Got back from Dubai already two weeks ago and have forgotten to close the topic :) Getting back home was hundred times easier than getting there. Nap at the plane was much deserved, nice and peaceful. Spent the layover in Riga uploading photos and watching movies. Due to the time changes on the way there my notebook showed a bit incorrect time and I almost missed my flight to Tallinn. Oh well :)
Afterthoughts about Dubai - good place to go for a long weekend I'd say. There is not much to do besides shopping and few sights, other than that one gets bored there quickly. There is quite a bit of luxury there, but one needs to look for it, it isn't everywhere and sometimes it isn't even accessible. I've heard that there is not much local culture there - i'd have to say the opposite, but again, one must look for it. Dubai is a desert city, with few green areas and with looots of sand flying around :)
It was a great week, thank you Jaana and Dominique for showing and taking me around!
Now on to booking my accommodation and rentals during my trip to Spain in two weeks.
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Pacific Coast Highway 1 - 2.10
Headed south from Carmel after looking around in town for an hour or so. The road that took us down south was a scenic highway running parallel to the coastline - amazingly beautiful drive! This road has many names, official name is California State Route 1, but it is also called as Pacific Coast Highway or simply Highway 1. Drive along the road takes you buy one of the most beautiful coastlines in the world - it was truly beautiful. I did my utter best of not falling asleep - coke helped :-P
It took us about 4 hours to get to Cambria - we stopped along the way numerous times to awe at the beauty of the coastline. Had wonderful picnic with cheese, crackers and raspberries on a cliff. Met a huge colony of sea lions hanging out on a beach :) Stared at wild zebras who are from old times when mr.Hearst let his collection of animals into the woods. Tomorrow we will try to go and visit the castle he had built. Just look at the photos, can't praise it enough with words :)
This time we started looking for a hotel earlier and we were very thorough :) Decided to stay in a small place close to Cambria called San Simeon. Dinner was awesome, American style all the way - ribs! And lots of them!
Evening was concluded with wonderful Jacuzzi :) Today was a good day! Didn't make it to any of the wineries today, but Jenny is making a list of them as I'm typing this text - I already got some hints on how to manage with all the different wines and amounts - crackers and lots of water is the key :D Wish me luck!
It took us about 4 hours to get to Cambria - we stopped along the way numerous times to awe at the beauty of the coastline. Had wonderful picnic with cheese, crackers and raspberries on a cliff. Met a huge colony of sea lions hanging out on a beach :) Stared at wild zebras who are from old times when mr.Hearst let his collection of animals into the woods. Tomorrow we will try to go and visit the castle he had built. Just look at the photos, can't praise it enough with words :)
This time we started looking for a hotel earlier and we were very thorough :) Decided to stay in a small place close to Cambria called San Simeon. Dinner was awesome, American style all the way - ribs! And lots of them!
Evening was concluded with wonderful Jacuzzi :) Today was a good day! Didn't make it to any of the wineries today, but Jenny is making a list of them as I'm typing this text - I already got some hints on how to manage with all the different wines and amounts - crackers and lots of water is the key :D Wish me luck!
Santa Cruz and Monterey Bay - 1.10
Luckily I got picked up close to 11 in the morning. That gave me plenty of time to get ready, pack and have a proper lunch. Drive to Santa Cruz was only about 45-50 minutes.
Surf city Santa Cruz was quiet. During off season there is not much activity as it seems like. Even the hand crafted carousel was not working, with the rest of the amusement park right next to the beach. Seals were working though :) There was tons of them - some playing in the water and the rest just laying around wherever they could find free spots, and if there weren't free spots then they just laid on each other :D
Luckily the weather was beautiful and just walking around the pier, beach and town was wonderful. Headed out after having lunch, down south, towards Monterey.
As expected I was in food coma all the way to Monterey Bay :) It is one of the most beautiful drives in the world and I just slept all the way through it. Jenny and Kristy promised that they won't let me sleep in the car any more :D Although tomorrow we'll get the rest of it and about 4 times as much and the best part as I was told, so no worries as Aussies say (I learned something while down there) :)
Monterey bay was great. There is this wonderful scenic route you can take in Monterey called 17 mile drive. It has one of the most famous and posh golf courses in US and even around the world on it. Check photos on more comments on the locations and information. Jenny's friend showed her the trick once on how to get most out of the scenic road - you go to all those golf club restaurants that have views to golf greens and you order some drink and snack. So we did :) Margaritas, Cosmos and other cocktails were flowing :D Arrived at the final location nicely by sunset - perfect timing on our part.
Marine life is pretty active around this area. During the day we saw whole lot of seals, sea lions and sea otters. Oh and squirrels! Plus pelicans and whole lotta other birds who I could not name :)
Last event of the evening was to find a place to stay for the night and dinner location. Decided to drive to the neighbouring city called Carmel by-the-sea. As I was informed, Clint Eastwood lives here and also has a restaurant. Didn't see him hanging out anywhere though :) Everybody being so tired from the long day, we did not look around whole lot and pretty much agreed to the first offer at one of the motels. Same with dinner :) All in all both worked out pretty nice in the end.
Surf city Santa Cruz was quiet. During off season there is not much activity as it seems like. Even the hand crafted carousel was not working, with the rest of the amusement park right next to the beach. Seals were working though :) There was tons of them - some playing in the water and the rest just laying around wherever they could find free spots, and if there weren't free spots then they just laid on each other :D
Luckily the weather was beautiful and just walking around the pier, beach and town was wonderful. Headed out after having lunch, down south, towards Monterey.
As expected I was in food coma all the way to Monterey Bay :) It is one of the most beautiful drives in the world and I just slept all the way through it. Jenny and Kristy promised that they won't let me sleep in the car any more :D Although tomorrow we'll get the rest of it and about 4 times as much and the best part as I was told, so no worries as Aussies say (I learned something while down there) :)
Monterey bay was great. There is this wonderful scenic route you can take in Monterey called 17 mile drive. It has one of the most famous and posh golf courses in US and even around the world on it. Check photos on more comments on the locations and information. Jenny's friend showed her the trick once on how to get most out of the scenic road - you go to all those golf club restaurants that have views to golf greens and you order some drink and snack. So we did :) Margaritas, Cosmos and other cocktails were flowing :D Arrived at the final location nicely by sunset - perfect timing on our part.
Marine life is pretty active around this area. During the day we saw whole lot of seals, sea lions and sea otters. Oh and squirrels! Plus pelicans and whole lotta other birds who I could not name :)
Last event of the evening was to find a place to stay for the night and dinner location. Decided to drive to the neighbouring city called Carmel by-the-sea. As I was informed, Clint Eastwood lives here and also has a restaurant. Didn't see him hanging out anywhere though :) Everybody being so tired from the long day, we did not look around whole lot and pretty much agreed to the first offer at one of the motels. Same with dinner :) All in all both worked out pretty nice in the end.
Thursday, October 1, 2009
California, San Jose - 28-30.9
Time traveling to the past was great, but I'm still recovering from it 3 days later :) Did not get any sleep on the plane from Auckland to Los Angeles. Mainly because I was watching movies non stop - my eyes were about to pop out from staring at the little screen there :) Also talking to the gal who sat next to me kept me awake. Turns out she is a triathlete and physiotherapist who works with cyclers! We covered a whole lot of useful information about triathlon clubs organization in Australia and I got so many good hints that I can apply to 21.CC :-P I have been bending my brain for a while about the possible packages and now all the thoughts started to formulate and get focused - fun stuff!
Allright, so arrival to LA was good, flight went quickly and no major hassles with that. Had 5h layover in LA :( Customs was awful like always - long lines, lots of questions, forms to fill. Oh and even worse was domestic terminal in LA. Waiting line to the security was about half a kilometer long (and I'm not joking) It went all the way from one side of the terminal to the other and it was snaked in multiple places going back and fourth about 3 times for at least 75m one way - it was absolutely mad. At least the line was moving with a steady pace, longest time standing still was probably 5 minutes when they merged multiple incoming lines. I have never seen anything like that before though :) While standing in the line I was wondering what do those people do who have phobias for such long lines :D ?
Flight from LA to San Jose - no idea how that went as I was pretty much passed out :) Not sleeping on the long flight was catching up with me and I fell asleep while walking around, pretty much :) Once arrived at the flight I was out - can't remember taking off nor landing :D
Met with Jenny at the airport, navigated together to the hotel and then on to town. San Jose has nice little downtown area. Found a nice eatery to chill at and catch up with Jenny - it was super nice to see her after long long time! Due to skipped sleep I was ready to fall over by 6pm again, going to sleep at 7 was a mistake of course as I was up and awake by 2am :D Long story short I never got more sleep and following day in class was a bit of a challenge :) As was the day after that :D
Class - on 29th and 30th I was at Scrum Product Owner course. Course was great, the whole time I kept making notes of what changes to do once I get back to the office :) Beware ;) Course was great, it was wonderful to hear about other's experiences, discussions were insightful and there was lots of good food :) Some photos are here
My evening will get exciting from now on - I just got back from the mall and will start configuring and migrating my notebook :) Tomorrow morning we are heading south with Jenny and her sister - our trip will be spontaneous, will be back in San Francisco by Sunday night. I'm not sure I'll be online anytime before that so probably no updates before Monday :)
Allright, so arrival to LA was good, flight went quickly and no major hassles with that. Had 5h layover in LA :( Customs was awful like always - long lines, lots of questions, forms to fill. Oh and even worse was domestic terminal in LA. Waiting line to the security was about half a kilometer long (and I'm not joking) It went all the way from one side of the terminal to the other and it was snaked in multiple places going back and fourth about 3 times for at least 75m one way - it was absolutely mad. At least the line was moving with a steady pace, longest time standing still was probably 5 minutes when they merged multiple incoming lines. I have never seen anything like that before though :) While standing in the line I was wondering what do those people do who have phobias for such long lines :D ?
Flight from LA to San Jose - no idea how that went as I was pretty much passed out :) Not sleeping on the long flight was catching up with me and I fell asleep while walking around, pretty much :) Once arrived at the flight I was out - can't remember taking off nor landing :D
Met with Jenny at the airport, navigated together to the hotel and then on to town. San Jose has nice little downtown area. Found a nice eatery to chill at and catch up with Jenny - it was super nice to see her after long long time! Due to skipped sleep I was ready to fall over by 6pm again, going to sleep at 7 was a mistake of course as I was up and awake by 2am :D Long story short I never got more sleep and following day in class was a bit of a challenge :) As was the day after that :D
Class - on 29th and 30th I was at Scrum Product Owner course. Course was great, the whole time I kept making notes of what changes to do once I get back to the office :) Beware ;) Course was great, it was wonderful to hear about other's experiences, discussions were insightful and there was lots of good food :) Some photos are here
My evening will get exciting from now on - I just got back from the mall and will start configuring and migrating my notebook :) Tomorrow morning we are heading south with Jenny and her sister - our trip will be spontaneous, will be back in San Francisco by Sunday night. I'm not sure I'll be online anytime before that so probably no updates before Monday :)
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Sydney -> Tasmania - 12.9
Oe it was soo difficult to drag myself out of bed once the alarm went off. I got to "sleep in" till 8:30 :) No more waking up by myself at 7am, apparently. Packed my things and sat behind the computer for an hour or so, did the checkout around 10. It is so strange that checkout time for hotels and hostels is so early around here, very rarely they extend it for an hour, which is not whole lotta help :)
Then followed scheduled breakfast and last walk in town. As usual when somebody leaves there are sad sad goodbyes :( It is truly sad to leave yet another city and a friend behind once more. There are only that many goodbyes I can handle in such a short period of time - waaaa.
Airport shuttle was scheduled to picked me up at 12:30 from the hostel so I would make my flight at 14:15 to Tasmania. Now I get to the airport, I do the checkin and head over to the security check. Over here they ask you to take all metal objects out of the bag and set them on a tray - so for me this means my macbook and a camera. I open my bag and take out the laptop, next should be my camera, well, it's not in the bag! At the hostel I had kept all my stuff between two beds and it seems that I did not check the area carefully enough when checking out :( I had left my camera to the hostel :( I run over to the phone, having a bit over an hour till my plane takes off.
Meanwhile I almost lost my passport (when running from the security area to the phones), luckily one lady found it and walked around with it trying to match somebodys face to the photo :) Managed to find me quite easily as the terminal was almost empty. Anyways I call to the hostel and tell them my sad story. They could not figure out any way to get the camera to me at the terminal. One option would be to ship it for me to Tasmania, but I'm not sure how that would work. So basically the only thing I can think of is to grab a taxi and hope that the return trip can be made within 45 minutes - in Sydney that is :) I ruuuun to the closest taxi driver and tell my sad story. 40AUD (370 EEK) and 35 minutes later I'm back at the terminal with my camera :) I like happy endings :D
Flight to Hobart, Tasmania, takes 1.5 hours. Getting out of the plane we had to walk outside to get back into the terminal - it is sooo cold here :( Well, Australian winter again with it's 18C, but I tell you, it feels like 12C around here. Airport is about 10 minute drive from the city, I get dropped of real close to my hostel. Checkin goes smoothly as always and then I head to discover the town. As it is so cold here I wear all the warm clothes I have with me and it is barely enough :) In the evening it is probably close to 10C or something. Now I just have to say that this place seems totally deserted. I have read some comments about it being slow around here during winter time - yeah, so it is.
Then followed scheduled breakfast and last walk in town. As usual when somebody leaves there are sad sad goodbyes :( It is truly sad to leave yet another city and a friend behind once more. There are only that many goodbyes I can handle in such a short period of time - waaaa.
Airport shuttle was scheduled to picked me up at 12:30 from the hostel so I would make my flight at 14:15 to Tasmania. Now I get to the airport, I do the checkin and head over to the security check. Over here they ask you to take all metal objects out of the bag and set them on a tray - so for me this means my macbook and a camera. I open my bag and take out the laptop, next should be my camera, well, it's not in the bag! At the hostel I had kept all my stuff between two beds and it seems that I did not check the area carefully enough when checking out :( I had left my camera to the hostel :( I run over to the phone, having a bit over an hour till my plane takes off.
Meanwhile I almost lost my passport (when running from the security area to the phones), luckily one lady found it and walked around with it trying to match somebodys face to the photo :) Managed to find me quite easily as the terminal was almost empty. Anyways I call to the hostel and tell them my sad story. They could not figure out any way to get the camera to me at the terminal. One option would be to ship it for me to Tasmania, but I'm not sure how that would work. So basically the only thing I can think of is to grab a taxi and hope that the return trip can be made within 45 minutes - in Sydney that is :) I ruuuun to the closest taxi driver and tell my sad story. 40AUD (370 EEK) and 35 minutes later I'm back at the terminal with my camera :) I like happy endings :D
Flight to Hobart, Tasmania, takes 1.5 hours. Getting out of the plane we had to walk outside to get back into the terminal - it is sooo cold here :( Well, Australian winter again with it's 18C, but I tell you, it feels like 12C around here. Airport is about 10 minute drive from the city, I get dropped of real close to my hostel. Checkin goes smoothly as always and then I head to discover the town. As it is so cold here I wear all the warm clothes I have with me and it is barely enough :) In the evening it is probably close to 10C or something. Now I just have to say that this place seems totally deserted. I have read some comments about it being slow around here during winter time - yeah, so it is.
Blue Mountain National Park - 11.9
Pickup was at 7:25 and to gather all the people from the city seemed to take forever. Only good thing was that I got to see different parts of the city while the bus was circling the streets. Throughout the whole time our bus driver/tour guide was babbling about all kinds of facts and telling stories, laughing at his own jokes with rehearsed laugh. At first it drew me insane, by the end of the day I seemed to get used to it and actually even enjoyed some of the stories (if I was able to follow the whole story from start to end that is). One fact that I remember was that there are 4 million people living in Sydney and there are 180 nationalities represented (don't quote me on this as I have no idea where our tour guide got this information).
We made few stops on our way to the Blue Mountain National Park, it was about 1h ride to the park and we were going to make few stops at different locations. First view point was at 875m above sea level and the view was gorgeous of course. Got to take tons of photos :)
The story with Blue Mountains is the following: mountain range is mostly covered with eucalyptus trees full of essence oil, once the sun heats the area the fumes that evaporate from the trees seem blue in daylight. Simple as that.
Second stop in the park was to view a waterfall which is taller than Niagara as our tour guide knew to mention. Then followed lunch in a nice small crafty town called Leura. It reminded me of Ely in Minnesota - main street with small crafts stores, galleries, cafeterias and restaurants on both sides of the road. Oh and the hot chocolate there! Ooooh, that was a good one!
And now the real fun started! We were to take the scenic ride in the Blue Mountain National Park which consisted of:
- cable way that took us down the side of a mountain which was very very steep :)
- a wonderful walk in the rainforest down below
- railway back up on a 52% angle :D Apparently this is the steepest railway in the world
Railway ride was pretty scary actually :) Scariest part was towards the end when it made quite a big jerk. Once we got off the thing our tour guide said that they have had trouble with the railroad all day, apparently it was going only half the speed as usually and the jerk at the end was very much unexpected. But we all made it - phew :)
Before heading to the ferry there was also a park stop to try to find kangaroos in the wild. I have to admit it was semi-wild as it was still quite organized area with camp sites and parking lots. Surprisingly enough there was one kangaroo munching away on the grass right by the stream. It did not seem to be disturbed by the crowd at all and just kept munching away.
Last attraction (well almost ;) ) was to take a ferry back to central Sydney. Ferry was very similar to the CityCat in Brisbane, it did drive quite a bit faster though :) Ferry ride was 30 minutes and very much enjoyable. Arrival to Circle Quai was fabulous.
Made my way back to the hostel, took advantage of a 3AUD for 24h internet for about an hour and later met up with Aivar. Evening was a long one :) Had Domino's (yummm!), sat by the Opera House, walked all the way up to and over the so called "coat hanger bridge" right next to Sydney Opera House (Sydney Harbour Bridge is its official name I believe) - view was absolutely marvellous! Also checked out so nicely lit Luna Park on the other side of the bridge. It was a wonderful evening in lit up city with good company. Back at the hostel by 2:30 :)
We made few stops on our way to the Blue Mountain National Park, it was about 1h ride to the park and we were going to make few stops at different locations. First view point was at 875m above sea level and the view was gorgeous of course. Got to take tons of photos :)
The story with Blue Mountains is the following: mountain range is mostly covered with eucalyptus trees full of essence oil, once the sun heats the area the fumes that evaporate from the trees seem blue in daylight. Simple as that.
Second stop in the park was to view a waterfall which is taller than Niagara as our tour guide knew to mention. Then followed lunch in a nice small crafty town called Leura. It reminded me of Ely in Minnesota - main street with small crafts stores, galleries, cafeterias and restaurants on both sides of the road. Oh and the hot chocolate there! Ooooh, that was a good one!
And now the real fun started! We were to take the scenic ride in the Blue Mountain National Park which consisted of:
- cable way that took us down the side of a mountain which was very very steep :)
- a wonderful walk in the rainforest down below
- railway back up on a 52% angle :D Apparently this is the steepest railway in the world
Railway ride was pretty scary actually :) Scariest part was towards the end when it made quite a big jerk. Once we got off the thing our tour guide said that they have had trouble with the railroad all day, apparently it was going only half the speed as usually and the jerk at the end was very much unexpected. But we all made it - phew :)
Before heading to the ferry there was also a park stop to try to find kangaroos in the wild. I have to admit it was semi-wild as it was still quite organized area with camp sites and parking lots. Surprisingly enough there was one kangaroo munching away on the grass right by the stream. It did not seem to be disturbed by the crowd at all and just kept munching away.
Last attraction (well almost ;) ) was to take a ferry back to central Sydney. Ferry was very similar to the CityCat in Brisbane, it did drive quite a bit faster though :) Ferry ride was 30 minutes and very much enjoyable. Arrival to Circle Quai was fabulous.
Made my way back to the hostel, took advantage of a 3AUD for 24h internet for about an hour and later met up with Aivar. Evening was a long one :) Had Domino's (yummm!), sat by the Opera House, walked all the way up to and over the so called "coat hanger bridge" right next to Sydney Opera House (Sydney Harbour Bridge is its official name I believe) - view was absolutely marvellous! Also checked out so nicely lit Luna Park on the other side of the bridge. It was a wonderful evening in lit up city with good company. Back at the hostel by 2:30 :)
Long day in Sydney - 10.9
Alarm went off 5:05 in the morning, threw last things into the bag, checked out and met Ave downstairs at 5:30. Plane took off at 7 and landed in Sydney 8:30, I was all checked in at the hostel next to Alfred's Park by 9:30.
When I peeked in through the door of my hostel room one of my roommates just woke up and had a conversation with me without opening her eyes thinking I'm the other roommate :) She was a bit confused :) Anyways, from her I learned that there are 4 Estonian guys staying here as well. Met Vahur, Taavi, Oliver and Henri shortly when sitting in the quad, using 24h free wireless. Recognized one of them by the accent immediately :) 4 guys from Tartu who are here thanks to the economical downtime - good for them, they got a whole year to look around.
Online time is getting really precious here as it is difficult to find good internet and it is even more difficult to find the time :) After about an hour of cruising around in the wonderful world wide web I headed for a long walk towards city center just as David suggested - get on your walking shoes and go to explore the city he said. That I did.
Oh I just have to mention that it is kinda chilly here :( The more south I go the worse it gets :( I don't wanna know what is the temperature in Tasmania :(( In Sydney I need to wear long pants during the day and warm sweater during the night. I'm not liking that :( I wanna have the beach weather back!!! Darn this winter with it's 20 degrees in the shade! ;)
Back to the topic of exploring the city, here is what I saw during my 6 hour walk in this wonderful place:
First Alfred's Park, Hyde park and St.Marys Cathedral were on my way from the hostel to the city center.
Then got to Royal Botanic Gardens. WOW! I just mean WOW! Again, they have botanic gardens in the city center for easy access and for all to enjoy freely. I probably spent around 3 hours just walking along in there - it is gorgeous! And it is friendly. For an example, at the entrance they have big signs saying: "We want you to walk on the grass, have a picnic, smell the roses and hug some trees" :) How nice is that? There is also a rainforest walk there, made so that people would take couple of minutes to experience the rainforest and to forget about city life. It was all just so gorgeous.
At the Botanic Gardens park there were tons of runners, they were everywhere. Figured to ask from the locals if it is always like this or is it some special occasion today. I was told it is so every single day - people from close by offices come for a run during their lunch break, then go shower and back to the office :) How nice :)
With everybody running around I got worn out :-P and took a nap in the sun by the fountains. Ooh, there was also the coolest outside swimming pool at the Wooloomooloo (hii hii) Bay. Whadda name :D
At the end of the walk I made my way to the oh-so-famous Sydney Opera House. I gotta say wowee. It is gorgeous! It is visible from quite many different places in the city - and rightly so as it is seriously fantastic. After that spectacular view there came food stop by Circular Quay, watched a street performer ride the tallest unicycle ever and listened to local Digideroo music :)
Next my tour took me to Campbells Cove under Sydney Harbour Bridge, through warfs on Walsh Bay, to the top of Observatory hill and towards Cockle Bay. Stopped at King Street Wharf for a glass of cider and wondered how on earth am I gonna be able to keep walking :) I have been up since 5am, walked for good 6 hours almost in a row while covering most of Sydney - I'm tired.
Oh another thing I wanted to mention - they all talk like Schmike here :) Cheers mate!
Evening continued in the company of Aivar, friend of a friend who happened to be in town. Long talks about the world an beyond + getting lost in Sydney = me very tired and needs some sleep uuurgently!
side note: I'm doing my best to catch up on travel stories - stay tuned!
When I peeked in through the door of my hostel room one of my roommates just woke up and had a conversation with me without opening her eyes thinking I'm the other roommate :) She was a bit confused :) Anyways, from her I learned that there are 4 Estonian guys staying here as well. Met Vahur, Taavi, Oliver and Henri shortly when sitting in the quad, using 24h free wireless. Recognized one of them by the accent immediately :) 4 guys from Tartu who are here thanks to the economical downtime - good for them, they got a whole year to look around.
Online time is getting really precious here as it is difficult to find good internet and it is even more difficult to find the time :) After about an hour of cruising around in the wonderful world wide web I headed for a long walk towards city center just as David suggested - get on your walking shoes and go to explore the city he said. That I did.
Oh I just have to mention that it is kinda chilly here :( The more south I go the worse it gets :( I don't wanna know what is the temperature in Tasmania :(( In Sydney I need to wear long pants during the day and warm sweater during the night. I'm not liking that :( I wanna have the beach weather back!!! Darn this winter with it's 20 degrees in the shade! ;)
Back to the topic of exploring the city, here is what I saw during my 6 hour walk in this wonderful place:
First Alfred's Park, Hyde park and St.Marys Cathedral were on my way from the hostel to the city center.
Then got to Royal Botanic Gardens. WOW! I just mean WOW! Again, they have botanic gardens in the city center for easy access and for all to enjoy freely. I probably spent around 3 hours just walking along in there - it is gorgeous! And it is friendly. For an example, at the entrance they have big signs saying: "We want you to walk on the grass, have a picnic, smell the roses and hug some trees" :) How nice is that? There is also a rainforest walk there, made so that people would take couple of minutes to experience the rainforest and to forget about city life. It was all just so gorgeous.
At the Botanic Gardens park there were tons of runners, they were everywhere. Figured to ask from the locals if it is always like this or is it some special occasion today. I was told it is so every single day - people from close by offices come for a run during their lunch break, then go shower and back to the office :) How nice :)
With everybody running around I got worn out :-P and took a nap in the sun by the fountains. Ooh, there was also the coolest outside swimming pool at the Wooloomooloo (hii hii) Bay. Whadda name :D
At the end of the walk I made my way to the oh-so-famous Sydney Opera House. I gotta say wowee. It is gorgeous! It is visible from quite many different places in the city - and rightly so as it is seriously fantastic. After that spectacular view there came food stop by Circular Quay, watched a street performer ride the tallest unicycle ever and listened to local Digideroo music :)
Next my tour took me to Campbells Cove under Sydney Harbour Bridge, through warfs on Walsh Bay, to the top of Observatory hill and towards Cockle Bay. Stopped at King Street Wharf for a glass of cider and wondered how on earth am I gonna be able to keep walking :) I have been up since 5am, walked for good 6 hours almost in a row while covering most of Sydney - I'm tired.
Oh another thing I wanted to mention - they all talk like Schmike here :) Cheers mate!
Evening continued in the company of Aivar, friend of a friend who happened to be in town. Long talks about the world an beyond + getting lost in Sydney = me very tired and needs some sleep uuurgently!
side note: I'm doing my best to catch up on travel stories - stay tuned!
Friday, September 11, 2009
Brisbane: Moreton Island - 9.9.9 :)
Whatta date huh :) ?
So today I had a trip to Moreton Island. It is the 3rd biggest sand island in the whole wide world and known universe :D Island itself is about 35km long and 10km wide if I remember correctly. On the island you are allowed to drive only four wheel drive vehicles as you either drive on a sand road or directly on the beach.
Our tour guide for the day was Logan - born in New Zealand and now lives in Brisbane. He was a bit crazy driver which made the whole thing even more fun ;).
Our agenda was to do some sandboarding on the sand dunes and go snorkeling by ship wrecks. I had done sandboarding once before in Peru, but this was entirely different story. In Peru I was going down on a board in loose sand whereas here the sand was hard and oh the speed one acquired :) We were going down either on our stomachs or sitting on the board single/double. I tried the belly down thing twice and sitting double on the board once :) It was great fun! And yea, we were all covered in sand from head to toe immediately. Logan worked hard on giving us as much speed during takeoff as possible :D
Gladly the next thing in the agenda was soaking in the ocean :) Now to talk about soaking, I put on a wetsuit and a life jacket (tour requirements) and even that did not help with the cold. Water was probably around 18C - it was freezing. All I wanted to do was swim as fast as possible to get warm, that was not possible as I had this floating device (life jacket) tied around my body and to see the fish down below one needs to stand still. Oh I was shaking all over my body and managed somehow to get through the thing. Floating (not to say swimming) by the wrecks was pretty awesome, although nothing beats Great Barrier Reef, probably ever. After snorkeling there was lunch time and back in the car we went.
As the roads were very good on the day thanks to the rain few days back (rain evened out all the bumps) we were able to drive faster than usual (faster and with less injuries from knocking our heads in the roof, considering how our guide was driving, don't get me wrong it was awesome to race in the sand of course, but I could not imagine being in the car if roads would have been "normal"). So we managed to even make few extra stops - one to the lighthouse and then to the northern point beach as well. To get to the lighthouse we drove on the beach, not on the loose sand, but between the waterline and the loose sand - most of the time the beach was deserted and we got the whole huge beach to ourselves :) And those beaches here are huge!
The lighthouse was built on the northern tip of the island - view from there was absolutely wonderful. Beaches seem to go on forever with bright blue water and huge foaming waves hitting the sand. On the sea we saw dolphins! Apparently it is also the whale season so should have been possible to spot the waves as well - didn't see any though. Dolphins on the other hand were all over the place :)
After lighthouse we raced back around the northern point so that we would not miss the ferry - we made it of course :) Although we got to hear some stories of almost missing the ferry due to getting stuck in sand on the last minute :)
Got back to Brisbane around 6 and we had planned to get together with Ave for dinner as it is my last night here. Dinner was wonderful and cocktails were good :) We took the time to talk and talk and talk. I enjoyed this evening tremendously and was very sad once I realized it might be a while till I see Ave again :(
Ave will pick me up at 5:30am tomorrow morning and take me to the airport. My flight to Sydney is at 7am. This will be a very short night :)
So today I had a trip to Moreton Island. It is the 3rd biggest sand island in the whole wide world and known universe :D Island itself is about 35km long and 10km wide if I remember correctly. On the island you are allowed to drive only four wheel drive vehicles as you either drive on a sand road or directly on the beach.
Our tour guide for the day was Logan - born in New Zealand and now lives in Brisbane. He was a bit crazy driver which made the whole thing even more fun ;).
Our agenda was to do some sandboarding on the sand dunes and go snorkeling by ship wrecks. I had done sandboarding once before in Peru, but this was entirely different story. In Peru I was going down on a board in loose sand whereas here the sand was hard and oh the speed one acquired :) We were going down either on our stomachs or sitting on the board single/double. I tried the belly down thing twice and sitting double on the board once :) It was great fun! And yea, we were all covered in sand from head to toe immediately. Logan worked hard on giving us as much speed during takeoff as possible :D
Gladly the next thing in the agenda was soaking in the ocean :) Now to talk about soaking, I put on a wetsuit and a life jacket (tour requirements) and even that did not help with the cold. Water was probably around 18C - it was freezing. All I wanted to do was swim as fast as possible to get warm, that was not possible as I had this floating device (life jacket) tied around my body and to see the fish down below one needs to stand still. Oh I was shaking all over my body and managed somehow to get through the thing. Floating (not to say swimming) by the wrecks was pretty awesome, although nothing beats Great Barrier Reef, probably ever. After snorkeling there was lunch time and back in the car we went.
As the roads were very good on the day thanks to the rain few days back (rain evened out all the bumps) we were able to drive faster than usual (faster and with less injuries from knocking our heads in the roof, considering how our guide was driving, don't get me wrong it was awesome to race in the sand of course, but I could not imagine being in the car if roads would have been "normal"). So we managed to even make few extra stops - one to the lighthouse and then to the northern point beach as well. To get to the lighthouse we drove on the beach, not on the loose sand, but between the waterline and the loose sand - most of the time the beach was deserted and we got the whole huge beach to ourselves :) And those beaches here are huge!
The lighthouse was built on the northern tip of the island - view from there was absolutely wonderful. Beaches seem to go on forever with bright blue water and huge foaming waves hitting the sand. On the sea we saw dolphins! Apparently it is also the whale season so should have been possible to spot the waves as well - didn't see any though. Dolphins on the other hand were all over the place :)
After lighthouse we raced back around the northern point so that we would not miss the ferry - we made it of course :) Although we got to hear some stories of almost missing the ferry due to getting stuck in sand on the last minute :)
Got back to Brisbane around 6 and we had planned to get together with Ave for dinner as it is my last night here. Dinner was wonderful and cocktails were good :) We took the time to talk and talk and talk. I enjoyed this evening tremendously and was very sad once I realized it might be a while till I see Ave again :(
Ave will pick me up at 5:30am tomorrow morning and take me to the airport. My flight to Sydney is at 7am. This will be a very short night :)
Brisbane: Lone Pine Koala Santuary - 8.09
For some odd reason I have woken up every morning close to 7 and I'm wide awake. This morning was no different. As we are meeting up with Ave at 9:30 I had way too much time to kill :) So I decided to have a long and good lunch at the center of the town - 1h breakfast plus people watching :) Nice to look at all those people rushing around all around, running to offices :-P and I get to just sit there and not think about work :D Finally walked over to the south bay area, met up with Ave and we headed to the boat that took us over to Lone Pine Koala Santuary.
It took about 1h by boat to get to the santuary. Boat ride was very nice. Along the way we were given way too much information about the river and every single house on it ;) Some facts that I remember:
- it is 19km from the city to the santuary that we will travel
- boat is called MV Mirimar and is the oldest boat of it's kind that is still in service
- Mirimar was built for this purpose and has been servicing on taking people to Lone Pine Koala Santuary for decades, there used to be no other way of getting there due to poor infrastructure
- now this is rather interesting one: river of Brisbane changes direction 4 times a day due to tides :)
Once at the santuary we had a bit more than 2 hours to look around. Santuary itself was not very big, but it had all the animals we wanted to see - the native ones. We got to see possums, LOTS of koalas, we got to hold a koala :), we got to pet a kangaroo (or perhaps it was wallaby, no idea :) ), we got to see a wombat, I got to see all kinds of venomous snakes, there were lizards and whole bunch of different kind of birds. All in all it was wonderful. I learned quite a bit about koalas while there. For an example that there is only one kind of koala breed in Australia, they are just different color depending on the region. In Australia one can find 800 different types of Eucalyptus trees, but koalas feed off of only 50 types.
Our way back was again by the boat. Once back we attempted a bit of shopping again, but somehow we never got on the mood for that. Gathered my computer and other things from the hostel and headed over to David's house for a dinner with his parents and Ave. It was a very nice evening, they are great people and it is so nice to talk to locals - to ask questions and get their perspective on the culture, this is my favourite part when traveling.
Today was a very good day!
It took about 1h by boat to get to the santuary. Boat ride was very nice. Along the way we were given way too much information about the river and every single house on it ;) Some facts that I remember:
- it is 19km from the city to the santuary that we will travel
- boat is called MV Mirimar and is the oldest boat of it's kind that is still in service
- Mirimar was built for this purpose and has been servicing on taking people to Lone Pine Koala Santuary for decades, there used to be no other way of getting there due to poor infrastructure
- now this is rather interesting one: river of Brisbane changes direction 4 times a day due to tides :)
Once at the santuary we had a bit more than 2 hours to look around. Santuary itself was not very big, but it had all the animals we wanted to see - the native ones. We got to see possums, LOTS of koalas, we got to hold a koala :), we got to pet a kangaroo (or perhaps it was wallaby, no idea :) ), we got to see a wombat, I got to see all kinds of venomous snakes, there were lizards and whole bunch of different kind of birds. All in all it was wonderful. I learned quite a bit about koalas while there. For an example that there is only one kind of koala breed in Australia, they are just different color depending on the region. In Australia one can find 800 different types of Eucalyptus trees, but koalas feed off of only 50 types.
Our way back was again by the boat. Once back we attempted a bit of shopping again, but somehow we never got on the mood for that. Gathered my computer and other things from the hostel and headed over to David's house for a dinner with his parents and Ave. It was a very nice evening, they are great people and it is so nice to talk to locals - to ask questions and get their perspective on the culture, this is my favourite part when traveling.
Today was a very good day!
Thursday, September 10, 2009
discovering Brisbane - 7.09
Started off from Noosa on Monday morning around 10am, made it to Brisbane in a bit more than 2 hours. I was dropped off by my hostel, meanwhile Ave went back home, so I had close to 4 hours on my own. What to do what to do :) Decided to explore the city a bit.
From my hostel they gladly gave me the map of the city and already drew some lines on it where I could go for my exploration trip - so I followed the lines on the map :)
First stop was Botanic Gardens. What amazes me is that they have set botanic gardens up in the city center in one of the local parks - how nice is that? The same was in Hong Kong. This is perfect setup as it is easily accessible by everybody. Another amazing thing was that I saw tens and tens of people using the grass areas in the park for structured workout grounds. When I say structured I mean they were doing all kinds of exercises there - using cones for marking down different workout stations, doing jumps over the cones, doing squats with weights and on and on the list goes. Plus there were many many runners and step-walkers.
After Botanic Gardens the line on the map took me to the South Bank of Brisbane river. Park runs all the way alongside the river with beautiful recreation areas, gardens and a beach :) Yes, there is sort of an artificial beach built by the river - kinda nice, it is small, seemed clean and well organized with all the little fountains and passage ways. As Ave told me this is total tourist attraction and locals don't ever go there. A big sightseeing wheel is also located by the river. South Bank park ends with arts centers and state library. Never made it to the art galleries and exhibitions unfortunately, perhaps in Sydney I'll have time for that.
Our plan for the evening was to shop a bit, have a snack and head over to the movies. Met up with Ave by Queen Street Mall and started our shopping tour, but whaddaya know, most of the shops were closed by 6pm :( Ended up having a nice dinner in the middle of the pedestrian walk and cake at a local cafe shop.
By the time we arrived at the cafe shop it was dark outside already. We made ourselves feel like at home by the corner of the shop where there was a glass wall facing to the river (river was still one block away, but we were facing towards the river). As we were chatting away and killing time I kept noticing how the whole sky lit up from time to time. At first we did not pay whole lot of attention but the lightning grew bigger and bigger with every minute. About 30 minutes later everything grew really quiet outside, like the air was standing still. I guess most of you can already guess what came next :) Very extremely strong wind followed by harsh rain. Our seats were perfect for observing the storm, the only worry we had was how are we going to get to the movies if it is raining like mad outside. Anyways, at the time the rain arrived we were keeping our fingers crossed that those huge glass walls are strong enough as what was going on outside was absolutely crazy. People seemed to fly around outside due to the strong winds and horizontally pouring rain. It was a disaster outside, rain came in waves and people tried to run to shelters as fast as possible, whoever was left outside was soaked within seconds. We kept enjoying the view and counting down minutes to head out and be prepared to get soaked as well. about 1h later when we had to head out the rain was gone :D
Move we went to see was called "Young Victoria", sweet movie. We were both expecting whole lot more drama and tears, but that never happened.
From my hostel they gladly gave me the map of the city and already drew some lines on it where I could go for my exploration trip - so I followed the lines on the map :)
First stop was Botanic Gardens. What amazes me is that they have set botanic gardens up in the city center in one of the local parks - how nice is that? The same was in Hong Kong. This is perfect setup as it is easily accessible by everybody. Another amazing thing was that I saw tens and tens of people using the grass areas in the park for structured workout grounds. When I say structured I mean they were doing all kinds of exercises there - using cones for marking down different workout stations, doing jumps over the cones, doing squats with weights and on and on the list goes. Plus there were many many runners and step-walkers.
After Botanic Gardens the line on the map took me to the South Bank of Brisbane river. Park runs all the way alongside the river with beautiful recreation areas, gardens and a beach :) Yes, there is sort of an artificial beach built by the river - kinda nice, it is small, seemed clean and well organized with all the little fountains and passage ways. As Ave told me this is total tourist attraction and locals don't ever go there. A big sightseeing wheel is also located by the river. South Bank park ends with arts centers and state library. Never made it to the art galleries and exhibitions unfortunately, perhaps in Sydney I'll have time for that.
Our plan for the evening was to shop a bit, have a snack and head over to the movies. Met up with Ave by Queen Street Mall and started our shopping tour, but whaddaya know, most of the shops were closed by 6pm :( Ended up having a nice dinner in the middle of the pedestrian walk and cake at a local cafe shop.
By the time we arrived at the cafe shop it was dark outside already. We made ourselves feel like at home by the corner of the shop where there was a glass wall facing to the river (river was still one block away, but we were facing towards the river). As we were chatting away and killing time I kept noticing how the whole sky lit up from time to time. At first we did not pay whole lot of attention but the lightning grew bigger and bigger with every minute. About 30 minutes later everything grew really quiet outside, like the air was standing still. I guess most of you can already guess what came next :) Very extremely strong wind followed by harsh rain. Our seats were perfect for observing the storm, the only worry we had was how are we going to get to the movies if it is raining like mad outside. Anyways, at the time the rain arrived we were keeping our fingers crossed that those huge glass walls are strong enough as what was going on outside was absolutely crazy. People seemed to fly around outside due to the strong winds and horizontally pouring rain. It was a disaster outside, rain came in waves and people tried to run to shelters as fast as possible, whoever was left outside was soaked within seconds. We kept enjoying the view and counting down minutes to head out and be prepared to get soaked as well. about 1h later when we had to head out the rain was gone :D
Move we went to see was called "Young Victoria", sweet movie. We were both expecting whole lot more drama and tears, but that never happened.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
Weekend at Noosa
Noosa is this wonderful area about 2h drive north from Brisbane. David and Ave took me there for a weekend. Here is the information I got from web:
"Noosa is a little piece of exclusive city suburbia located on the Sunshine Coast, 178 km north of Brisbane and with a present population of around 10 000. Noosa's resort area commences at Peregian Beach in the south and extends north through Marcus Beach, Sunrise Beach and Sunshine Beach to Noosa Heads. All are bordered to the east by the Coral Sea."
You'll find one wonderful beach after another one here, there are many of them and seriously gorgeous ones. Right next to the beach there is a national park with koalas living in it as well - it is just the most beautiful place one can imagine. Beaches are semi-private as the crowd is gathered just on the main beach and all the other 4 beaches next to it are basically deserted. Shore is sandy for quite far off the waterline, water is bright bluish-green and waves hit the shore with rhythmic humming - just like a paradise.
We arrived in Noosa around 1pm, dropped our things off at the hotel and headed to the beach. The beach took my breath away - I had already forgotten how beautiful the Pacific really is! Right by the beach there is Noosa National Park - we took a wonderful walk there, for about an hour, wondering on the coastline between eucalyptus trees (oh the wonderful smell of eucalyptus!). For dinner we voted for Thai kitchen - food was wonderful. One of the strange things was that the restaurant was not selling any alcohol, we wanted to have win with our dinner, so they gladly guided us to a liquor shop to bring a bottle back from there and enjoy that with our dinner. Just remembered another strange custom here - eating places offer lunch only till about 3 or 4pm and then the kitchen gets closed for couple of hours :) Food is served again from 6 or 7pm, which means if you would like to eat around 5 o'clock, it is quite complicated to find a place that serves food.
Currently there is also Noosa Jazz festival in town so right after dinner we got to listen to some live jazz in a nearby restaurant - what a treat!
This morning our plan was to sleep in as late as possible and then head to town for late breakfast. Guess what time I was wide awake :) 7:10! So much about sleeping in this time. Good thing was that I found free wireless randomly extending to my room - 2 hours flew by in a snap :D
HAPPY FATHERS DAY DADDY! :D :D yeap, today is fathers day here in Australia! Due to that fact all eating places were extremely crowded :( We still squeezed ourselves in and had long breakfast outside with ocean view - perfect start for our great Sunday. My breakfast consisted of a giant muffin and some hash-browns. Now the muffin, it was absolutely enormous, I have no clue how they manage to make such big muffins at all, it was huuuuuge, I could barely eat the whole thing :)
Next step was to rent a surfboard :), this went quite smoothly. As soon as we found free sand in the madness on the beach, I hit the water with the board and did not come out till 2h later :D So that was an experience I must say - water was extremely crowded with all sorts of surfers. Lot of them seemed to know what they were doing and I still found a quite big crowd of inexperienced ones like me :D Either way, my accomplishment was that I hit 2 really good waves and I got up on the board twice :D The problem was though that I could not align those 2 events :) All in all - I loved it, to be in the water with the board. I do realize that I need a whole lotta practice, but it is the best of the best to be in the water on the board!
The rest of the day went by sipping wine, listening to live jazz music, walking around by the river and by the ocean (of course, our favourite thing to do!).
Tomorrow morning we will head back to Brisbane, packing will have to wait till tomorrow as I'm dead tired. I have no idea when I'll find internet again so you have to manage with my twitter updates for some time again!
be good to each other and take care!
"Noosa is a little piece of exclusive city suburbia located on the Sunshine Coast, 178 km north of Brisbane and with a present population of around 10 000. Noosa's resort area commences at Peregian Beach in the south and extends north through Marcus Beach, Sunrise Beach and Sunshine Beach to Noosa Heads. All are bordered to the east by the Coral Sea."
You'll find one wonderful beach after another one here, there are many of them and seriously gorgeous ones. Right next to the beach there is a national park with koalas living in it as well - it is just the most beautiful place one can imagine. Beaches are semi-private as the crowd is gathered just on the main beach and all the other 4 beaches next to it are basically deserted. Shore is sandy for quite far off the waterline, water is bright bluish-green and waves hit the shore with rhythmic humming - just like a paradise.
We arrived in Noosa around 1pm, dropped our things off at the hotel and headed to the beach. The beach took my breath away - I had already forgotten how beautiful the Pacific really is! Right by the beach there is Noosa National Park - we took a wonderful walk there, for about an hour, wondering on the coastline between eucalyptus trees (oh the wonderful smell of eucalyptus!). For dinner we voted for Thai kitchen - food was wonderful. One of the strange things was that the restaurant was not selling any alcohol, we wanted to have win with our dinner, so they gladly guided us to a liquor shop to bring a bottle back from there and enjoy that with our dinner. Just remembered another strange custom here - eating places offer lunch only till about 3 or 4pm and then the kitchen gets closed for couple of hours :) Food is served again from 6 or 7pm, which means if you would like to eat around 5 o'clock, it is quite complicated to find a place that serves food.
Currently there is also Noosa Jazz festival in town so right after dinner we got to listen to some live jazz in a nearby restaurant - what a treat!
This morning our plan was to sleep in as late as possible and then head to town for late breakfast. Guess what time I was wide awake :) 7:10! So much about sleeping in this time. Good thing was that I found free wireless randomly extending to my room - 2 hours flew by in a snap :D
HAPPY FATHERS DAY DADDY! :D :D yeap, today is fathers day here in Australia! Due to that fact all eating places were extremely crowded :( We still squeezed ourselves in and had long breakfast outside with ocean view - perfect start for our great Sunday. My breakfast consisted of a giant muffin and some hash-browns. Now the muffin, it was absolutely enormous, I have no clue how they manage to make such big muffins at all, it was huuuuuge, I could barely eat the whole thing :)
Next step was to rent a surfboard :), this went quite smoothly. As soon as we found free sand in the madness on the beach, I hit the water with the board and did not come out till 2h later :D So that was an experience I must say - water was extremely crowded with all sorts of surfers. Lot of them seemed to know what they were doing and I still found a quite big crowd of inexperienced ones like me :D Either way, my accomplishment was that I hit 2 really good waves and I got up on the board twice :D The problem was though that I could not align those 2 events :) All in all - I loved it, to be in the water with the board. I do realize that I need a whole lotta practice, but it is the best of the best to be in the water on the board!
The rest of the day went by sipping wine, listening to live jazz music, walking around by the river and by the ocean (of course, our favourite thing to do!).
Tomorrow morning we will head back to Brisbane, packing will have to wait till tomorrow as I'm dead tired. I have no idea when I'll find internet again so you have to manage with my twitter updates for some time again!
be good to each other and take care!
Cairns to Brisbane
Last day in Cairns was spent packing and looking around in town. Ave's friend David suggested to take a skyrail at the rainforest, so I had planned that in for the day, but missed the last pickup by 30 minutes :( Which was ok as I was not willing to get up any earlier and my packing took time as well. So instead I just walked to town, spent time at the main square listening to live music again and just laying in the sun. It was a nice and relaxed morning. Headed back to the hotel by 3 and headed to the airport.
Flight to Brisbane was about 2 hours, the plane was fully packed so it was a bit claustrophobic there. And again, I managed to sleep a full hour on the plane! Without any pillow or anything - I'm so proud of myself :) what an optimal time usage huh?
Once I arrived in Brisbane Ave was at the airport to greet me - it was soooo nice to see her. For the first couple of hours we both talked as fast as we could like we are about to run out of time or something :D We seemed to have a world to catch up on. Ave had prepared a nice meal with wine and dessert, which we had over at David's parents house. We were just talking and talking and talking away until it was time to go to bed. I did get to meet David's parents - very very nice and cheerful people.
I don't know much about Brisbane to update you on quite yet. I'm sure the city is big and I'm sure it is beautiful :) More facts and stories about the town later on!
Oh right, there was a little incident with my hotel booking :) Apparently the booking I did was not valid or something so once we arrived at the hotel all the rooms were taken and my booking did not show up anywhere :( As all the people are so nice here the lady in charge arranged one room for me late at night - people were moving out around 9 and then she asked an hour or so for cleaning it. She gave me the spare key and promised to take my bags in there herself - by the time I got to the room a bit before 11 all was arranged and done. Whatta nice lady.
Flight to Brisbane was about 2 hours, the plane was fully packed so it was a bit claustrophobic there. And again, I managed to sleep a full hour on the plane! Without any pillow or anything - I'm so proud of myself :) what an optimal time usage huh?
Once I arrived in Brisbane Ave was at the airport to greet me - it was soooo nice to see her. For the first couple of hours we both talked as fast as we could like we are about to run out of time or something :D We seemed to have a world to catch up on. Ave had prepared a nice meal with wine and dessert, which we had over at David's parents house. We were just talking and talking and talking away until it was time to go to bed. I did get to meet David's parents - very very nice and cheerful people.
I don't know much about Brisbane to update you on quite yet. I'm sure the city is big and I'm sure it is beautiful :) More facts and stories about the town later on!
Oh right, there was a little incident with my hotel booking :) Apparently the booking I did was not valid or something so once we arrived at the hotel all the rooms were taken and my booking did not show up anywhere :( As all the people are so nice here the lady in charge arranged one room for me late at night - people were moving out around 9 and then she asked an hour or so for cleaning it. She gave me the spare key and promised to take my bags in there herself - by the time I got to the room a bit before 11 all was arranged and done. Whatta nice lady.
Friday, September 4, 2009
First photos are up!
I have uploiaded first set of photos, find the link on the right hand side menu (right below Twitter updates). Enjoy!
Thursday, September 3, 2009
cairns - day 3 - whitewater rafting
All the tours start way too early. When I headed out of my room at 6:40, the tour guide was already running around the hotel nervously. Picking up all the rest of the group took another 30 minutes. Tully is located south from Cairns and is about 1.5h drive, Tully river is the best white water rafting place around here - river is winding through a rain forest with numerous waterfalls and other scenic areas. Today we are going to be passing about 9km on level 4 rafting river, maximum commercial level is 6 - adrenaline kick will be a nice one :)
Upon arrival we were divided into groups and lectured for about 30 minutes on all the safety regulations. Safety was mostly common logic - when in the water after falling in stay close to the surface as the current is quite strong and don't wanna get hit by the underwater rocks, keep the helmet and life vest on, when raft flips over get away from underneath as quick as possible etc. Once on the raft, our instructor Teddie went though some more safety regulations and moves we need to know before heading towards the rapids. Teddie was this short buff guy, he has been competing with Australian team all over the world as we found out. But oh those Aussies. He had scars all over his face and arms and legs, everywhere. And so on the first level 4 rapid he goes "do you all see that big triangular rock in front of us? yeah, that is where I got those 2 scars above each of my eyebrows - also broke upper 4 teeth when smacking my face on it full speed. that was my first rafting ever" we all looked at each other with horror :) He'd also give us good introduction when approaching another complicated rapid, one goes like so "see the edge there? 4 people have died on this one" :O, we all look at each other with frightened eyes. Aren't they suppose to tell us those things on our way back in the bus :D ??
Anyhoo, rafting was an absolute blast. Our team kicked ass - we did not flip over once, no one fell overboard and we were mostly fastest getting through the rapids. We ruled :) Later we got to see the DVD that was made, basically in all other rafts someone went overboard and I guess all other rafts flipped over sooner or later.
Wonderful times, we were back in town around 6pm. Now I have registered myself for 24h Internet, uploading photos and blogging is in progress. I'll probably get the photos organized tomorrow. Right now I'm gonna head to town to go for tea with Ave's friend and grab something to eat as well. Tomorrow morning is for resting :) My plane to Brisbane leaves at 16:40.
Tadaaa!
Upon arrival we were divided into groups and lectured for about 30 minutes on all the safety regulations. Safety was mostly common logic - when in the water after falling in stay close to the surface as the current is quite strong and don't wanna get hit by the underwater rocks, keep the helmet and life vest on, when raft flips over get away from underneath as quick as possible etc. Once on the raft, our instructor Teddie went though some more safety regulations and moves we need to know before heading towards the rapids. Teddie was this short buff guy, he has been competing with Australian team all over the world as we found out. But oh those Aussies. He had scars all over his face and arms and legs, everywhere. And so on the first level 4 rapid he goes "do you all see that big triangular rock in front of us? yeah, that is where I got those 2 scars above each of my eyebrows - also broke upper 4 teeth when smacking my face on it full speed. that was my first rafting ever" we all looked at each other with horror :) He'd also give us good introduction when approaching another complicated rapid, one goes like so "see the edge there? 4 people have died on this one" :O, we all look at each other with frightened eyes. Aren't they suppose to tell us those things on our way back in the bus :D ??
Anyhoo, rafting was an absolute blast. Our team kicked ass - we did not flip over once, no one fell overboard and we were mostly fastest getting through the rapids. We ruled :) Later we got to see the DVD that was made, basically in all other rafts someone went overboard and I guess all other rafts flipped over sooner or later.
Wonderful times, we were back in town around 6pm. Now I have registered myself for 24h Internet, uploading photos and blogging is in progress. I'll probably get the photos organized tomorrow. Right now I'm gonna head to town to go for tea with Ave's friend and grab something to eat as well. Tomorrow morning is for resting :) My plane to Brisbane leaves at 16:40.
Tadaaa!
cairns - day 2 - great barrier reef
Gathering for the tour started at 7:30, boat took off from Marlin Marina finger A at 8am.
The Great Barrier Reef is 2700km long reaching north to south right by Cairns. It is formed of batches of corals, which need shallow salt water and lots of sun to grow. There are various different types of corals (~400 types) and lots of sea animals (~4000 species of mollusks) and fish (~1500 different types) living alongside of it. We were warned many times not to touch the coral. Apparently it is not the crowds of tourists or global warming that is dangerous, but the touching - we wear lots of sunscreen and if that gets on a coral by our fingers, it dies :(
Our first snorkeling stop was about 1h boat ride away, called "Wonder Wall" located on the outer edge of Upolu Reef. It is just like a wall in the ocean - on one side is the coral and on the other side the wall goes into depth of the ocean. It is nothing compared to what I saw in Hawaii on Molokini island. Everything is much closer here, there are more different kinds of fish and the water is clearer. We are also allowed to swim around more freely, which I like :)
Once everybody gathered back on the boat the crew held a guided tour on a glass bottom boat. This way they were able to tell us all about the marine life and forming of coral reef. For an example I found out that even the corals sleep :) Right, they have feeding time when they are moving about with water, just like tall grass is moving in different directions with the wind, once the coral goes to sleep, it gets leathery look and is not moving around any longer. We were also explained of why coral dies and how dying coral helps to reproduce for the living coral.
Second snorkeling sight was by Upolu Cay, located about 30km from Cairns - a sand patch that rises out of the sea once the tide goes down. This we did after lunch as before lunch it was still under water :) That was my favourite! Little sand hills in a bright blue sea next to dark coral patches all around. As the sand was piled up there was very shallow water for about 50m down the stream, in shallow areas the water was extremely warm - I just laid there and did not wanna leave, ever :)
While snorkeling I saw nemo fish, turtle (from a distance this time), many different kinds of other fish (some were huuuge and some were tiny, some where plain and some were bright blue, like a colorful fish tank), saw a huge stingray (probably about 1.2m long) and a shark (can't remember what it was called, could it be black shark perhaps? it was also a bit over a meter long i'd say). Stingray and shark were hiding under a huge coral - one on one side and the other one on the other side, apparently they like to hang out together usually :) And of course many many different kinds of corals - some shaped like huge plates, some like fingers, some like cabbage. Corals were in many different colors and with lots of different types of fish swimming all around and inside of it. Snorkeling and staring at the complicated coral/fish/mollusk setting was like staring at an always moving art piece - you just stare and you are not able to take your eyes off as with every second the art piece changes.
On the way back we were served more food, cheese, fruit, snacks and cake. I happened to chat with couple of Germans - it is always my favourite part :) Also the crew was great! There was 6 of them total, two had worked on the boat just for 4 months, one moved here from London and the other one from Canada. Both of them said they got enough of the cold weather :) One of them expressed it in this format: it is 29C, water is 25C and it is WINTER at the moment!
After the trip I got back to the hotel, idea was to take a quick shower and quick nap, then head to town for dinner and a concert - nope that did not happen. I kept pressing snooze for about 20 minutes after that I gave up, had a quick snack and headed to bed for good :) Apparently adjusting and catching up on sleep takes a bit more than one 13h sleep ;)
The Great Barrier Reef is 2700km long reaching north to south right by Cairns. It is formed of batches of corals, which need shallow salt water and lots of sun to grow. There are various different types of corals (~400 types) and lots of sea animals (~4000 species of mollusks) and fish (~1500 different types) living alongside of it. We were warned many times not to touch the coral. Apparently it is not the crowds of tourists or global warming that is dangerous, but the touching - we wear lots of sunscreen and if that gets on a coral by our fingers, it dies :(
Our first snorkeling stop was about 1h boat ride away, called "Wonder Wall" located on the outer edge of Upolu Reef. It is just like a wall in the ocean - on one side is the coral and on the other side the wall goes into depth of the ocean. It is nothing compared to what I saw in Hawaii on Molokini island. Everything is much closer here, there are more different kinds of fish and the water is clearer. We are also allowed to swim around more freely, which I like :)
Once everybody gathered back on the boat the crew held a guided tour on a glass bottom boat. This way they were able to tell us all about the marine life and forming of coral reef. For an example I found out that even the corals sleep :) Right, they have feeding time when they are moving about with water, just like tall grass is moving in different directions with the wind, once the coral goes to sleep, it gets leathery look and is not moving around any longer. We were also explained of why coral dies and how dying coral helps to reproduce for the living coral.
Second snorkeling sight was by Upolu Cay, located about 30km from Cairns - a sand patch that rises out of the sea once the tide goes down. This we did after lunch as before lunch it was still under water :) That was my favourite! Little sand hills in a bright blue sea next to dark coral patches all around. As the sand was piled up there was very shallow water for about 50m down the stream, in shallow areas the water was extremely warm - I just laid there and did not wanna leave, ever :)
While snorkeling I saw nemo fish, turtle (from a distance this time), many different kinds of other fish (some were huuuge and some were tiny, some where plain and some were bright blue, like a colorful fish tank), saw a huge stingray (probably about 1.2m long) and a shark (can't remember what it was called, could it be black shark perhaps? it was also a bit over a meter long i'd say). Stingray and shark were hiding under a huge coral - one on one side and the other one on the other side, apparently they like to hang out together usually :) And of course many many different kinds of corals - some shaped like huge plates, some like fingers, some like cabbage. Corals were in many different colors and with lots of different types of fish swimming all around and inside of it. Snorkeling and staring at the complicated coral/fish/mollusk setting was like staring at an always moving art piece - you just stare and you are not able to take your eyes off as with every second the art piece changes.
On the way back we were served more food, cheese, fruit, snacks and cake. I happened to chat with couple of Germans - it is always my favourite part :) Also the crew was great! There was 6 of them total, two had worked on the boat just for 4 months, one moved here from London and the other one from Canada. Both of them said they got enough of the cold weather :) One of them expressed it in this format: it is 29C, water is 25C and it is WINTER at the moment!
After the trip I got back to the hotel, idea was to take a quick shower and quick nap, then head to town for dinner and a concert - nope that did not happen. I kept pressing snooze for about 20 minutes after that I gave up, had a quick snack and headed to bed for good :) Apparently adjusting and catching up on sleep takes a bit more than one 13h sleep ;)
cairns - day 1
Flight from Hong-Kong to Cairns was 7h, went by in a snap. Got some good movies in and short sleep again. Arrival was great as always, after so many hours of flying any destination probably seems like the best one ever :) Once out of the plane had a small chat with immigration about my finances, when I'm expected back at the office (thought I can forget about the office for now, but nope), why I'm here, when did I start planning the trip and what sort of visas do the people hold that I'm gonna visit. Nothing too surprising I guess, customs was smooth as well - including the cleaning of my hiking boots. I've heard from various people of how they are very careful about the soil that gets brought in here with various shoes, so they deep clean them :) so they did for mine as well, my hiking boots came back nicely packaged :D
After 36h of traveling I figured I should just stay awake as long as possible. Napping in the middle of the day won't work for me as I won't be able to get out of bed, this in turn would mess up the whole rhythm of sleep. Only way to manage staying awake would be walking around. Quick shower at the hotel first, change of clothes and to the town I went.
Cairns is a small place as seen by locals, about 130 000 people (town size is expected to double within few years). My hotel is located 1.5km from the center - there is a nice Esplanade connecting this area to the city center, just about 1.5km walk. Town itself is nice, many eating places, a big mall, quite large marina, parks, water Laguna and little arts shops. Laguna is great - it is located right by the sea, but as the sea is not very suitable for a swim (muddy shore and not very inviting, I found also warning signs about alligators), they have set up a shallow pool with all sorts of fountains for people to swim in. During the day it is packed with people.
At the moment there is Carin's Festival ongoing with a tight program. Happened to find one outdoor live music performance in city center, in the evenings there are pub performances all over town - perhaps tomorrow I'll catch one of those too.
While working on staying awake and walking around town I booked my next 2 days. Tomorrow I will be going to explore Great Barrier Reef and the day after there will be white water rafting - a bit more of an adrenaline kick :) Both are day tours including lunch and a tight program. While looking for a place to have dinner I ran into 2 Estonians on the street :)
Managed to keep myself busy till about 4 in the afternoon, by the time I got back to the hotel the time was 4:45. Bit of unpacking and then preparing for tomorrow's trip, I was done at 5:30 and that is when I fell dead on the bed. Tiredness took over and my 13h beauty sleep started :)
After 36h of traveling I figured I should just stay awake as long as possible. Napping in the middle of the day won't work for me as I won't be able to get out of bed, this in turn would mess up the whole rhythm of sleep. Only way to manage staying awake would be walking around. Quick shower at the hotel first, change of clothes and to the town I went.
Cairns is a small place as seen by locals, about 130 000 people (town size is expected to double within few years). My hotel is located 1.5km from the center - there is a nice Esplanade connecting this area to the city center, just about 1.5km walk. Town itself is nice, many eating places, a big mall, quite large marina, parks, water Laguna and little arts shops. Laguna is great - it is located right by the sea, but as the sea is not very suitable for a swim (muddy shore and not very inviting, I found also warning signs about alligators), they have set up a shallow pool with all sorts of fountains for people to swim in. During the day it is packed with people.
At the moment there is Carin's Festival ongoing with a tight program. Happened to find one outdoor live music performance in city center, in the evenings there are pub performances all over town - perhaps tomorrow I'll catch one of those too.
While working on staying awake and walking around town I booked my next 2 days. Tomorrow I will be going to explore Great Barrier Reef and the day after there will be white water rafting - a bit more of an adrenaline kick :) Both are day tours including lunch and a tight program. While looking for a place to have dinner I ran into 2 Estonians on the street :)
Managed to keep myself busy till about 4 in the afternoon, by the time I got back to the hotel the time was 4:45. Bit of unpacking and then preparing for tomorrow's trip, I was done at 5:30 and that is when I fell dead on the bed. Tiredness took over and my 13h beauty sleep started :)
Monday, August 31, 2009
Reporting from Hong-Kong
It was kinda nice to arrive here. Flight map showed all the familiar cities and I knew what to expect when arriving, last year I was here 6th of September. Airport has been transformed quite a bit though, it looks nice. My flights so far have gone well, no major turbulence or delays or any other hassles. Only thing was that I had to claim my baggage in London Heathrow and do another check-in 'cause Estonian Air does not have baggage contract with Cathay Pacific :( All went smoothly with that so no biggie at all.
I'm not sure how I managed to get even few good hours of sleep on the last flight. Managed to have a dream even where one of my friends got stuck in airplane restroom :). Maybe the ability to sleep on the flights comes with age? No clue, but I'm definitely happy about it. Hopefully now I will only need to sleep 1 day instead of 3 days to get back on track once I arrive in the destination :D Kidding, no time to sleep during vacation ;)
Hunger bites so food hunting starts now. Some stretches for my back and legs are in order as well (oh how I'm dreaming about running). Next flight coming up in 4 hours.
Hugs!
I'm not sure how I managed to get even few good hours of sleep on the last flight. Managed to have a dream even where one of my friends got stuck in airplane restroom :). Maybe the ability to sleep on the flights comes with age? No clue, but I'm definitely happy about it. Hopefully now I will only need to sleep 1 day instead of 3 days to get back on track once I arrive in the destination :D Kidding, no time to sleep during vacation ;)
Hunger bites so food hunting starts now. Some stretches for my back and legs are in order as well (oh how I'm dreaming about running). Next flight coming up in 4 hours.
Hugs!
Sunday, August 30, 2009
about 40 minutes to go
last set of e-mails have been sent. sitting at the airport, listening to music, tweeting, facebook and staring at the dark clouds outside. i have not snapped out of the daily hassles yet. yesterday was a long day.. preparations for Long Distance Triathlon started at 6am for me and event finished 11:30pm. it was a tough, fun, exciting and a happy day. i'm so proud of all of you who competed and all of you who assisted with organizing the event. i'm a lucky person to have such good people around me!
this morning alarm went off 9am, good solid 8h sleep, new morning full of hassles started. all in all i managed and i managed good. now there are 17 flights waiting for me in the next 6 weeks and then i'll be back where i started from. but that i won't think about before i'm off the last flight ;) .. and that won't be anytime soon :D
life is sooooo gooood :)
you all take care and be good!
stay tuned! liftoff coming up shortly :D
this morning alarm went off 9am, good solid 8h sleep, new morning full of hassles started. all in all i managed and i managed good. now there are 17 flights waiting for me in the next 6 weeks and then i'll be back where i started from. but that i won't think about before i'm off the last flight ;) .. and that won't be anytime soon :D
life is sooooo gooood :)
you all take care and be good!
stay tuned! liftoff coming up shortly :D
Tuesday, July 28, 2009
Exactly a month till packing needs to be finished :)
I need to have everything packed by the evening of 28th of August :) and no I'm not overplanning. The deal is the same as last year: I will be organizing a triathlon event that starts 6am on 29th of August and ends around 3am on the 30th of August. I have to be at the airport bit before noon on the 30th, which gives me couple of hours to get some sleep and that is it :)
The progress so far is:
- plane tickets bought and initial dates for all flights fixed
- travel, health and luggage insurance done
- Australian visa gotten
- training in San Jose arranged and U2 concert tickets purchased
Nothing else needed really :) Easy trip this time huh? Maybe I'm just a bit more spontaneous, maybe it is just the nature of the countries I'm going to - I don't know, but besides few accommodation arrangements (San Jose and Atlanta) there is nothing more to do :) I have decided that I won't arrange any local trips up front, I have looked up what I'd like to do and I'm betting on walking into organizers office the same day to take the trip. Same with car rental. So I just need to pack my bag at some point and that is it :)
It all seems so far away though, I'm not even thinking about it yet, no excitement, nothing. Must be the current busy schedule? Very strange.
The progress so far is:
- plane tickets bought and initial dates for all flights fixed
- travel, health and luggage insurance done
- Australian visa gotten
- training in San Jose arranged and U2 concert tickets purchased
Nothing else needed really :) Easy trip this time huh? Maybe I'm just a bit more spontaneous, maybe it is just the nature of the countries I'm going to - I don't know, but besides few accommodation arrangements (San Jose and Atlanta) there is nothing more to do :) I have decided that I won't arrange any local trips up front, I have looked up what I'd like to do and I'm betting on walking into organizers office the same day to take the trip. Same with car rental. So I just need to pack my bag at some point and that is it :)
It all seems so far away though, I'm not even thinking about it yet, no excitement, nothing. Must be the current busy schedule? Very strange.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Curious about the land down under
I've always wondered about what is there in down under, what is it like to walk upside down that is :D No need to wonder any longer as this is where my travels during fall vacation take me. Somehow I've always explained of why I have chosen a certain area for the next destination so here it comes again: my friend Ave moved to the down under land this year :) Her initial plan is to stay there for a bit, so I figured to go and visit her.
As usual, I got limited time for my travels and as usual I'm going to try to take most out of those few weeks I've got. Planned routes and destinations:
1. Cairns, AU - good 3.5 days
Will arrive there through Stockholm, London and Hong-Kong (please make it so that there are no tropical storms in the area this time, although I will be in Hong Kong airport almost to the date a year later!). Activities should definitely include some adrenalin kick, for an example bit of whitewater rafting? Definitely some ocean activities on a boat to study the Great Barrier Reef and water animals.
2. Brisbane, AU - for about 5 days
Noosa and Rainbow beach here I come with my surfing gear to have the best pancakes in the world :-P ! Hopefully some animal parks will be open during my stay, will check out some sand hills in the ocean (islands made entirely of sand!), the city and the beaches and spend time with my friend, and night clubs and all that this area has to offer.
3. Sydney, AU - 3 days
Of course the city, perhaps some cultural events. Oh and close to Sydney there are mountains called blue ;) and something about a tramway, will see what i can manage there.
4. Tasmania, AU - 3 days
Everything that this little island can offer in 3 days, will be in Hobart area, driving around by bikes and cars like a maniac :-P
5. Christchurch, NZ - 6 days
The city and the most beautiful train ride in the world plus ice climbing on glacier and ocean life with itsy-bitsy dolphins and couple of museums and animal parks hopefully, perhaps even some activities full of adrenalin rush.
6. Auckland, NZ - 6 days
The caves and more Maori culture and Rotorua and Rongitoto and all kinds of fun.
7. San Jose, US - 3 days
Short training course, work related, will try to snap out of the vacation mode and be down to earth for just 2 days.
8. Santa Cruz, US - 4 days
"surf city" is the nickname of this wonderful town in California, so I'll be just surfing.
9. Atlanta, US - 1.5 days
Just to attend U2 concert on the 6th of October in Georgia Dome :)
As of today I will be traveling mostly alone, I got one potential travel companion, but this is to be confirmed still. I'm particularly happy about the U2 concert on the last evening of the trip, tickets to the event are purchased :)
As usual, I got limited time for my travels and as usual I'm going to try to take most out of those few weeks I've got. Planned routes and destinations:
1. Cairns, AU - good 3.5 days
Will arrive there through Stockholm, London and Hong-Kong (please make it so that there are no tropical storms in the area this time, although I will be in Hong Kong airport almost to the date a year later!). Activities should definitely include some adrenalin kick, for an example bit of whitewater rafting? Definitely some ocean activities on a boat to study the Great Barrier Reef and water animals.
2. Brisbane, AU - for about 5 days
Noosa and Rainbow beach here I come with my surfing gear to have the best pancakes in the world :-P ! Hopefully some animal parks will be open during my stay, will check out some sand hills in the ocean (islands made entirely of sand!), the city and the beaches and spend time with my friend, and night clubs and all that this area has to offer.
3. Sydney, AU - 3 days
Of course the city, perhaps some cultural events. Oh and close to Sydney there are mountains called blue ;) and something about a tramway, will see what i can manage there.
4. Tasmania, AU - 3 days
Everything that this little island can offer in 3 days, will be in Hobart area, driving around by bikes and cars like a maniac :-P
5. Christchurch, NZ - 6 days
The city and the most beautiful train ride in the world plus ice climbing on glacier and ocean life with itsy-bitsy dolphins and couple of museums and animal parks hopefully, perhaps even some activities full of adrenalin rush.
6. Auckland, NZ - 6 days
The caves and more Maori culture and Rotorua and Rongitoto and all kinds of fun.
7. San Jose, US - 3 days
Short training course, work related, will try to snap out of the vacation mode and be down to earth for just 2 days.
8. Santa Cruz, US - 4 days
"surf city" is the nickname of this wonderful town in California, so I'll be just surfing.
9. Atlanta, US - 1.5 days
Just to attend U2 concert on the 6th of October in Georgia Dome :)
As of today I will be traveling mostly alone, I got one potential travel companion, but this is to be confirmed still. I'm particularly happy about the U2 concert on the last evening of the trip, tickets to the event are purchased :)
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