art art art

Last Friday I spent the day in the oven hot rooms of the Brunswick Street Art Gallery, hanging pictures and pinning photographs to the walls, trying to make sure not to drop sweat on the print-outs. It was great fun and I met a bunch of very interesting and nice people. I even saved one of the artist, Richard, from embarrassment because I spotted a spelling mistake in his name on the labels. As a volunteer, I do not get payed, but the opening party in the late afternoon payed me off: I could drink for free and we actually had a very nice punsh.
*yay*HAving started working at 10 in the morning I returned to the hostel at 9, slightly drunk but in high spirits. There they even left me some of the free bbbq the hostel holds every friday. Sitting in the comfy courtyard chatting the night away with the usual bunch of travellers, Chris, an English guy, came up with the idea to rent a car and travel down the Great Ocean Road. Thats how our Road Trip started...

how do 43°C feel like?

In one word: HOT! Melbourne experiences the hottest temperatures in over a hundred years. And I am proud to be part of this! Running around al day hunting for a room instead of enjoying the coolness and intellectual stimulation of air-conditioned museums, I was partly blind because of sweat running into my eyes. Putting on make up did not work anyway, because all my eyeliners were melted. Anyway, this is a good way to get to know the city a bit better. And, I had the sidewalks all to myself, because every sane person was hiding inside cooler buildings. I could feel the water I drank immediately vaporizing through the pores of my skin a resulting in little streams of sweat running down my back and my calves. I am not over exaggerating here, buckling train tracks caused a major traffic chaos (so I was smart to walk), and even in the supermarket many racks were left empty because many fresh products could not be delivered because of the heat. There is even talk about postponing the Australian Open that are taking place here at the moment, but so far, the poor tennis players have to play in almost 50° heat…no idea how the do that?!
While walking along Brunswick ST however, I was first drawn into a nice little café where I finally did what I love to do: Having a coffee while reading the newspaper (and taking pictures of it). When I moved on, the sign “Gallery” caught my attention, I went in and what can I say, I am an official volunteer of the Brunswick St Gallery, starting 10a.m. tomorrow morning.
I even applied for a job in an Italian Bistro, but do not have high hopes. My resume needs a work over but I am gonna start the job hunting as soon as I have a room, I promise.

Fitzroy Girl

After spending the last afternoon wandering the streets of Northern Melbourne, namely Fiitzroy, I felt much much better. St. Kilda could not win my heart, although it has the beach which in this heat must be quite comfortable, but Fitzroy with all the littel Galleries, Vintage and Second Hand Shops and Bars&Cafes is much more my cup of tea. I already had a look at two very nice rooms in this area, so wish me luck!

...in Melbourne!...

hello there, I am finally in Melbourne! Australia day was a nice day to travel, they even threw me a firework at night :-)
I am desperately looking for a room, living in a hostel is so annoying! And a job would be nice too, but so long I am gonna enjoy the city and catch up on my artshunger. The next days will see up to 40degrees, better to escape the heat in a nice aircon museum or gallery!
since I lost my phone, please send me your phone numbers again!
cheers, jana

even Flippers family is here

me on the St. Kilda Pier

kite surfers at St. Kilda Beach

Fireworks on Australia Day at Federation Square

Annes B'day

finally back in Sydney, back in the WG, everyone hanging on their computer.
Annes friend Kathrin is also here, tonight is girls night in, tomorrow out and sunday is Annes B*day, to be celebrated with a barbie at the beach! Yeah
The girls night out turned into a girls night in with dvds, salad and low fat ice cream (and without the guys who were on the Big Day Out Festival). Saturday night was ours and after serious sorrows about what to wear not to feel completely underdressed as we usually do. After having to convince the guys as locals to take us to the best places and clubs, we ended up paying hilarious amounts of money at a Darling Harbour In-Pub, we went to a huge etablissement called "Retro" which was not very retro. But they played 80s music and we danced the night away with blood blisters on our feet...
Sunday was the actual Birthday then with a birthday cake pyramide made from Lamingtons and Timtams, a huge aussie style breakfast, presents, more cake and dinner in the city followed by the compulsory beers in an Irish Pub






me, drunk

Cape Tribulation

our last daytrip in Cairns took us to Cape Tribulation, a very beautiful area north of cairns across the Daintree river where apparently (according to our guide) only Hippies live. We went on river cruise and saw scarface, the local dominant male crocodile. After that we stopped for lunch at a hostel by the beach. On the way back we went for a walk through the rainforest and dipped our feet in the clear and refreshingly cold river at Mossman Gorge.



spot the croc

Skyrain äh... -rail

We woke to the sound of constant rain drumming on the tin roof of out hostel but were in good hopes it would soon stop. Anyway, it did not and our half day rafting trip was therefore cancelled. Yet, we got to do the other half, a visit to a rainforest station with a little zoo, an aboriginal show and a rainforest cruise. After that we were to explore the little village of Kurunda before taking the famous Skyrail down to Cairns again, a cable car that runs over the tops of the North Queensland Rainforest.
well, what am I gonna tell you, it was ...wet!

Great Barrier Reef

Hello from the far North, from Cairns!
We went on a diving trip yesterday and actually were lucky with the weather and the underwater camera. So here is what I could take pictures of:

picture update

hello people, I updated some posts and added pictures! check it out!

back from the "Wetsundays"

our boat, the Wings II

back from what we dubbed the Wetsunday Islands, because it was constantly raining on our sailing trip! after the first wave of sea sickness, we did go scuba diving and snorkeling, but the visibility was pretty bad. we had fun though and teh crew made sure we were all very well fed and etertained. Now, back in Airlie Beach in the hostel, we try to dry, but it is literaly wet season up here!


hula!!


in wetsuits


nice landscape, bad weather





finally some sunshine on the last morning

back from fraser

puuuhhhhhh, a long hot shower later we finally got rid of all the sand we had everywhere, that we ate, drank and had in our hair. Finally time to catch up with the nettet world out there.
This is the result of a 3day trip to Fraser Island, a sand island where they send mixed groups of tourists in big 4wheel drives to drive around like crazy, sleep in the sand and get sunburnt We did all of it. Our group was the multicultural one, unfortunately with some communication problems. Three guys from France, hitting on two girls from Argentina, a girl and a guy from Israel, my sister and me were crammed into a pink 4w. Together with two other cars we headed to the barge early Saturday morning, and hit the sandy roads. Bumping over dunes, we arrived at the beach and sprinted up along Australia's only highway on a beach. As you might have imagined, we were not alone there and sometimes the traffic made us slow down, but it was great fun anyway. In the early afternoon, we caught up with the other vans to set up our camp in the dunes. After such an exciting day, everybody was quite hungry and so we cooked as good as possible on the camping stoves. Here the gold medal went to some Canadians who were apparently more experienced in this discipline. A lot of beers later, we slept deeply on the surprisingly hard sand.
The next day took us up the beach to a breathtaking cliff, then back again to a real camping ground. The evening aw even more beer and some nice barbecues.
Today we went to a sweetwater lake with crystal clear water and bright white beaches, only the palm trees were missing for a true Caribbean feeling.
back in the hostel we are looking forward to a good night's sleep and heading on to Airlie Beach with the night bus tomorrow evening.

our group and our nice pink car

shipwreck on the beach

kim

in the car

Rosa and me, after swimming across Lake McKenzie

B wie Bier....ähh: Brisbane

after a good nights sleep on the packed Greyhound bus, we arrived in Brisbane early thsi morning. Now hangign out on the net (finally, I got wireless, but uploading pictures does not work somehow!), waiting another 2hrs for the museums to open. The weather is warm and humid, but cloudy.
After the culture treatment, we are gonna visit the xxxx brewery thsi afternoon!
cheers!

museum of queensland

Ron Mueck, "in bed", 2005, gallery of Contmporary art; very impressive work!

beer:
guess where
guess what
more beer
even more
Thai food!!!!!
...and beer