The big exotic city – Sydney

Passion fuels the rocket, but vision—a big dream— points the rocket to its ultimate destination (Steve Jobs). Our big dream is living and working in Australia and preferably Sydney one day. After visiting this exotic city for the first time, the motivation to live and work in Australia became even greater. Because accommodation is so expensive in Sydney, we stayed with AirBnB at Tat’s lovely house in one of Sydney’s many neighborhoods called Surrey Hills, which was about a 40 minute walk from the famous city center. Our first impression was already a grand one, sitting in the Prince Albert park overlooking the sunset over the big skyscrapers of Sydney. During our stay it was late Autumn. In Sydney that doesn’t mean the sun is giving in yet and while we stayed there it still delivered us a nice 18 to 22 degrees on a daily basis, which is sometimes more than what the Belgian summer has to offer.Sydney is a city with many faces and we were only able to see a small part. Surry Hills for example has older heritage houses (like the one we stayed at) and classical architectural facades. Trendy is the keyword and so you’ll find smart looking furniture shops, cool coffee shops and cafes working around a specific concept (we for example went to one that sold fresh baked Hungarian bread named Kürtőskalács). This neighborhood, like Melbourne, as well reminded me a bit of Cape Town.On the other hand the north part of the city center gave me the feeling I was in some part of Londen with an exotic hint, with all its big buildings, great malls, fish and chipperies but also little brown pubs and cute tea houses offering high tea. We couldn’t help ourselves and had to try one of the latter. An afternoon well spend if you ask me. Walking out of the tea place we even bumped upon a street performance of some lady squeezing herself in a tiny box. Sydney is truly one of a kind. We loved strolling around the harbour and quay area looking over a gigantic cruiseship that seemed to be boarding (the one in the picture). But we also found the time to watch people getting on smaller party/dinner boats all dressed up and ready to be amazed by the free weekly Saturday fireworks, which of course we attended as well a few hours later. In our case we witnessed the spectacle from a pedestrian bridge crossing the river and it was surely the biggest one I’ve ever seen.These big boats can cruise you all around the world! I like to imagine myself sitting on one and doing more of what I love (traveling) when I grow older.The big tower bridge. You can climb it if you have about 230 AUD (160 euros). We however did not think it was worth the money and time (takes you more than 3 hours) so skipped that. And then you had the strange vulture looking birds that bullied the pigeons (and humans) in order to get food. And these creatures were everywhere..Another thing was the “healthy” snacking. This was a banana on a stick covered with chocolate and coconut. After seeing tons of people eating it, I decided to try it as well and it was sooo delicious. Yummie!We enjoyed the little time we had in Sydney, but decided that we also wanted to see it’s surroundings for a bit before heading west for South East Asia again. We rented a car and went out for a day to the blue mountains, which are located a two hours drive away from the center of Sydney. These pictures are taken at several locations overlooking endless forests and the highest peaks the area has to offer. Again an amazing day.

Now that we understand what it means to live in a city like Sydney, we will work our asses off to get back here. Getting my masters degree, gaining some relevant experience and allowing ourselves one more year in Belgium or the UK (I will talk about this new option later), once again to prepare for the big move. The last thing I’ve got to say is : See you soon Australia!

Sailing towards Whitehaven Beach – Australia

From the south of Australia, Melbourne, we flew three hours north to warmer climates in Hamilton Islands. Little did we know that we were in for the biggest beach treat ever. I mean sure, seeing the Whitsundays beaches has been a dream of me for ages, but I couldn’t imagine the perfection of this experience until the very moment I was there myself. 

Before going I assumed that wherever you stayed, you always slept ashore and could just walk to those pearl white postcard beaches. Therefor we rented a nice one bedroom apartment keeping in mind that we were still on a budget and that I missed cooking. I ended up cooking nearly every day and apparently, to Sanders irritation, even the cockatoos seemed to be delighted by my homemade meals. 

Back to the beaches. In reality the beaches I was thinking of are not some random beaches at the shoreline of Airlie or Hamilton. They are part of a huge nature reserve that is located at a few hours of sailing or cruising. At first we decided that prices for sailing were too high, but when we walked around in Airlie for a bit we noticed these huge tourpromotions everywhere. Excited as can be we ordered a last minute sailing cruise for the next day. The itinerary included going to Whitehaven beach and its well known lookout point, doing some snorkeling and even enjoying a nice cold barbecue for lunch! 

We had the most terrific day on a beautiful 8 person boat! Even the weather agreed with us during the whole stay at Airlie, offering about 25-30 degrees which is not bad given that this was low season. Like I mentioned before it was all Perfection. Following pictures are from the pristine sand at the beach, the cutest little blue shell crabs that were present in tremendous quantities (more than one million on these islands and so afraid of voices that they would dug themselves in the second you opened your mouth) and the bluest, clearest water we’ve ever seen in our lives.

That was what the beaches looked like, but let me also elaborate a bit on the feeling you get while walking on them.. Because this is a nature reserve and because there are only a limited number of boats going there each day the beach was very empty (20 people tops) and very, very clean as well. There are no stalls, no garbage bins, no benches, no pathways and not even a boat dock. You get dropped of a few meters from the shore in the water by a speed boat. It feels totally deserted. The sand is so thin and clean it literally squeaks under your footsteps and the only sound you hear is that of exotic birds singing their daily song. LUSH!

After beach time and barbecue time, it was snorkeling time. Our little sailboat sailed from the beach to one of the nearby reefs. Again we were totally alone at this particular spot. Watching the reefs, corals and fish felt like watching fireworks under the sea surface. Colorful, vibrant, living and untouched. Nature as pure as it gets. 

After the sailing day, the only thing we could imagine ourselves doing was returning. This time we were on a tighter budget because we already had spend so much on the first day of sailing, so we opted for a ferry that got us to the Whitsunday Islands, no lunch or snorkeling included, for about 70 euros per person. We brought our own little picnic and enjoyed these beaches for the second and sadly last time.

Now that those trips are over we can only dream of returning one day. That next time, we will without doubt book a three day sailing cruise that also includes the great barrier reef and maximizes what we get out of our precious limited time on these beaches. Hopefully we will have obtained our diving licenses by that time. And in the meantime I can’t wait to read more stories about this squeaking little place called whiteh(e)aven. 

Passing through Hue

A lot of visitors in Hue are only there for a brief moment, passing through on their way to Da Nang, Hoi An and other destinations in the middle of Vietnam. Although the streets of Hue are interesting, they were not our kind of streets. During the day these streets were filled with tourist busses that made a stop on one of its major heritage sites. At night, they were bustling with energetic young people drinking cheap cocktails to fuel them for all nighters.

For the short period we were in Hue, we opted for cocktails, good food and the imperial city. Perhaps going to a great restaurant was on top of our to do list after being in a place like Ninh Binh that seemed to lack eatable food.. After searching the internet for the best place (we wanted cheap and good), we chose a restaurant called “Golden Rice” and it turned out to be one of the best meals we had in Vietnam. I order the caramelized chicken which was sweet, spicy and garlicy. But let’s not talk food all day.. We visited the Imperial City in Hue. The locals seem to call it “The Citadel” or “The forbidden city of Vietnam” referring to the forbidden city in Beijing. Alas, it is nothing like it. Less grand, not as overwhelming and not so well maintained. That is at least my opinion after standing at the gates of the true Forbidden City one month earlier. If you however linger a while at this location, you see it’s own beauty and originality. No need to compare it with something it’s not. It’s on the UNESCO world heritage list for a reason and the the citadel possesses great parts of the rich Vietnamese history together with bits and pieces of it’s impressive architecture, like the red hallway below.But most of all it was a place full of color and full of remnants of former empires.  Although we probably wouldn’t return to Hue, there is much more to see (tombs). We just didn’t found sufficient time and energy to do more since spending two nights out of four on a train proved to be more exhausting than we could even imagine. As a result we skittled away one entire day sleeping. Oh well, it was very satisfying to say the least. Now we will be able to be awake at our next destination, Hoi An!