17.mai Norway's national day

A comparison of the Australian 17.Mai and the good old one from back home.

Breakfast: Usually we start the day with a small walk over to our neigbours, where a proper massiv meal has been prepared. It's like christmas morning only better. This year we started our day with a small 2-hour bussride over to surfers paradise where a cafe-breakfast where prepared. It contained one hamburger for Mette and two pancakes for Lennart. The beach wiew and the sun, did give the food an extra flavour. -To be quite honest, the best thing abour this year 17.may breakfast was the company. We where met in Surfers by two norwegian friends, Marte and Lisa, together with two other norwegian students. Was good to speak norwegian with other people again and not just between ourself.

Midday - Lunsj: This years walk down to the city center was replased by surfing and sunbathing on the beach. Unfortunally wasn't the waves any good (really small and caothic) so the norwegian flag surf picture was cancelled. It would be a disgrace against our flag to surf such small waves (rather go for the big one and get wiped out). There was also a pretty strong onshore wind, so the beach was given up for the city after a few hours. Here are some pictures from our parade into the city and the surprising australian parade down town. I really like the way they honour our country..

Found out later that they are meter maids, girls who walk around and put money on the parkingmeter if your parkingmeter is about to run out..

Oh yeah. This year the traditional lunsj hot dogs was changed out with guinness.

Dinner: We were able, thanks to Marte, to get a hold on tickets to a norwegian 17th of may dinner in Brisbane. Really, really weird to be surrounded by a group of 50 norwegians again. The salmon appertiser was the closest the dinner came to traditional, but all in all it was a memorabul evening. Nice to be with old friends again.

Byron Bay, svenske kjottboller og surf

Sorry guys, this one is in norwegian. A perfect learning posibility for you "soon-to-speak-norwegian" students out there..

Blue mountains levde ikke helt opp til forventningene. Eller selve dalene var nydelige og det kjolige hostvaeret upaaklagelig, men naar en ikke faar tak i klatreutstyr saa.. Midt i vaar store "saa naart fjellet uten aa faa klatret det" depresjon, fikk vi en mail fra en couchsurfer (Brent) i Byron Bay. Den gikk saann ca som dette "Hurry up. Weather is nice, waves are big and we surfed with dolphins today". Neste dag var vi paa plass i Byron.. Hvor strendene ser slik ut og det er uendelig mange av dem..

En time etter ankomst i Byron befant vi oss i Brents kjokken, hvor en svensk jente (Ulrika) lagde kjottboller til middag. Uten aa sammenligne, saa foltes det som om aa komme hjem. Plutselig befant vi oss i et vanlig hus, sammen med alle dens beboere og venter paa at potetene skal koke ferdig. Brent var gjestfriheten selv og det ble til slutt flere kvelden sammen med bofelleskapet i Byron. Til helgen fikk vi utnyttet kjokkenet og introdusert australienerne til faarikal. Det falt i smak og en har siden gaatt under kallenavnet "the cabbage kids". Brent forlot oss etter noen dager for aa reise paa ferie til sverige og norge (litt ironisk det der), saa etter det har vi og Urika blitt en Byron Bay treklover..

Vi bor naa paa et ikke-offisielt hostel. Privat eid hus hvor en har stappet inn en 16 senger. Billigste stedet og bo i byron, med masse hyggelige folk. Hvor fem av de naa venter paa puben og sannsynligvis lurer paa hvor lang tid det kan ta aa skrive et innlegg. Naar boforholdene ble billige saa lokket Byron mer og vi har naa bodd her en ukes tid. Blir her frem til 17.mai, som vi skal feire med surfing paa the gold coast sammen med Marte fra min gamle fysioterapiklasse.

Saa langt har hovedfokuset i Byron vaert paa surfing og strandliv. Mette har tatt et intorduksjonskurs og fortsatt med aa prove seg i bolgene, mens Lennart leier brett saa ofte som han kan. Begge er enig i at surfing er en stor utfordring, men at naturopplevelsene tar opp igjen for det meste av strevet. Lennart surfet med delfiner idag, hvor den ene svomte rett under brettet hans (ca 1 meter under overflaten).

Den 20.mai flyr vi videre opp til Cairns. Herfra blir det dykking, seiling, 4-hjulskjoring og kanotur paa veien ned igjen til Brisbane. Blir to ekstremt tettpakkete uker med bare drommeopplevelser og eventyr. Har selv litt problemer med aa forstaa hvor mye bra som egentlig ligger foran oss, men skal prove aa holde dere oppdatert etter hvert som de gaar opp for oss. Bildet er fra en morgensurf Brent tok oss med ut paa, foler det ogsa gir et bilde av den hverdagen vi lever i.. Livet er herlig..

PS: Kameraet har begynt aa fungere igjen (om med noen nykker) etter at Lennart reparerte det med en papirbit.

Walking in Sydney

We arrived in Sydney late Monday night and woke up to a brilliant bright autum day on tuesday, this was even more appriciated after someone told us that it's been raining for the last two weeks. So feeling lucky and in some sort of a physical shape we headed out on foot towards downtown Sydney, something that we would continue to do for the next 4 concecutives days. There's a few nice buildings in Sydney, to your left you find one of them. Can definitly recommend a autum picnic, with pasta-salad, on the tip of sydney harbour with view of all the most famous sydney attractions. We haven't actually done much of the attractions, primeraly because everything famous is a bit expencive, but the walks have been great. Feels like we're the only ones walking though, since the rest of sydney is ether running / boxing or doing public park open gym exercises.

To compensate for the great feeling of lazyness (that we started to feel) we have been hitting some of the climbing spots in down town. Made a few boulder problems on an overhangig rock down by the beach and tried the indoor climing hall at the university. Great fun, but are looking forward to some real climbing in the blue mountains. We're planning to leave for the mountains on monday, it just depends on getting to borrow some more climbing gear.. Today we're heading out to the beaches, hoping to find some beachvolleyball playing new friends.

Australia is an expencive country. Especially for two backpackers who's been living the last two months in nicely prices countrys like India, Nepal and Thailand. We've found the cheapest backpacker place in sydney (we think), and it's been great. Alot of social people with an attitude for party, so it's been two long good nights out sofar. By the evening this number will probably hit three, as it is saturday night (the picture is from a barbeque last night. The brown bag is hiding a nice bottle of read wine that was shared between three, together with some nice tender steaks. Guy in the back are Daniel from the reception of our guesthouse. Cool guy!!).

So in the end we're still doing great. Are trying to find some more couchsurfing friends that we can visit on our way up north, and other cheap soultions to extend our stay. Now we're heading for the beach (in brilliant sun, but only around 20 degrees) and tonight we might go to an austrailian fotball match.

Hope all you guys are having a good time, wherever you might be.

PS: Moved the pictures from Nepal into the first slideshow. Slideshow number two is from thailand and the one on the top is from Australia.