Australia 2008

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Singapore – a great stop-over!

Posted by Chiquita on August 3, 2008
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We left Australia on the 19th of March and headed onwards to do Singapore in two days, before going home.

After checking out of our hostel in Cairns we got a lift from the hostel by their own shuttle. When arriving at the airport Peter and I had a silly little argument about what to eat for lunch, maybe we were nervous about going home.

First we flew Cairns-Darwin. I sat next to a very talkative guy (bordering too talkative), but I took my mind of flying a bit so that was fine.

We spent around an hour at the very small airport in Darwin, before flying onwards to Singapore where we landed at 19:40 in the evening.

We grabbed a taxi to our hotel  Parkroyal on Kitchener in Little India. The hotel looked quite exclusive even if the area it which it was located did not. The district in which the hotel was located was very busy and had lots of cheap little food places and a huge, hectic, and famous mall called Mustafa. However we were exhausted after our travels from Australia and decided we’d have a early night in order to feel well rested for our one and only day in Singapore.

When we woke the following morning the skies looked quite grey. One of the things we were eager to to was visit Sentosa Island and the beach. But since the weather didn’t look that great we decided we would start with some shopping on Orchard Road. But before heading out for a busy day of sight-seeing we had a lovely breakfast at the hotel. To my delight you could order your own omelet and eggs, according to your own wishes.

Then we headed for Orchard Road, to which we travelled by subway. The Singapore subway certainly lived up to Singapore’s reputation of being very tidy, not a single piece of garbage to be seen anywhere. We did Orchard Road in a couple of hours, my purchases accumulated in some cheap but cute earrings. We were getting very warm and hungry and decided to head for lunch at Sentosa Island.

You can travel to Sentosa by several ways, we took the cable-car, taking only minutes to get there from the city and enjoying a great view. Sentosa Island is a very well kept little island with lovely beaches, beautiful gardens, a marine park and feel a little like an amusement park with beaches. To get to the beach from the cable-car station we took some bumper like cars down the hillside, this was a fun way to start our afternoon on Sentosa, which within minutes fell in love with.

After a stroll a long the beach we ended up at a lovely restaurant, Café del Mar, where we decided to have lunch. They had a whole concept including music, a swimming pool and beach club. Perfect as they warned for marine creatures in the sea and I didn’t feel brave enough to go in, so the pool came well in handy. But this time it was really warm, maybe the warmest we had had during our whole trip.

Peter had gone for jeans and a long-sleeved shirt on this day, judging the temperature to be cooler after having woken up to grey skies. So he was more then happy to change to bathing trunks and enjoying a cool pool and bears!

After a lovely afternoon on Sentosa we headed for Raffle’s Hotel and of course the famous Singapore Sling. Yes, it was expensive, being a total tourist trap, but you can’t travel this far and then be to mean not to have one… However it tasted good and we enjoyed ourselves, peeling the famed peanuts and enjoying and slurping on our drinks.

Then we headed for Clarks Quay, a lovely area full of restaurants in the harbour. We were both struck by the enormous amount of restaurants, and neither of us believed to have seen so many in the one and same area. Of course we had a difficult time deciding which one to go to, being totally spoilt for choice. Eventually we chose a cosy one right down by the water and enjoyed a meal before heading back to the hotel, after a long but very good day of sightseeing.

The following day we decided to go back to Sentosa, after having enjoyed it some much on our first day. It was much busier getting there, since people seemed to be on Easter holiday I guess. We went to an other beach then the first day and enjoyed more sun, food and drinks on the beach. Then we headed back to our hotel, had a swim at the hotel pool and cleaned ourselves up after the beach.

Before heading for the airport we had a quick look at the Mustafa mall, but it was a bit to hectic for us and we decided to leave it and head straight for the airport.

Singapore airport is great! We enjoyed a very tidy and peaceful airport with free Internet, sweets and massage machines. Then came our longest flight during our whole trip, 12 hours to Frankfurt.

We arrived crazy early in the morning after a good flight (had 3 seats to share, which allowed us to get some shut eye) and found Frankfurt airport to be under construction with very confusing and misleading signs. This resulted us in running around for quite some time, confused and frustrated as to where to check-in for our onward travel to Gothenburg. But, finally we managed.

When we arrived at Landvetter it was 10:20 in the morning and a total winter wonderland, with masses of snow, quite a contrast to what we had experienced during our 5 weeks of travels! Anneli, Peters sister, drove us home, passing my parents on the way to pick up plants and say hi and then finally dropping us off at our home sweet home on Klareborgsgatan 36C.

When it rains it Cairns

Posted by Peter on August 2, 2008
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Wow, it’s really raining in Cairns!

We arrived very early in the morning, somewhere around 6 am, and after a phone call to the hostel we were picked up and driven to our home for the next four days.

Cairns isn’t that big but still we managed to book a hostel on the outskirts of downtown. This means it took us 5 minutes by car to get downtown. :-)

It rained the entire time the first two days and then it was full on sunshine the following two days. Pretty good I reckon.

The first day we had the famous “forgotten the name”-pie at a local cafe. And then we just strolled around town trying to find something interesting to see or do, we didn’t really manage. Anyway, after walking around for a while we found the big mall. It was freezing cold inside, once again the air-con was spewing out cold air to a maximum. Why do they do that? I couldn’t be bothered walking around in shops so after a healthy Burger King meal I went to the movies (and saw Vantage Point) while Chiquita went shopping.

We got a tip on a restaurant from a very nice girl in the reception so after a short taxi cab ride we ended up at the rather fancy Waterbar & Grill down by the water. We were dressed like backpackers, and all the other weren’t. But, our money was as good as theirs, so we got served. I had steak and Chiquita had a Mediterranean platter. The steak was decent, but Chiquita’s platter was really good! Yum!

The next day we were up bright and early to go to Kuranda. There had been a land slide over the railway tracks during the night, so unfortunately we couldn’t go by the scenic railway but the cable car ride was working. It was very nice going over the hills like that. We had two stops before Kuranda. One in the rain-forest and one at a waterfall.

It’s much more humid here (Cairns and Kuranda especially) that the rest of the places we had visited during our Australian trip. In the southern parts there is drought and here there is an abundant amount of water. The heat was more of a sticky, moist heat up here which made you feel rather yucky all the time. But since everyone else probably felt the same it was alright.

Kuranda is a small town with lots of Aboriginals, and Aboriginal art. The also have a market that’s kinda famous I guess. We strolled around, had a mediocre lunch, browsed the market and then went home. Couldn’t really say that it was worth it, but the trip there was kinda nice.

The girl at reception tipped us of another restaurant as well, so unimaginative as we are we went to that one as well. We did, however, stroll around for somewhere else to go but nothing really stuck out. It was a lovely pasta place and I had a lovely spaghetti something (that I now don’t remember).

We woke up bright and early again for yet another day trip, this time to Cape Tribulation which is located within the Daintree National Park and the Wet Tropics World Heritagearea. It is (apparently) the worlds oldest now living rain-forest and has lots and lots of plants and wild life undiscovered anywhere else.

For me it was just yet another rainforest, but still nice to see.

The day-trip involved a trip to (yet another) zoo. But this one was fun to go to since we now got to pet the kangaroos and wallabies and get really, really close to them. We also got to see a Joe up close. It was, I think, the best zoo.

After the zoo we went to Mossman Gorge and swam in the river. It was a bit cold but felt rather good.

So, when we had freshened up a bit in the river we went to Cape Tribulation and watched the rain-forest meet to barrier reef. Lots of stingers in the water so you couldn’t swim but that was OK. We had lunch at a (I guess) fancy resort there and then we headed back home (after a quick stop to wander in the rain-forest of course).

On the trip back home we also went crocodile hunting. We were pretty lucky and got to see two baby crocs, an eagle (of some sort), two pythons and one hell of a tour guide. He looked bushy, like he didn’t like people – but he was alright.

We were both pretty tired after the long trip so we just had a bbq at the hostel and then crashed.

Next day, up at daylight for some snorkeling at the Great Barrier Reef. I was somewhat reluctant to go since we had had such a good time in Airlie Beach (didn’t want to ruin that impression with something not so good) but boy, am I glad we went.

 We went with Ocean Spirit to Oyster Reef and Upolu Reef and they too were totally different to each other. From what I have seen of the Great Barrier Reef I consider this trip to be absolutely magical when it comes to the corrals, the colours were vibrant and it felt like swimming in an aquarium. We never did get to see a turtle but Chiquita (I’m so envious) got to see a reef shark. I was in the water perhaps twice as much as Chiquita but I didn’t get to see any shark, it really unfair.

The lunch buffet on the boat was also amazing. I had the best shrimps (or whatever they were). I was so happy we took this trip.

We left Cairns and Australia the next day to start our journey home.

Thank you Oz, you are magnificent!

And I must say that Chiquita did a truly exceptional and absolutely amazing job when planning and booking and organising our trip. Everything was planned, that needed planning, nothing left to chance, nothing not looked at. Everything ran smoothly and was just right. Thank you my darling for all you hard work (and for me nagging about it when you did it)!

Are the Dingos dancing on Fraser?

Posted by Peter on April 17, 2008
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Well, after a short bus ride we arrived at Hervey Bay around 8pm. Since it was a Sunday and we saw lots and lots of churches and other religious buildings and stuff, and since Hervey Bay is a small town we figured that perhaps shops and restaurants close early so when we saw Subway nearby we went there to get dinner to go.

The hostel was nice and clean and we got a very nice room (even though the air-con didn’t work). We ate our subway and got to bed pretty early.

Rise and shine. Today is Fraser Island day!

The weather was pretty horrible. Warm but grey skies and rain in the air. We drove to ferry and the ferry took us to Fraser Island.

I’ll tell you up front. I’m not all that impressed with Fraser Island. It’s a sand island, yes. it’s got Dingos, yes. It’s got lakes, yes. It’s got rainforest, yes. It’s got miles and miles of beaches, yes. But, what’s it all for when the sand make for one hell of a bumpy ride, and you never see the dingos, and it rains in the rainforest, and you can’t swim at the beach?

But enough of me ranting and being negative. Lake McKenzie was very nice (but it would have been nicer if it hadn’t rained) and it felt good to swim in a lake with crystal clear water (instead of the murky ones in Sweden). The sand was perfectly white and beautiful. I wonder what it would look like when the sun shines on it?

Half an hour after we left Lake McKenzie the sun came out and all clouds disappeared and it turned out to be a truly wonderful day. But hey, that’s life.

We had a so-so lunch and after that drove on the 7 mile long beach, had a walk in a small river, and saw the shipwreck Maheno (got some really nice shots of Chiquita there).

There definitely are some great scenery on Fraser Island, and things to see but nothing really (in my humble opinion) that stands out to make Fraser Island a must see whilst in Australia.

All in all, though, it was a good day and we enjoyed our-selves very much.

Busy in Brisbane

Posted by Chiquita on April 15, 2008
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We arrived in Brisbane early afternoon on the 5th of April and it was nice an warm even if the skies were a little grey. We could tell it was getting warmer, the further North we were traveling. It was very exciting seeing Kristina and Mike again, especially since they are having a baby very soon!! When we arrived at their apartment, just outside of Brisbane, we had some drinks and caught up little before going to Kristina’s mum, Gunilla, for dinner. Gunilla’s house was only minutes away and it was great to see Gunilla again and also meet Kristina’s dad Barry for the first time. Kristina who grew up in this house took us for a tour of the house. Before dinner Gunilla had us harvest a pineapple from her garden. To our, or at least my, surprise this grew on a little bush and not a tree as I thought! After this, we had a very tasty chilly fish, that Kristina’s mum is famous for and I can understand why, it really was very good!
 
The next day (6th of March) we traveled 45 minutes to Surfer’s Paradise and had a swim and a look around. It was fun to see, since one has always heard so much about it. After that we went to have a gorgeous steak for lunch back in Brisbane. This was followed by a trip to Garden City mall, were we had a quick look around and then went to the movies, so called Gold Class movies. Mike had been very secretive about this part of the day (Kriss was eager to tell us, but Mike wanted it to be a surprise) and we were excited to learn, that we would enjoy very comfortable reclining seats and being served drinks, ice-cream and other goodies through out the movie. After this, we all said we never wanted to go to the regular movies again! After a busy day we relaxed at the apartment in the evening.
 
We probably had one of our most busy days throughout our whole trip on the 7th of March. In the morning Kristina and Mike had to go a doctors appointment for the pregnancy, so Peter and I just hung out at a café for a bit. When they returned we all went to The beautiful South Banks, where we had breakfast at a restaurant down by The Brisbane River. The weather was lovely and breakfast was tasty. Then we went for a walk through the Botanical Gardens to get to the pier where Kristina and Mike had book us all on a cruise along The Brisbane River. While enjoying the sights of the River we also enjoyed cheese and wine, which was included in the tour. This, while an unusually small and somewhat strange man, who I believe was the boat’s captain told us about Brisbane. Unfortunately, we couldn’t hear a word he was saying but that was fine and we went onto the deck and enjoyed the sun. After the boat tour, we continued to enjoy The area of South Banks and I cooled my feet off in the water at the very nice man made beach (there are sharks in the Brisbane River and for obvious reasons one can’t going swimming there). We strolled along the River to the museum for an interesting and colorful exhibition featuring Andy Warhole. At the exhibition, there was the possibility to have your photo taken and rearranged to look like the famous Andy Warhole pictures with four pictures in one, each fourth being in a different shade. This was fun but for some reason Peter and I kept on looking like complete morons in our photos haha… After this we had dinner at a very tasty Turkish restaurant still in South Banks, followed by a comedy show at the theater. Mike and Kristina had arranged for the best seats and we really, really enjoyed the show. Also, it felt good to finally take on something cultural during our vacation! After this I started to feel quite sick like I was coming down with a cold, Peter and Mike felt it a bit too, so we headed off the pharmacy for some drugs…
 
The next day, 8th of March, we all felt a little better after a sleep in and we did a trip to the mall Carindale. I enjoyed shopping, whilst the others went to a movie, 10’000 BC. While at the mall Kristina and Mike also showed us the very spot where the met in the children’s toy department. Then back home for a a rest, before we went to the Mount Coot-tha Lookout and The Summit Restaurant which offered a great view of Brisbane by night. After dinner we were supposed to go to a desert place in The Valley in the city, that Kristina really wanted to take us to but unfortunately the line was half way around the block and we decided to change our plans. We went to “Cold Rock”  instead, where you can pick lots of goodies to be crushed and mixed in with your ice-cream and then headed home.
 
On the 9th of March, Kristina and Mike very kindly drove us 2,5 hours North of Brisbane to Noosa, where we were to start the part of our trip that would be carried out by Greyhound bus. When arriving in Noosa we where all starving and headed staright for lunch along the main street of Noosa. After lunch we headed for the beach and had a lovely walk and foto session. We also caught a qlimtz of a surfing contest! Then we headed back to the mainstreet of Noosa, had ice-creams and checked out a little gallery with some really great nature pictures of Australia. Then it was unfortunately time to say good-bye and Krisitna and Mike headed off home and Peter and I waited for our ride North at the bus-station… We couldn’t believe how much we had managed to fit in during or time in Brisbane, this of course all thanks to Kristina and ike’s very well planned tour of all of the best Brisbane has to offer! Kristina and Mike, we really can’t thank you enough, we had an amazing time! 

Oh Sydney my Sydney

Posted by Peter on April 5, 2008
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Finally we arrived in the greatest city in the world, Sydney!

After a short taxi ride and installment at our hostel in Kings Cross we bought curry, and beers, and wine, and went to a little park overlooking the Sydney Skyline. The weather was nice and warm and the curry tasted just like it did when I was there in 2001, fantastic!

After the little picknick we went down to Woolloomooloo and to Mattias and Fredrik’s old flat on Harmer Street. Took a picture and sent to Mattias. After this we continued to the Botanic Gardens and the Sydney Opera where we stopped for a glas of Sydney Opera Champagne (sparkling). Yum!

On our way home we also went up the Sydney Tower and had a wonderful view of Sydney from above. We were dead tired and for dinner we had a cheese sandwhich in the room and then we fell alsleep.

The next day was Parade Day but we started the day walking from Bondi eack to Coogee Beach. It’s a very nice walk and even though it was very windy it was still nice and warm. Once we arrived in Coogee we found a table in the beergarden of Coogee Bay Hotel and had lunch. Lovely! Chiquita loved it as well and wanted to do the walk again, but time was short and it couldn’t be squeezed in, unfortunately.

Then came the parade. We rented (boght) milk crates to stand on in order to see anything of the parade and we got a really good spot to stand at. The parade was ok, but a little long (for my liking). I also expected it to be more, more like Rio or something with lots of drag queens and stuff but it wasn’t really like that.

After the parade ended (we left 30 minutes prior to the ending in order to get ahead of the crowd) we went to the massive after party arena. We payed loads of money for the tickets and I was just about to get into the mood when Chiquita wanted to go home. When had been at the party for three hours and payed 300 AUS dollars for the tickets. That’s expensive! I missed Agnelli and Nelson thanks to Chiquita wanting to go home early. :sad:

Since we didn’t party all night the day before we were still in pretty good shape so of we went to Darling Harbour and the Sydney Aquarium. I think it is a bit overrated and the only thing interesting is to walk under the water with all the sharks and stuff, but still. We had lunch and a couple of beers at Darling Harbour as well and time flew by. This meant that the whole tour of Paddy’s Market didn’t go so well since it close at five pm and unfortunately we only had 10 minutes to wonder around in there, which isn’t nearly enough. Paddy’s Market is huge, packed with cheap stuff from China and what have you. It also has a food market which, if you come around closing time (as we did) you can get really good bargains since the sell out all the stuff.

On our way home we went to The Establishment but alas, it was closed.

We were really exhausted after a very long day and just bought curry take away and ate in the room.

The next day we went to Blue Mountains and watched the three sisters. We also went down the steepest railway track in the world and took a walk in the rain forest before heading back up again in a cable car.

Before blue mountains though we went to yet another sanctuary (our second) and got to pet kangaroos, see joeys, and crocodiles and other magical creatures of the Aussie wilderness.

The trip also included a visit to a vineyard and a boat trip from Paramatta to Circular Key. A bonus, since we had time to spare, was a tour of the Olympic Park. It was a really good day.

For dinner Chiquita had the best steak of the entire trip. Funnily enough it was at a place just next door to our hostel and the steak for a bargain, only 10 AUS dollars. Amazingly good rumpsteak! After this delicious meal we just wandered around Kings Cross before going to bed.

The last day was spent at Manley Beach. It was a beautiful day and we spent the entire day on the beach. In the evening Chiquita wanted to back to have yet another steak but grumpy me didn’t want that so instead we went to a little more upscale restaurant and had duck. Wow, that was the best duck I have ever had!

We had had five glorious days in Sydney but it was time to leave. I was really mature about it and didn’t cry at all. But inside, my heart wept. Sydney is truly the best place on earth!