So my little two week getaway to Western Australia is coming to its end. I’ve had a blast here and I’ve seen heaps of cool stuff.

If you’re heading over to WA, be sure to check out Perth, Fremantle, Cottesloe and Rottnest Island.

I went to Rottnest yesterday, and it was a really cool place. On Rottnest there’s a very special animal called Quokka and those guys are basically bigger and cuter versions of rats. They’re pretty curious and one of them almost got away with my pack of Mentos (don’t think he would’ve liked them though).

In about 4 hours I’ll be on my way to Bali where I’ll meet up with a mate from Sweden.

Chengkui!

All rightie, guess I should have posted this earlier - but I’m lazy.

I spent the last weekend celebrating Easter with a friend and her family and it was without any hesitation one of the most fun Easters ever.

So without further ado, here’s the lowdown on the Aussie Easter:

1. Rent a house somewhere on the south coast.
2. Add people.
3. Add meat.
4. Barbecue.
5. Add beer/vodka/whatever.
6. Get drunk.
7. Hit the beach.
8. All in all, have a friggin’ awesome time.

Oh, and there’s also something called ‘Good Friday‘ which I’ve never heard of. Apparently you shouldn’t eat meat, drink alcohol etc. on this day and a majority of all shops are closed as well. Weird!

And yeah, Borat’s my best mate. High fiiive!

So I guess I haven’t really jotted down my general thoughts of my experience in Australia - so here we go. A bit of a warning though, this might turn into some deep stuff.

I’ve been here almost two months now and I can’t seriously remember the last time I felt so happy and excited about life. Doing this journey and traveling by myself is hands down the best learning experience I’ve had in my life so far.

What I’ve realized is that by traveling by yourself you’re automatically forced to be outgoing, sociable and keen on meeting new people. Since I came here I’ve become a lot more social and a lot more confident compared to what I used to be.

Basically, this little journey has forced me to take care of a lot of shit I didn’t like about myself, stuff I needed to improve upon in order to become a better person.

For those thinking about going by themselves somewhere, just do it. It’s the best possible way to learn a new language (or improve an existing one), get to experience a new culture and meet a lot of awesome people. And yeah, you’ll also be able to get to know yourself in a way you won’t normally be able to.

And regarding Sydney… all I can say is it’s abso-fucking-lutely fantastic. Yeah sure, you can see pictures of the place and get a hint of what it’s like but Sydney is as much about atmosphere as it’s about awesome scenery. There’s always something going on, always people on the go. One minute you can run around in the central business district and be surrounded by high rises and a few minutes later you can chill with the fruit bats (by the way, they’re kinda ugly) in the Botanical Gardens.

Well yeah, going from a town with a population of 40,000 to a city with a population of 4,5 million people can also be a part of why I’m so fascinated. But just slightly though :).

To all of those I’ve met here, thanks for making my stay here extremely awesome. I really appreciate it.

All right, time for another awesome update!

Yesterday it was time for some touristy stuff again. It all started out with taking the tourist bus around Sydney. Gotta say that the driver was awesome, it felt like he just got his license (alternatively: just stole the bus) and at times the tour was little bit like a roller coaster. But hey, I survived.

After that me and Karen headed over to Manly, which hands down, is abso-fucking-lutely awesome! Nice beach, a good vibe to it and eye catching nature surrounding it.

I took quite a few awesome photos there I must say. Check ‘em out!

All right, so today I wanted to do something touristy again. This time I headed to the Australian Museum to see what cool things they had to offer.

To be honest, it was okay, but that was it. The dinosaur skeletons and the regular skeletons probably were the coolest things they had to showcase.

Tomorrow I’ll probably do the most touristy thing one can do: hop on the tourist bus for a tour around Sydney. Awesome!

So alright, I seriously suck at writing new posts about what I’m up to. High five!

Monday last week I went to the Sydney Wildlife Park. It sucked compared to Taronga Zoo, but it was still fun to walk around there a bit. After that I met up with Karen and we went for dinner or something (all I know is that it must have involved Darling Harbour and wine, I seriously don’t know why we always end up there with a bottle of wine in front of us).

I don’t remember exactly what I did on the Tuesday, but on the Wednesday I almost got my arm bitten off (well, let’s just say that for the dramatic side of things) by an enormous cockatoo. No, but seriously, you should pay attention while you’re hand feeding these guys. I looked away for a second and he grabbed my hand with his claw and it started bleeding and stuff. Way uncool dude!

Thursday and Friday I guess I was hanging out in the city somewhere (best guess: Darling Harbour). On the Saturday I was running around in the Botanical Gardens feeding half its population with bread. Too bad I got stung by mosquitoes or ants or whatever the hell it was, those buggers completely owned my leg. Aaargh!

On the Sunday I went to Australia’s capital Canberra. The Parliament was cool and all, but the city in itself just felt lame compared to Sydney. The shopping center downtown was a bit cool though, but it still isn’t Sydney. Man, I love Sydney.

And yeah, check out the new photos:

• Photos: Sydney - Sydney Wildlife World
• Photos: Sydney - Hanging out with the Cockatoos
• Photos: Canberra
  

So yesterday was a pretty chill day.

It started out with some kajaking (my first time ever) in the National Park with a friend of the family I’m staying with. Kajaking was awesome when I finally got a hang of it.

After that I hit the gym and did some back and tummy exercises. After my tour at the gym I went home, made some pasta carbonara on kangaroo mince and then finished of the day with a little jog around the town I’m staying in.

This Tuesday I’ll meet up with Karen again and we’ll hit the Sydney Aquarium. That will be fun!

Yesterday I went to Bondi Beach for the first time. That beach is just awesome, and yeah, there are quite a few people running around there.

After the little tour around the beach Lois (another backpacker staying in Caringbah - now we’re officially 2!) and I met up with her friends, had a few drinks and just had a chill evening. Good Stuff!

Oh yeah, I updated the photo album with the pictures from Bondi as well.

Yesterday I spent the entire day at Taronga Zoo with my German friend Karen. The weather could have been a bit better but I sure as hell had an awesome time. Next time though, I guess one should pay more attention to the map of the zoo - going by Mr. Turtle’s little enclosure 5 or 6 times in a consecutive row might, just might, be considered to be lost :).

During our time at the zoo we also attended two shows: the free flight bird show and the seal show.

The free flight bird show was soo amazing. Everything from small owls to giant condors participated in the show, and it was just mind blowing to see how well these animals could be trained. At the end of the show a lot of different birds came flying in and it was so beautiful. During this specific show there was a quite worrisome event taking place at the same time as the end of the show - there was a falcon flying around preying on the cockatoos. It all went well though and no birds got hurt. I guess my dad would’ve loved to see this show.

The next show, the seal show, was also extremely spectacular. I was just blown away by how intelligent these guys are and how well trained they can be. They responded to verbal cues in an instant and they pretty much knew the show by heart. It was also a bit of surprise to learn that they’re pretty damn fast (they can swim up to 40km/h under water) and that they’re pretty agile animals. I’ve always had a preconception about seals that they were supposed to be slow and lazy so I guess I learned something today as well.

And yeah, check out the Taronga Zoo photo album.