan without any room for flexibility.

Cheers to Australia and the Australians!

Aussie, aussie, aussie...

Oi, oi, oi!

Cheers guys,

n.-

the land of the British

I will remember to buy sleeping pills (because I forgot about it again) next time I take long flights! I flew from Sydney to Brunei on Wednesday noon. Once there, took another flight to Dubai and once there had a little time to stretch my legs before entering the same plane and endure the last 7h flight to London. At least I saw a couple of movies but don't remember any of them, that is how good they were, oh... except for Balls of Fury, a stupid comedy that still made me burst out some good laughs. The story revolves around the comeback of a ping pong prodigy in the underground world of this "exciting" game (really, there is a movie about that!!!).

To start my return, I initiated an update to my calendar with the new concerts in Munich and wow, was I surprised to see QOTSA, Portishead and Hot Chip! Sweeeeet! (the money to attend the venues is another thing). And to celebrate all this, I just added my little Google calendar to the side bar. I do have to find out how to change its color scheme, that baby blue clashes with the general blog color scheme! This is also a good opportunity to use Last.FM and use the "export to calendar" feature. While logged on to gmail, I found the Operator Please concert on Last.fm and choose to export to gmail (I cannot find the button anymore though:S) and gmail asks me if I want to import the event! This is really, really good, even if Google is the devil!

So yes, here I am in London for a second, better and longer time. The jetlag is still killing me, making me wake up at 7h30 each day. Although I landed wednesday, only yesterday did I have a productive tourist day. Along with Becka and Gabby, I strolled down Southbank, visited the From Russia exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. I still have a couple of other galleries and exhibits to see, but that should not happen this weekend, crowds are not 100% avoidable here but week days still are better! This last exhibition for example was packed on friday noon, quite hard to see some of the artworks.

Sidenote: I always remember about Provigil when feeling like shit as I am right now. The reports on its usage are to say the least... interesting.

The concert scene in London is incredible. There are just too many of them and it's hard to attend a decent one if tickets were not bought early enough. This is where Munich is actually good. Any concert that is not that from a mainstream or known band is almost guaranteed to happen in a small and cheap venue. I still remember Kashmir and The Rapture, I was 1m away from the band and did not have to arrive early and struggle through the crowd.

In the lack of more inspiration, I'll just leave a picture of yesterday's walk in the cold, dry and sunny London with one of its most emblematic icons.


Today's program includes but is not restricted to Camden Town and a night out somewhere with cool bars. Camden Town is the alternative borough of London where its markets are a good source of fashion articles and god knows I need gloves and a scarf to stand the cold!

n.-

PS: Once (my brain is) fully operational, I'll do a write-up of my travel, as succinct (yesterday's new word) as possible. There were lots of highlights and no real #1 favorite event. The people I met made it all so good.

The Sydney Experience

It is a limited one but still very positive.

I feel as if the whole scenario here has been a progressive return to my previous life, a fade-out of the travel mode into the "back to a cold and rainy winter" one. It's not that bad, really.

Slowly, while walking in the rain, over the Sydney Harbour Bridge, I realized how good it had been so far and the weather is just part of it, being neither bad or good (it's honestly shit, but I'm trying to be poetical, ok!).

It wasn't easy to get out of Bonnie's place today. I had no motivation whatsoever to put on my crappy thin and leaking rain jacket and get driping wet on my way into town.















My first 3 nights in Sydney were spent with Martin, an austrian guy living on Bondi Beach for 10 years already. I was his first real CSer (being the inagural guest is becoming a habit) and we got along pretty well.

Not only did we thrive on each other's music collection, we also had great Guitar Hero III jamming moments!

It's stupid, but it really made me wish I knew how to play a music instrument. One year ago, I bothered Hazel if she would teach me the piano, if I'd get one first of course... but then I never bought any! CSers and other things got in the way, adding a new occupation to my schedule would make me have to sacrifice another one. But the fact is, I also spent heaps of time playing Counterstrike CS until late at night:P or stupidly browsing the internet for videos and pretty much useless shit. I just had a call with Judd, another reminder that if I'd knew how to play, I could learn with him, he's absolutely great with one!

Martin had a guitar and that reminded me of the time my dad bought me one. I then traded that for an electrical one, worked a summer to buy a nice Marshall amp and ended up selling it all without making any progress. I guess I wasn't ready or motivated. I needed an external influence that would pull me because I was not able to do it by myself. Now, more than just a caprice, I will seriously consider it! A guitar is always something to take with while traveling and then learning/teaching with other people, just like I do with my poi.

Again, while walking on the bridge in the direction of its SE pylon, on the right was the Sydney Opera House. I do have clearer daylight pictures of it, but this one has a special meaning to me. It represents the moment I just thought "I am here, in Sydney".





Not that this city has any particular meaning to me, it's more the moment, the combination of this moody weather, a lone walk, the realisation that I flew to the other side of the world and finally the opera to represent the flag to symbolize the whole adventure.



While here, CS was again a good thing, Mike, the city embassador I had previously met in Munich, incentivated a meet-up.

I don't like to stay more than 3 days at a place, visits are like fish, they smell after that time. So I was REALLY happy to get a positive reply of Bonnie who lives with Eliza and Thomas. They're a good mix of good vibes, chilled out and young folks. Being very new at this (CS), they are still adjusting and doing their best to cope with the wave of people staying here before me. Two of them have this fantastic project, to drive around the world in a solar-powered car. Another guy is Ryota, a japanese traveller improving his english. I just wrote him some essential words on a mirror for him to practice his french (not english?) too:)

It's 9PM, I'm about to reach the end of this post, Bonnie is right now next to me sorting some papers out, we're in the living room (also her room) and if I step out the window, I can walk on this suspended roof with this view.

There are things that really look amazing and totally different from what you could have been experiencing so far but it doesn't mean you'd do it. Bonnie told me about this ConFest, the most awkward festival I ever heard of but very hippie and free-minded. I am not material for this kind of events but I liked the concept. People get together at a specific place in the bushes surrounded by water, take their tents and build an ephemeral town. There is no effective music stage for bands to play, basicly anybody does his thing, plays music, paints and all converse, comunicate and live in that little environment for a week. For anyone interested, it's in March:)

Enough for now. I am flying to London tomorrow and will land around 6AM on Wednesday. I will reach Munich by the 15th and get back to mi casa, where a broken washing machine awaits my care:) (and my cash:( ).

n.-

PS: I sent a postcard to myself, let's see who gets there first. I reckon the postcard has very good odds!

The Gabby mobile adventure

Gabby was my ride from Brisbane to Sydney.

I met her through the Gumtree.com.au ad website, similar to Craigslist but Aus oriented and much better looking.


We were supposed to meet before the travel. It is pretty obvious that a first meeting to evaluate my "psycho killer" factor and determine if I'd be safe to ride with, is part of the process. We ended up meeting when she picked me up. An initial phone call and the links to this blog and my CS profile served as a valid visit card:D


Sitting on the outside bench of the train station we set to meet earlier and sipping on an early morning coke (my easy coffee replacement) I only noticed her when she called me while jumping out of her car, all active, awaken and bubbly. The first impression was good but the 2 day ride was fabulous!


It took us 2 days to drive the 1000km down from Brissy, we stopped a couple of times and overnighted at a motel. She's a Brissy girl which made it quite easy for her to tell me all that sits around the HWY 1 although we did not visit anything, we were on a mission and it was no time to do touristy stuff!




We had heaps of fun on the way but the real treat was to finally meet someone who can literally sing while driving. Most of the people I know (including myself) only sing (scream...) when alone, but she has no problems with an audience! I got an introduction to some aussie and kiwi names, mostly female, but the really fun act was the musical Avenue Q's (wikipedia) soundtrack. How can one not like it? A bunch of puppets (or people dressed up) sing about adult themes, like homosexuality, racism, pornography, etc...

The "internet is for porn" song was one of my favorite ones; while a girl sings about what she uses the internet for, some guy adds "for porn" to every sentence. They are not telling anything new but it's a treat. "... let's grab our dick and double-click... for porn..."

Now imagine a girl happily singing to musical songs like those with a voice perfectly fitting the whole ensemble. It's difficult to find a better travel companion quality than that:) (she was too good to sing "Raindrops are falling on my head" like I did and massacred Heydi with)

On the way, the marvels of RSLs were shown to me by G, a good place to get cheap beer and if the heart is falling for it, have fun with retired people:P I am happy as long as there is no goon around - that stuff is guaranteed headache the morning after. Only members are allowed in such a place, but after writing down an address and a little signature on a detachable piece of document they provide, a temporary membership is obtained. Every day, at a certain time, a little recorded speech in honour of those lost in the war is proclaimed through the speakers. I did not notice until I saw an old woman standing straight and staring silent on the top of the stairs. Fortunately no one got offended by my little accidental lack of respect.

We passed through so many little towns. Although all different, they have the same bases, a pub, a petrol station, a motel... At some point I imagined that aussies don't really "need" to do the poethical-trendy american coast-to-coast car ride. All imaginable kind of sceneries can be found here too, deserts, rain forests, lost-in-time and space little towns... so why bother:)

I actually recorded little time-lapse movies about our arrival to Sydney. They're REALLY short, I promise.







We arrived in Sydney well and sound a little bit after 14. Although I did spend more $$$ than I would have if I'd taken a bus or a plane, making a new friend totally surpasses that thought. I was bedazzled by her smiles, some of the most sincere ones I have ever seen.

It was hard to enter the city, there are lots of suburbs to (slowly) cross before being able to reach the city center!

We said goodbye after she took me to Central Station. I took a train to Bondi to then reach Martin's place, my 1st CSer in Sydney.


Scenes of the next episodes:

• Martin and I rockin hard;
• Sydney's weather has been shit;
• the super cool and lose house where Bonnie, Eliza and Thomas host CSers;
• The Opera House and so on...;
• my first Kangaroo meat experience;

N.-

Why do the tourist when CS is there?

Untold scenes between the ones from the last and the next episode...

• left Townsville after staying with Lana and then Jason;
• Maria traveled to Airlie Beach first and did an initial hostel scouting as I found no available host;
• after doing not much in AB, said goodbye to Maria and take on an 19hr coach ride from there to Brisbane;
  

Mie Yamamoto, a smiley, tiny, cute little japanese girl living in Brisbane was my first host in the city. She lived very close to West End, the hip neighborhood, a tiny version of Melbourne's Brunswick St.

Another guy was aready crashing there, Gabriel, a very, very easy going American who had done a fair bit of traveling and living outside the US. It was real fun to hear him comfortably speak in japanese with Mie, it made me envious:)

I thought I'd take a look of the city, check out the Andy Warhol exhibition at the GoMA and other worthy sightseeings.

Almost none of that happened! I ended up going to the GoMA when it was closing, at 5PM!!!! Djeezus Kreist!!! Are the employees all in a hurry to go down to the pub or what?

Whatever!

After a couple of visits to the state library's free internet access computers, I spotted and joined a CS meeting, a post-Australia day trip to Springbrook. The forum was a bit foggy, it was not confirmed how many people would show up and how many cars would be available to take us.

Beni, one of the most, it not THE most active CSer in Brisbane offered his flat as a place to meet and drive away. Everyone and more showed up, and by the time we reached the beach, we had 20 people in 5 cars!

The beach... I can only think of how awful it must be to have such a white and sensitive skin that any extra ray of sun results in a sunburn. I just say that because, thanks to my origins, I am a tanneable and tanned little man. But rest assured, I sunburned too while snorkeling and eventually, part of the skin on my shoulderblades peeled off already. By the look of the weather forecast for Sydney, I don't think I will get any more sun to remediate that before I leave on Tuesday:(

We had fun at the beach. The silica sand was squeaky. Every hard step in it felt like I had rubber boots:P This was the ideal place and time to get to meet everybody. This is one of the marvels abouts CS and the meetings. Nobody's really judging or restricting contact with other people, joy and fun and easily expressed without any remorse. Buuut... it can happen that I encounter people I (or anyone else) consider really boooring... but this was not the case, not by far!

Megan for example, she's absolute brilliant! Sparky, funny, has a fab laugh and heaps to talk about. I absolutely loved that girl. In her honour, I leave one of my favourite pics of the day where she's the star:)

Earlier last year in Munich, I met Noel at a CS meeting in the OF premises. Brie was the organizer at that time, Noel and his mom were there. He was part of this group and he hadn't changed at all. I like him but now, after how this trip has influenced me to interact, I found it so much easier to talk now. The whole environment was better now, but I believe I was so much more open. Staying too long in the same spot is not good for me...

After the beach, we finally headed out to Springbrook. Beni's plan was to go on a bush walk but there was not enough time for that after our picnic. So we stuck with other plans that sublimely filled our day through the night.

First, the waterfall... a-m-a-z-i-n-g!

Let's make a deal, we all agree that pictures never pay real tribute to the real thing, right?

Then, the natural bridge. Water comes down into this cave, the pond it falls into is swimmable and we all decide to take a dip in this freezing water.

This cave is the home of little bats and glow worms. When the night comes, the first ones fly away and the latter do what they are supposed to... they glow:) The most amazing items are actually not the worms, but the mushrooms found on the way. I am sure a junkie would think about taking them trying to make his own eyes glow. It's almost as if they were growing next to Springfield's power plant.

Checking out nature and all its wonders (I am about to shed a tear now) is really great, but the whole day was good because we were a big group and we all got along. I mean, if we'd go for something longer, I am sure, the people's cranky side would show up and conflict... but then again... that's not what this was about.

As always, I carry my toys around, just like kids do. When the night is at its darkest in the middle of a hill between the trees, my LED glowing Poi come into play and do what they do best, entertain and impress. I love them and I love meeting people willing to spin them, even if they are not particularly gifted for it. I am definitely not gifted to spin poi, I can what I do thanks to practice. After a little snack on the road, we ended up at Warren's place in Surfers Paradise, had a beer and left home to sleep!

Most of us met up the following day at a park in Brisbane. Our whole day event went so well that an additional meeting was just a natural thing to happen.

For that occasion, I thought of taking my new host in Brisbane with me, Elizabeth. I had to leave Mie's and it's always good to surf other people's couches and have them integrate the local community if they desire.

Once more and definitely better this time, we had a poi spinning teaching session. The most curious moment in these teaching sessions happened with Sivan, she could do a forward 3 beat weave (low-complexity forward spin), but could not do the most easy thing, spin backwards and do eights:)


I ended my days in Brisbane with a little solo tour on a rainy day, met up with Sivan (a beautiful israeli girl, with a great sense of humour and a very good human touch feeling) and Mie for a last meal, drink and conversation and set myself on the way home to Elizabeth's. The next day I took the bus and met with my next great fun provider, Gabby, to get a ride in her car down to Sydney.


Before moving on, this is all to say that although I did not visit Brisbane per se or as it "should" be done in the regular touristy terms, I had a blast and do not regret not having seen more city things.


My favourite pic of Brisbane... just a bronze man... contemplating...



More about Gabby later on. It's already 18:30, I haven't done much, Martin and I will



N.-

Coming down the coast

Cairns could be called the starting point of the backpack trail along the east coast.

The city itself is not that attractive and the main street, the Esplanade, is filled 50/50 with Tour Agencies and Restaurants/Cafes. Again, not much to see unless you want to book something to do.

Close to the Esplanade is the Lagoon though, a big treated water pool leveled barely above the sea level. The public toilets/showers are better than the ones from the hostel I was staying at (Gilligan's is said to be the best, mine, the Bohemian is not worth the money), so this quickly became my favorite freshen-up spot.

I bought a Greyhound Australia coach ticket in the morning and booked my first trip from here down to Townsville. I came a bit too late and after checking out of the hostel at 9AM, I could then only take the 1PM bus...

This is where the Lagoon shows its value - when there is nothing else to see or do, take a dip in the mild sweet water under the scorching sun and relax in the shade of the surrounding trees.

The sun was already there, combining with the tropical humidity, I hauled my (heavy) stuff to a bench where a couple of swedes were resting, asked them to keep an eye on my bags and splash... here I go for a veeery welcome dive.

As the time to leave got closer, I spent my time chit-chatting with the swedes (not the easiest task in the world I tell you), snacked and prepared to leave.

One thing I haven't said yet, is that the east coast is packed with german backpackers. It's incredible, I feel in Germany here and that is NOT what I was looking for when I decided to travel in Aus!

Oh well, it could be worse... and I'll tell you how when I can think of anything worse...

In the coach, I met Maria, a... german girl:) She's a very happy, bubbly and photogenic girl from Landshut, a place very close to Munich. Worthless to say that we spent the whole ride speaking in german, but it was fun.

Rolling a bit back in time: before leaving Cairns, I searched for some couches in Townsville and hurray, I took two numbers to contact with me. Returning back to the present...

As Maria did not yet book a place ot stay, I proposed her to stay with me at Lana's and her mother's place in Townsville. CS was a total new concept for her, so she was quite... dubious about such an adventure. Not only did I have a bed at Lana's, Jason, who was very keen on hosting, was also offering his place. M did not want to stay at my first offer (Lana) and I wasn't up to quit on Lana so Jason could have been an obvious choice for her. OK, she would be a girl, staying alone in a stranger's place and she'd spend a night (or more) there. In fact, 2 guys live at Jason's... I can only think of what M was thinking "this is getting dodgier by the minute...". In the end, I should be the one with doubts about such an arrangement! In fact, the guys are gay, which means M would be in a perfectly safe haven.

I wish she had accepted the offer, J was a real fab and offering host. I crashed there for my second and last night in TV. He did go out of his way to show us around town, give us the sights and some hints. I hope this little demo about CS and hospitality were enough to convince M to join and give it a try. And here a snapshot of the happy trio high above TV, on Castle Hill.



I ended up staying at J's after his invitation and because he would be able to take me to the coach terminal when driving to work. Lana (and Maxine, her mother) were my hosts for my start in TV.

Drifting a bit aside... My contact with wildlife has been rather scarse for the last times... I actually can't remember the last time I petted/touched a wild animal.

L&M are wildlife care takers. They are part of a small group of people taking care of injured or sick wild animals (not pets). While I was there, they got a call on their 24/7 duty phone - a possum had been attacked by dogs. The lady brought the little animal in but it wasn't too seriously injured. The little fellow was more affected by hunger and thirst than by his injuries. He was about to be put down as he had only one eye, but after a vet call, we got the confirmation that he should be able to learn how to survive like that.

Just imagine holding this 250gr little animal in your hand, he's shaking a bit, everything around him is new and strange, he's been handed from one pair of hands to another but now he's warming up in this towel and somebody is handing him a plastic nipple to suck on for some water. Oh and does he love it! A piece of fruit has the same effect, he grabs it with his 2 tiny long-nailed hands and enjoys evey little bite he takes at it. They agreed that the little had been abandoned by his mother. After being released, he would need to learn to survive on his own and stay away of dogs.

The same night, L, a diplomed zoologist, had to put down 2 birds - they had a virus and the treatment was not able to improve their state. What looks simple and downward fair, an euthanasia performed on two little birds, is just... I don't know how to describe it, but something dies inside you at the sight of the last struggle an animal offers and the fading out laying down of the head.

L looks at me and says "you get used to it with time...", she had noticed the look on my face.

More about the post-TV happenings in a later post.

n.-

Arrived in Sydney, now what?

Wow, it has been a while since I had a moment to sit at a computer and type something more than emails and picture descriptions.

I arrived in Sydney yesterday and as it is so brightly told by the picture on the right, I have many reasons not to want to step out of the house today and visit the city.
I'm staying at Martin's place on Bondi beach (the picture's background IS the ocean).

















I'll start by summing up what happened since my last post (after the pub crawl and the sailing cruise the following morning):

• Booked a hop-on/hop-off coach (Bus) from Cairns to Brisbane and chose Townsville as my first stop;
• stayed for two nights in TV and traveled further down to Airlie Beach where I did not do much, mainly because I had to reconsider costs;
• took a deep breath and enjoyed a last coach ride down to Brisbane;
• in Brisbane (Brissy or Bris Vegas), had a blast with the local CS community until I traveled further down to Sydney;

n.-

H&N through South WA

Resuming the tale of the portuguese guy and the finnish girl through WA...

In a chronological order, going down from Perth and back, we spent our nights in Bunbury, Margaret River, Big Brook (Pemberton) and Walpole. Couchsurfing was our friend for the first 2 locations and all our hosts were great in their own way.
As promised, we had a little dive (so-to-say) in Geoff's Spa. The night was cold but the 36 degrees warm water and a 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon recommended by G made it all sooo much better. It was the last night of our time at his place, a house where I immediately felt the "neat-freak" hand on. I loved it!

On our way further south, we h-hiked to Pemberton. We asked the retired couple that took us to leave us at the Gloucester tree or the Bi-centennial tree. As we found the bi-centennial one, we had a got at it. It's basically a tree with steel rods inserted in a spiral all the way up to the tree. There is NO security measure whatsoever, under the steel rods is the ground... I climbed up 1/3rd of the tree to the little platform and I immediately felt I should not go further up. Heidi, as Malcolm our "driver" said, has got some monkey in her and she climbed all the way up to the 75mts high platform. For the moment we were on it, the tree was all german. The rest of the climbers were either swiss or german...
Malcolm and his wife were patiently waiting next to our backpacks, they did not want to leave us alone and our luggage unattended which was very sweet of them. So after this little walk in the heights, they drove us further to our intended destination.
Pemberton is a little town where nothing happens but is surrounded by walk tracks, camping places, woods etc... We took the afternoon to walk part of the Bibbulmun track - it's an almost 1000km long track that crosses from Perth to South WA - until we reached the Big Brook Dam and its closeby camping site.
This would be the first and only time we'd use the tent we had with us:) We got settled pretty easily and spent the rest of the day speaking in german to a nearby couple. They're currently travelling through Aus in a motorhome with their three sweet little daughters.
No matter how sleepy I was, not having a foam mattress or alike to sleep on, made me wake up to turn around x amount of times on the unflattened ground:( But it was all good, the sore back was just a reminder of what camping can be/is about. Relatively early in the morning we had a ride from some other campers back to Pemberton where we hh'ed further from to a better located road crossing.

There, the best ride ever shows up! Two guys in a red car stopped 50mts down the road to give us a lift. They were on their way to Walpole which is the closest place to the famous Tree Top Walk. Coincidence enough, they were also to check out that same attraction:) Before going there, we stopped at a cabin next to a lake where these guys (Damien and Ryan) would stay.
So, not only was Damien a CSer, but they invited us to stay at the cabin. In a matter of minutes, we got:

• a ride and company to the Tree Top Walk;
• a place to stay for the night;
• a ride back to Perth, as Damon was driving back um the following night.

After a walk with the boys on the 38mts high metal structure (TTW) we had a blast at their party the same evening and some wind-in-the-face fun boat ride to fish on the lake the following morning. Damo hadn't been hosting for so long, this was in some way a contribution to the CS community and the whole traveller's experience.

For H and I, that week ride down south WA was the chance to enjoy the hospitality and kindness of so many people. Again, people make any place worthwhile. I would recommend hitch-hiking the same way we did. The two difficulties involved are the risks taken and the important amount of time needed.

Heidi is really really a great person and traveler. It was all so easy with her. In the end, it was a great expereince with the things we both brought to the journey.

That whole week was relatively unplanned, we had some markers on our map but no dates, the journey unfolded on the go and I reckon it ended up pretty good:D

That was it, more to write about next time...

N.-

splash splash in the indian ocean

Perth is behind us. Heydi (Hey-Dee and not Hi-Dee) and I met up and decided to travel together for a while. We're flying to Melbourne on the 3rd and we'll see how long until we split, she's staying longer in Oz than I am and has thus another agenda. We took off from Peth on monday, Christmas eve, to hitch-hike our way down south of Western Australia.

Our first stop was Bunbury. Nothing's really worth mentioning about this place except for Jen, the CSer that took us in for 3 days. Yes, we spent christmas with her and her family by the pool. We really did not have a choice, people here either have a pool, a spa (jacuzzi) or both.

In the beginning, telling people we'd be hitch-hiking put an expression of surprise and fear on their face, we were then warned that WA is not the best place. As always, that is quite a subjective piece of information and we ended up having no trouble at all. The first guy (big jeep), who showed up after we barely waited for 10mins, told us we were not on the best road for h-hiking. He dropped us further down the highway and it took us 5 mins to get those 2 cool guys (and a big jeep) who took us right to where we needed. Again, we can't really complain. Fact is, H a girl, which accelerates the process of finding a ride. Me and my 5-day beard, must be able to give assholes a second thought about giving us a ride. A match made in heaven:)

In one of these cars, Heydi and I were deciding about what to do next, Jen was cleaning the garden and we heard the beaches here were fab. We chose to be good people and show up sooner to help her with the cleaning. I think we deserved our little place for those 3 days, the place just outside their house where we were having the BBQ looked fab after our work.

So, after the h-hiking, the BBQ at christmas and nights by the pool, we're in Margaret River, which is a world renowned place for its wine. We're going on a winery tour tomorrow. After some tips, we know which companies to avoid. It looks like 80 aussie dollars will get us a tour through 3-4 wineries and a brewery with lunch included. I can't wait:)

The CSer we're staying at right now is 5* (he has a big jeep). He took us to the beach where he met up with some of his folks (and their kids) and we had a great time, all were really cool and relaxed. I got a special treat during our time there. While snorkling, I spotted a stingray! Just 2 meters away, I saw what I thought was "just" a big fish, it was in fact one of these beautiful flying creatures (one of the kind that killed Crocodile Hunter this year).

I might get my tan before flying over to the east coast after all. Not only did we have a sunny christmas, it was a BOILING one, something not seen in a looong time. I was twice at the beach today. On the first time, I could feel the roast effect of the 1PM sun, 40degrees, ouch!


Being the good boy that I (can be) am, I already contributed with some computer troubleshooting at our CSer's place. So tomorrow, after a day spent at the wineries, I'll enjoy a time in the spa... yes, he's got one!

One of the oddities I will bring back home (as dumb as it sounds) is a Stubby Holder. It's a neoprene cup for botttles and cans. Come on, how can they not have this in Portugal? It looks really... stupid... but it DOES keep the beer fresh longer:) and even avoids the can/bottle from sliding down your hand.

Our time here is getting short, H has got a bad cough and fever (she's recovering in the guest room while I compose this post) and we still want to hit down south to Walpole, Denmark and Pemberton for the karri tree forests (Valley of giants) and its Tree Top Walk. After all that, we're going back to Perth and get ready for a new year party.

cheers

n.-

P.S.: No pics, I am sorry... later on, ok?