kajsa goes travelling the world

Melbourne - Great Ocean Road - Worrnambool

2007-10-24T04:41:10Z

Decided to have a weekend getaway. A romantic holiday ahead of us and what could be a better place than good 'ol Melbourne where those first official dates took place nearly 11 months ago.

We left Adelaide with a busy schedule in a car packed with stuff. No sleep allowed for the next few days. So many things to do!

lunch stop
Day 1:
We stopped in a city called Ballarat where Jason lived in his early childhood. We were greeted by former war heroes along the main avenue which seemed a bit drastic. But as soon as we reached the lake an idyllic town bloomed up from behind the big old 'Harry Potter alike castle'. It was like a picture from an old story-book. Our main destination though was the 'snickers' factory which we never found due to some navigation difficulties. I was in charge of the phone GPS and having years of experience in orienteering we still managed to get lost. Though we did get back on track somehow and and the navigation was taken over by the captain himself.
So an hour later we arrived at Andy's place and then drove up to meet Amanda and Sam where we were forced to skull down some of their tequila. Ben and Shelley also happened to be in town so it was dinner in the European restaurant and drinks at your choice of pub if you won the rock-paper-scissors competition;-)

me and Amanda

Andy and Jase

Day 2:
Eureka tower was one thing on our 'things to do list'. Finally arrived I dont know what part was more annoying; The fact that I am a former resident of this sky high tower and now have to spend 16$ to get up to the observation deck that was under construction while living here. Or the fact that I'm not living here anymore!?!

24 carat glass covered windows. On the 88th floor!!

After losing Andy who was in charge of the driving and phones were being left home we headed off on our own. I was gonna show Jason the one part of the whole place where you cross a bit of Nimbin with Byron Bay in an outstanding part of Melbourne: St. Kilda. clothing stores, retro, funk and modern style pubs with an amazing range of restaurants and not to mention, this is where they have cakes. Now thank someone I dont live here!!!
"Lentil as anything"; An organic vegan restaurant with the spiritual message karma. But also... Now sharpen your ears everybody: Pay as you want!!! Meaning you pay as much as you think the food is worth. Now how 'bout that?
Jason sighing in the background. He is convincing me that anything without meat is strictly not a proper meal keeping a man satisfied! I still insisted on walking by the place trying really hard to work on that 'puppy eye look'. For some reason it worked and we ended up ordering the vegetarian hot pot and the Indian curry. And who would have thought: the food was bloody excellent and having said that; feeling the goodness of karma after that wonderful taste experience (no meat), the meal was worth a fortune! ;-)

We met up Andy in South Melbourne Markets where we had difficulties walking around cause we literally rolled around like balls. (forgot to mention there was cake involved too) So we went to Smith Street to work off that enormous amount of kilojoules that would have been a normal daily dose for Elvis.
Then after all the factory outlet shopping we drove home, drove to Frankston: engagement party!

karaoke!!!

miss Finland and Sweden dancing around the 'heat pole' (we were extremely cold)

Sunday morning we woke up... Oh man. We got one redbull - fight!! Didnt take long and we were already gone and packed and clean and fresh and Great Ocean Road it is!!! :-D

On my right I see Quiksilver, Roxy, Billabong, Element and all signs of shops I absolutely adore!! Torquay it was and that was our stop where Jason found a pair of new cool shoes and where I found lots of 'could have been new cool stuff'. Try shopping with a guy! :-( hmpf.
Then it was time for the beach. Killer waves! totally awesome dude
(pictures will come later)

Australians arent finicky when it comes to the making of meatpies. Check out the size of that thing!

And the 12 apostles. Well, 7 actually. They seem to fall down every second year. They were originally named the 'Sow and Piglets'. Located near Loch Ard Gorge, the Sow was Muttonbird Island, with the piglets being the smaller surrounding rocks.
They were formed by erosion of the original coastline. The constant action of the sea on the limestone slowly wore down the rocky cliff, gradually leaving individual rocks. The cliff is still being eroded at a rate of about 2cm each year, and in the future is likely to form more 'Apostles' from the other rocky headlands that line the Victorian coastline.
<< ps. Didnt really write that

cold and windy

Racing speed heading towards Worrnambool where Jason had a surprise for me. Well, i knew we were gonna spend the night there so guessed it must have been the accommodation choice of his that was the amazing part. Which it certainly was! We stopped outside a grey little cute house and that's it. A whole house to share for the night!!! So after seeing the sunset and playing in the park (we are a weird couple). We ordered a pizza and got a bottle of red and sat in that 'vogue magazine design living room' and enjoyed watching kath and Kim. Then it was time for a spa with bubbles, red wine and strawberry cheesecake. A delightful evening in Worrnambool :-)

Check out time 11 am and we are on the road again and stopped in Port Fairy for brunch. I loved this place, not only was it next to the sea but this was like sitting in "cafe de fyra vindarnas hus" on a windy late summer morning... Mys!!! And how good was the food?!!

you're beautiful
A long drive before stopping again in a town I cant remember the name of but it had a blue lake. It was a unique attraction because the lake has formed in the vent of a recent volcano. And the limestone in it make it look blue certain times of the year. Unfortunately it wasn't high beam blue when we went (sorry Jase)

Heading towards the light in the tunnel

Another attraction ahead of us. Probably the one I've most looked forward to: The BIG RED LOBSTAH!

Melbourne - Great Ocean Road - Worrnambool remains copyright of the author kulakajsa, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The Royal Adelaide show

2007-09-18T01:59:42Z

Another event for me in Australia :-) Jason decided to take me to see some real happenings - and believe me it certainly was! Called the Royal Adelaide Show - cows, pigs, sheep, hens, ducks, dogs (puppieees), emu babies, wombats, cats, "Dagwood dogs", camels, rides, fairy floss and you name it. My Finnish beloved ones; compare 'vuoden maatalousmessut'... erm, you see where Im getting. This is the real sheit. And as we had a relative friend working here we got even closer to all these cuddly creatures ;-)

Me at the show

couldnt stay away from the lager (you look good baby)

summer is really on its way (yuppie!)

oh we met up Corey and Helen as well.

So Dagwood dog = fried hot dog (Å död o pine)

step 1

step 2

step 3

dedicated to mom

se de lapp arbetet

och haer var det virkning

Cake judging - must be a hell of a job. these people don't even get to taste the cakes!! talk about inner beauty, pfft

caaaakes...

Didnt really know what to do with myself seeing all these cakes behind glass. that's torture!!

the reason because there are so many cows here is because all the horses, (ALL of them) are sick... might be the horse flue

saw the wood-chopping

don't even want to imagine the smell in here

wonder if the plants are thirstier than me? have that weird feeling someone is watching me.

piggy pop

pick-a-boo

jase and our friend. From now on there will be no more bacon! I love this pig!

or lean beef

end of the evening - the fireworks

The Royal Adelaide show remains copyright of the author kulakajsa, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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My best friend

2007-09-07T12:35:16Z

Right. Tonite I had a dream about my best childhood friend Anne, who I haven’t seen for over a year.
I saw her on the beach with her family and some friends. She didnt see me. I yelled, she couldnt hear me. There was a fence, a high fence. I climbed over it and went to her. We hugged til we cried and then she took me to all the places she had been to. She showed me what she's been doing and who she's been with all this time. I know, pretty gay ;-)

So Anne means the world to me and she is someone who can do anything she wants - anything! And boy oh boy we have done soooo many stupid things - we are practically insane! she is someone who is full of surprises (when Forrest becomes a skipper for bubba gump and lieutenant Dan sits on the pier because of the promise he made - you know where Im getting right, Im lieutenant Dan)... well, that's exactly my girl. Now she is a successful journalist and who would have thought. If there would be more people like her in this world there would be less worries and more happiness and excitement! This story Im about to write down is a dedication to my best friend of how much I love her and why..

"Thanks to both of our artistic skills, each provided with a scholarship we managed to get to Åland (an island that belongs to Finland, located between Finland and Sweden. Sort of like Tasmania to Australia.. and not only did we have the whole trip paid for, but we also got to go during SCHOOLTIME!!! (fuck yeah)
We cruised with Viking line for about 8 hours. So on the ship by noon we had done karaoke, danced tango, proudly viewed our archipelago scenery and had drunk a few cosmopolitans (sex and the city was big things back then). We had just turned 18. How excited were we! And now we are going somewhere to paint.
After the tipsy ride supplied with drinks and chocolate when stepping off the terminal, we met up one of the teachers that was gonna take us to “Post tullhuset” about 30 mintues away from Mariehamn (Hobart). Could only think of one thing then.. Damn girl!! This place has roads man!...
//On the road again
Just can't wait to get on the road again
The life I love is makin' music with my friends
And I can't wait to get on the road again
On the road again
Goin' places that I've never been
Seein' things that I may never see again,
And I can't wait to get on the road again...//
A brief half an hour later we stepped out off the car. The wind embraced our faces and our hair. I could smell the fresh saltwater. The beautiful spring day looks over a rough coastline with dark blue water that for some reason turned wild at our arrival. The cold breeze was upon us suddenly.
Gathered with all the other lucky scholarship students and the eager teachers, we got guided to the “café lugn och ro”. Directly translated; “ café piece of mind”. There we got introduced to our new friends and teachers but also our chefs that for some awkward reason seemed really; 'calm'. Sitting there looking around the tables at the different people that I think were happy to be here cause they were gonna paint, not to be off school.
There was the big Swedish girl, the shy girl with glasses, the hindu chick, the vegetarian one and somebody in the crowd definately liked coconut. There was one with colourful gear marked with the hemp mark and rasta hair who preferred everything to be organic, even her shoes. Aaand there were the two giggling blond girls with alcohol breath, sleepy eyes, empty minds and grumbling over being hungry (sigh)…

After the elderly had spoken, we were still sitting there but weren’t really there. And one of the chefs started telling us about the history of this remote place…

The post customs house – (assuming what it would be called in English), was used during the 19th Century as an outpost, it was going to be a monumental entrance for the emperor. At this time the Scandinavians used the seaway to get to major cities like Helsingfors, Åbo, Stockholm, Viborg and St.P. And so did the post. Someone yells out; BOOORING!! The man continues:
As active as the postal service was at this time, the ruthless journeys the mail men had to go through no matter the weather, the mail needed to be signed, sealed, delivered! Hundreds of them ended their journey not even half way through.
He now started telling us about a man who was in love with this woman, and that you can hear him weeping at night. In the mansion!! Our ears pricked up!
Apparently it is haunting here at night. (Å död o pine!) A tragic love story had been lived inside the walls of the enormous mansion we all were gonna spend the two following nights in!
And now there is lying a grudge over this place. A force so strong it has lived on through a man’s soul as his greatest grief. An anxious energy for the loss of the love of his love – yikes…
After a delicious meal and an hour of intensive listening of ghost stories at “café piece of mind” we get back into the main house and start drawing, right oon! Its great fun! Everybody is waaaay weird and it is simply entertaining. (We are still drunk). We make ourselves drinks in our room and hide the bottles in the closet. (Like they’re not gonna find out :-P) Luckily we got the woofer with us and in no time we have Tina Turner yelling out our speakers and we are living the life of an idol. We are also lucky that one of our neighbor is an old lady who cant hear nothing. But then there’s “couple geek”, who has found the meaning of life at the wrong time at the wrong place: Books!! Well books my ass.. We are on holiday and even the ladies upstairs are rocking hard.
Second night we decided to knock on every door to see what the rest of the crew were up to. Enough of Tina Turner already :-S For some strange reason the rest of the girls didn't wanna hang out with us, except our old deaf lady who claimed she had heard the ghost the other night, hmmm… or the rasta (she liked everyone though), or the Swedish Hindu girl. But she again liked to hang around the big girl who certainly didn’t like us! Some sort of body image issue there I suppose. And certainly not "couple geek" either. We really tried to avoid Them. It was the ultimate "Private Benjamin" real-life occurrence. So instead we joined the ladies upstairs who introduced us to the fine, sophisticated wine society with the late night philosophic discussions and Tammy Wynette.
And did I tell you about the strange, passionate young man that was the son of our “Master”. That day we all were in our group room. And he started stripping!! “Wait til everybody hears about this” we laughed… For some reason everybody overheard us by the looks on their faces. Hope you are familiar with Marge’s two sisters; ‘cause that is exactly the only description of us two at that moment.
Then he splashed colour all over his chest, pink, and started running around the place jumping on massive screens that were placed all over the room. A bit bizarre, but boy oh boy I wish there would have been a warning sign; “please don’t try this at home”.. But there wasn’t. soo… after a few of them sophisticated glasses of wine and a duet of "stand by your man", we were in the same situation (without a crowd) and made some exclusive masterpieces still hanging on our walls back home, reminding us of that colourful night ;-)

When it was time to have a shower (which was in another building close to the main one), we decided to go together. (no dirty thoughts allowed here!! We were pink for Christ sake!) Simply because it was dark and late + we were both scared.
We stumbled over the cold gravel pitch and got into the cold dark building. The smell of attic hit our face and the showers were further in the endless long hallway, we were alone. By bringing up silly jokes and happy thoughts we managed to get into the showers not thinking about scary stuff. Well, at least we thought so. By the time we were washing our hair… a sound – somewhere in the hallway made us freeze. No talking what so ever, not even a second later both girls were running out the yard screaming with shampoo covered hair and… wait a second. Now that Im not quite certain, did we even have our towels?
Now after this so called incident – I don’t think there’s gonna be another shower while our stay in post och tullhuset. Arnie wouldn’t have a bath! Neither will we!
Stinky girls with weird looking hair not to mention the hang over on that Sunday morning when we had to do the packing and the cleaning. uff! Throw the bottles out the window, shuffle all the chips thats lying on the floor under the carpet and squeeze the gear in the backpacks - that's how you do it. YEAH! We are ready to hit the sea!
Goodbye so long you.. funny people..
Well settled in the bar on the boat we run into the Scottish troubadour - GIVER!! I also managed to bribe a male passenger to get me a bottle of absinthe (wasnt old enough to buy spirits, fair enough)... That was the first and last time I ever get myself one of 'em bottles! live and learn..
Oh yes, "couple geek" was on the cruise as well and to our surprise we got them to join us in a very baaad karaoke session. I think we changed their life :-) Cause they certainly changed ours.
No harm no done and poofing back home from Åbo harbour to our southern small town late at night had us ready with an excuse to come late to school the following day. As if ;-)"

I believe there’s a number of soul-mates out there. Once you are lucky enough to meet one, you will always share a connection stronger than anything else. I’ve met a few during my short period of life, one of them is Anne. And this story described above is only one tiny piece of what we have experienced together. More to come Im sure. That’s why we should live today as a day to remember forever. Just as the trip to Åland in 2004.

My best friend remains copyright of the author kulakajsa, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Working 9 to 5

2007-09-18T01:59:21Z

I bet many of you out there have no idea how Im living or what Im actually doing these days. It's been a while since a proper update actually so cant blame ya. Now lets give it a go and I will try to keep this short and sweet.

When coming to Adelaide in early April I crashed in at Corey's and Jason's townhouse in the city. Me and the hospitality friendly boys got along great and there were late night cardgames, pubbing and lots (lots) of tv included. But as time flew we had to leave the awesome neighbourhood just a block away from the busy streets with shops, restaurants and cozy cafes and market places where I loved to hang out (buhuu).
So now it is all about commuting between Darlington and central Adelaide (Darlington is a suburb in Adelaide but also the name of a man who couldnt decide any other names when naming Australian streets, villages, harbours. You name it. Take Sydney as an example

OMG! This was taken outside our townhouse! And yes, that is a redback spider! Common throughout Australia. How close am I?!! They can even kill you. shit! Lets run, FAST!

New house - new location... Al and Claire are the new flatmates and the owners of the pretty house we are staying in. Al is out of work and thought it'd be good with the extra cash and we can stay short term, pay no bonds or contracts so it is beneficial for all of us + it's great fun to hang out with this lovely married couple. We've done lots of Ikea exploring by this stage so the Scandinavian is pleased.

yay, making tacos in our kitchen, well, Jase is ;-)

yummy

Jack Sparrow?

When it comes to work, I am no longer a slave. I got a new proper job. Yes, I am an office lady and proud of it ;-) It was lucky though, friend of a friend situation actually. So now Im doing computer work on Sir Donald Bradman Drive (can never say it right) people think it's a shame because I dont know a former Australian cricketer. So what about Mika Myllylä... or Valentin Kononen - THAT, you must know! hehe...
Now that I have a new job, it leaves me to that same confusing feeling I always get; what is it that i really want to do?? And that's when I dream away listening to John Lennon's lyrics; "working class hero" and my troubles fade away. Instead I find myself in the mornings re-living Dolly's written words and thats how my days look like here in Australia;
Tumble outta bed
And I stumble to the kitchen
Pour myself a cup of ambition
And yawn and stretch
And try to come to life
Jump in the shower
And the blood starts pumpin'
Out on the street
The traffic starts jumpin'
The folks like me on the job from 9 to 5...//

After all that rush of country tunes I better put an ending to this entry. (bet you know the rest of the song anyway, well, you who hang out with me ;-)

Working 9 to 5 remains copyright of the author kulakajsa, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Mt. Hotham, Victoria

2007-08-01T06:16:27Z

finally we are going after months of planning this ski trip. And Mt.Hotham it is. Ben, Shelley, Corey, Ryan, Jason and me head off on Saturday 21st on a bus up towards the slopes in Victoria. We are all very excited and all set to go with a big esky packed with food, beer and spirits. everyone has their suitcase packed with essential needs and we are all covered up in our ski jackets and mittens. yay! im gonna see snow again!

the snowboarding lesson

Shelley in the lightblue jacket... this is the summit. easy green run connected to the sun run which is a fun blue run.

looks like a good day for the boys here

we like this bit

again?

our great apartment. we are all a bit tired here.. first day i think this was taken.

until they started serving the drinks... dunno if its too much red bull or vodka in this one. cant really tell by the face :-P

and off we go

steady

oops, on my bum again

getting late

so off to the bar of course

get in there Jase

On with the boots

the pez dispenser

up we go

schweeps

lovely thoughts

someone really loves the snow

we're reaching the clouds here

this breakfast kept us going for a week

god bless bacon and eggs, toast and beans! yummi!

Hot!!

I got ya, Im keeping ya and I love ya

Shelley and Ben

the guys

couldnt choose which one, theyre both so good

a typical evening. table surrounded with full bellies of five and five empty beer jugs

ladylike drinking

boys just wanna have fun

the only picture with all of us in it, last nite so this is where it is getting a bit tipsy

they serve the best vodka at least

hehaay camera still going

looks like youre gonna spank something baby...

this is where it all ends. Had a great time here in the snow and we already miss it! so will see where to next. will just have to keep you updated.

Mt. Hotham, Victoria remains copyright of the author kulakajsa, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Cleland wildlife park

2007-08-01T04:21:54Z

So once again im in a wildlife park in Australia with Jason, a must when youre here! well, im not saying you have to go to a wildlife park with Jason but he's good with the camera so why not

entering the park

some sort of mousy thing welcoming us. these were running around everywhere

and the dingo ground

voffsen

Pelle Pelikan there

feeding the kangaroos

baby one

well hello

legendary tasmanian devil

heavy, smelly and scratchy? soft, cuddly and happy... my kinda bear.

Cleland wildlife park remains copyright of the author kulakajsa, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Cafe horror

2007-07-31T06:16:29Z

wow. cant believe im wasting a whole entry on this crappy job that i had. but im gonna keep it short and sweet and let you guys know what I've been thru here in Adelaide. So. Here I go... Imagine a creature being a mix between saddam and that german moustache fellow. Then add some terrorists and a couple of cruel psychopats and all the insanely mean people in the world. Last but not least mix in the devil. its impossible to imagine a person like that right? Well guess what, that was my last boss. Someone I didnt even know excisted.. And I had to work for him. Running around with coffees and carrying heavy plates with food for absolutely nothing. And I had to stick up with the yelling and the swearing and the throwing away my favourite umbrellas and all that sizzle and dizzle and dazzle and even hazzle! What a job! I still have nightmares and its been over a month since a quit. im not gonna mention any names or even the slightest idea of where this place is located. the name of the cafe starts with a Z... but thats all im saying. Simply due to safety reasons and some humanity respect. But anyway. The good thing is I met 2 lovely girls that im friends with and thats about it. Oh, and free hot chockies and half price off anything. and unfortunately no piccies will come up here. didnt really feel like bringing in a camera while I was working... but maybe a face of me expressing the true feelings I have towards this place will come up later but im not promising anything

Cafe horror remains copyright of the author kulakajsa, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Anzac day

2007-07-20T03:47:54Z

So we woke up at 6 o'clock to get to North Parade in Adelaide city to join the Anzac day ceremony. I dunno what the hack is going on but im bloody tired and cold and really not keen on going. but when we do get there a bit after 7... There are a massive crowd of true Australians, old, young, kids and even babies! and an orchestra, Australian flags and flower settings all over and handsome soldiers in their proper uniforms. What is this then? why is everyone here? Its another public holiday so people should be sleeping right. But here they all are standing in the cold singing the one and only "National Anthem" I know better than my own; 'Walzing Mathilda'... Or its actually Australia's most widely known folk song, but it is considered to be some sort of National Anthem. This is the day when you honour the soldiers that fought during war, so its peaceful and respectful and very Australian. This is definately something every Aussie should do, wake up early on a day off and walk to wherever they keep the ceremony and also have the massive breakfast me, Jase, Corey and his family had.

if you see closely you can spot the Australian flags there

me

pose

Then it all followed by feeding some ducks....

ay check out who's boat I found

ducks

feeding a duck

exploring Adelaide

and the pretty native black swans, perfect for Anzac day and everything

the whole family

ok too many bird pictures. sorry

this was during the 'over 2 hour long' parade. funny looking people there

and two Adelaide boys grumping because theres no local beer

Anzac day remains copyright of the author kulakajsa, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Point Lowly

2007-05-02T11:45:39Z

alright, holiday ahead here guys. A special easter coming up as well. this is the 17th easter spent here at Point Lowly for Jason and his family. And this is the last one, so lets make it special! And for you who dont know about this place scroll down a bit and you'll see some nice pictures taken during sunset. Point Lowly is near Whyalla. nearly five hours drive north east from Adelaide. I can see the water from here.. and i like it. i like it a lot! im going fishing, hell yeah!

lezz catch 'em big ones aaaight

check it out. i actually caught one

sorry mate

we like fish dont we..

pretty sunsets here

first sunset was amazing

second one was pretty damn amazing

the lighhouse

late at night..

I like the fire and the boy with the guitar. he's keeping us all entertained here (mamma det aer pojkvaennen min)

I joined some of the family traditions as well. Building a sandcastle. uhm, "castle". no structual integrity here..

Just before we are leaving the dolphin family decides to swim across

check it out. might need glasses for the extreme close up. it's just above my head there.

im driving on the "wrong side" of the road. and in the car. this is freaky..

and just before we are leaving Jason wanted a selfpic

cute

are we ready to hit the road yet?

i always wanted to join the army... uhm. not so sure if this is what its about

Point Lowly remains copyright of the author kulakajsa, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Melbourne part 5

2007-05-01T11:25:28Z

after the crushing news from Maria, giving us two weeks notice, 5 more weeks in Melbs, we have to leave "Eureka Tower" where are we gonna go dude? we absolutely adore our place! and where else than in hostels will someone let us stay for 3 weeks? cause we are so done with those places! well we girls always have a solution for everything right, no matter what. thats why i love this girl! so... if it wasnt for my precious Ida's crazy drunk behavior one night in our fabulous casino next doors, we wouldnt be in Carnegie at this very moment. where we even have our own room. 75 dollars a week (thats $100 less rent than in eureka, HEUREKA!) the only problem is the leaking roof. yup. dont like rainy days these days. several nights sleeping with pots and pans in my bed waking up with wet bed linen. gotta tell ya, not a nice feeling the first thing in the morning! oh, another thing is the busy train-line that runs just outside our house. something we dont appreciate, especially on a day off when the first local trains get their asses on fire. arrrrgh!

here we are. the blue one. My room is the window to the right and the left one is Ida's. We love the store downstairs. 50% off anything. i think she said that. hmm...

we love the dark little secrets about this city: "the cozy mysterious chocolate restaurants". and here we are in one with some working mates.

Ida's and Kajsa's cooking adventures

hard rock crew (our office)

here we are in our lovely uniforms at work. this here is the kitchen where I work.

and the kitchen where Ida works, also her last shift. gee, the cutest chef i've ever seen!

"one last night in Hard Rock"

after several farewell nights spent here in Hard Rock melbourne, this is definately the last one. ready to leave with mi backpack all set with the small goodie bags i got for leaving pressie to keep it real in Adelaide. Wicked.

well, who wouldnt be excited about chopped parsley and plain flour hah?

Melbourne part 5 remains copyright of the author kulakajsa, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Tasmania

2007-04-27T10:29:45Z

after all the sizzle dizzle dazzle hassle plane ticket bookings I finally made it here! Three days off from work on an island with my really really good friend Fraser, yay! Definately a good holiday ahead!

First day we drove up to Port Arthur. Before we got there we stopped for some quality kodak moments.. prettyyy!

this was actually taken on our way home, the place was called; "devil's kitchen" wonder what they cook here??

So Port Arthur. A place where the first convicts were dropped off to first become prisoners and then... (excuse mi French...) get killed. autch. so many people were killed here. Gives me the creeps just walking around here...

and some more scenery... and a loose prisoner if you watch closely

self pic time

It was such a long day so we took off back to Fraser's other place (summer house) where I met the rest of the wonderful family and the cutest puppy dog ever not to mention the two cozy cats I so wanted to steal. Tomorrow we are cruisin' to wineglass bay... zzz...

aaaaay

wanna see me do a backflip off this rock... 1...-2...!!!... uhm.... ?

the beach where we saw dolphins. weren't lucky enough to catch them on camera

someone left a message for me in the sand... aww

now what in the name of....? something Fraser had to check up on everytime we ran into this weird slime sea creature(s)

we are not that creative when it comes to taking photos :-P

and the wallaby thought to come and say hello

a closer look

Later on the same evening....

Here we are. Emma, me, Matt, Fraser and Simo. What I love about travelling! Even if we all met on the other side of the world in a busy big cosmopolitan city called London nearly a year ago, here we are again, in Tasmania, Australia. Awesome!

there are no more surprises for me. we met mama possum and the baby on our way back home from the pub. a bit disappointed i didnt run into a tasmanian devil though

Cadbury chocolate factory

mmm... chocolate.

cyber santa... hihihih!!

cant get enough of these sexy hair-nets!

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Just a random tuesday

2007-04-21T12:23:53Z

just enjoying the sunny day here on our balcony that we havent used for anything else than Ida's cigarette moments. not really what we planned when we first moved in. So now when we are moving out on Sunday we decided to at least make one wish come true. have some wine and cheese on our balcony. so our evening was almost perfect except from the fact that we didnt have crackers so we had cookies and cheese instead, not bad ay!

yay! our view.

here you can see a bit of our apartment. and how we get after a glass of goon

dig in mate! our plant simba in the background (feel free to add comments to my crazyness)

been called hugh grant after this one, must be the hair ... rock ooon Hugh!

hallasin folkens

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So... Adelaide

2007-05-02T11:54:45Z

When you mention Adelaide to any other aussie you will probably not think the same about the place, but dont let them fool ya!!!
One birthday party, lots of sight-seeing, wineries, aussie football, 2 hangovers and i was even inside the mouth of a shark here!!! also watched the guys play cricket til I got bored and went shopping with Trio. oh, and cute boys here in three days. Adelaide, not so boring after all!
home of churches (believe me, theyre everywhere). the only part of Australia where they didnt drop off any criminals when they shipped them over to Oz from England, still all the serial killers hang out in this area, called the mysterious outback where im actually planning to visit in a while. uuuuh.. but dont worry, im a licensed diver (Ida de er morro de ) what else, the posh-aussie accent is kown being spoken here, slightly a bit different from the typical aussie accent. too much information here. bring on 'em photos.

yeah boys and girls! lets celebrate!!! this is from Jason's b'day dinner we had in a restaurant and this young lady, as usual, wants to add some spirit in it!!

Happy birthday Jason, 28 yaay!

So what exactly is a birthday without a cake ??

excuse me, sorry.. this is the time when youre suppose to take the pictures guys.

BLOOOW... spitty cake, nice!

oh shit!

mi new t-shirt maan!

well, cake's good

??

wooooow!!!

good times

hihi, corey and cass

FOOTBALL! not the round ball but the other one. men running in short shorts and thats pretty much it. mhm.

go pooower

self-pic, dave you can join

so we won didnt we!!!

tourist

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Dinner at hard rock cafe

2007-03-15T07:20:34Z

so you get to see some of our working place. not much tho cause this is our day off :-P so we had salmon and a few beers so the scandinavians are happy campers. not so sure about Nat. well then everything turned out as a perfect nite. well, almost

so there's a band and there's 3 drunk girls at the bar listening to the good songs the band plays. So you wanna sing!! which usually ends up with grabbing other ppl's food, glasses, kethup bottles or whatever comes in hand. yup.

told you not so many pictures, but why is this girl lying all over our flatmates shoes??? hmm..

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Great Ocean Road

2007-04-28T03:53:42Z

man what a ride! Ida, Natalie and me are on the road, with the boss, hehe, yeah the boss. Neil, our kitchen manager. so we were lucky not having to drive, cause this ride was all about some serious car commercial roads im telling ya. Lots of cozy small towns along the way and sooo many surfers. It was a lovely day as well so lots of piccies will come up here..

thats our first stop. so more is coming!

he must love his life! We do! thats oldschool duuuude

dont get me wrong! im totally against drink-driving tho!! just. hehe. c'mon!

i think Natalie spot something out.

here we are.

is that a... cigarette...?? sorry ppl! had to honour some inside humour between me and mi'mate Anne. Aelskar dej!!

we were stalking this couple just to get a good shot of their cool car. we love it!

carcommercial road

we like caaake! apollo bay bakery may i present

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Melbourne part 4

2007-04-16T12:50:21Z

ay ay! just had to make an entry for this one. Ii've seen scissor sisters live! great show and good fun!

before the concert. just wanted to express our feelings and catch it on camera. yay

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Melbourne part 3

2007-04-16T13:01:42Z

happy birthday me. and for some reason turning 21 here in Australia is even bigger than 18, so it was a massive party! now i can go to the states ay, Hawaii Hawaii Hawaii So my party was held at a friend's friend's place. The Adelaide boys came down to Melbs to celebrate the big day! so beers and bbq on a sunny day with heaps of happy ppl. +everyone at hard rock sang the happy birthday song and a I got a huuuge chocolate brownie sundae. happy happy happy.. uuh and i played cricket! A hobby, not a sport! We went out and then the day was over. now i just got the lovely memories

check out the cake

federation square tennis finale

didnt have to spend a penni in the bar

Ida's birthday was 22nd so this is 6.30 in the morning before i go to work, how happy must she be waking up by me singin the happy birthday song.

and Kathy also happened to have her birthday which was on the 25th so me and Ida got invited to a birthday dinner in Brunswick.

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Melbourne part 2

2007-04-28T03:54:23Z

damn boys and girls. We live in Australia's tallest building in a master bedroom with our own bathroom with a bathtub and view over yarra river from the 14th floor! freakin amazing! gym, pool, cinema and a sauna. now this Finnish chick has all she needs! and i pay 5 pounds more a week than i did in London where i shared a room with 3 other girls and a romanian fellow. mhm. and i actually have a job again. really feel goofy to say where but at least im earning money! So life in Melbourne is great!

thats us

our Canadian friend Natalie came to Melbourne. so all these following pictures are taken from one evening we all went out! great evening! drinking games at our place and ended up with people mooning out our massive windows, now we do must have happy neighbours!

Natalie, our one and only shared friend.

i just like this picture, lady in a lounge with a glass of wine

yoyo, check out the massive windows. love this place! we are having a great time!

think the boys thought it was a bit funny when 3 girls are walking hand in hand with their high heals in the other one. (one pair for dancing and the other pair for hanging around the bar)

so now we are ready for 'em feet killers

told ya all the piccies from one evening. this one makes me really confused though, cause i cant remember if its taken before or after we've been out :-P

was gonna take more pictures of all the art thingies you find all around Melbourne. That's right, everywhere you go in Melbourne you always run into something that makes you wonder: what in the name of...

puppy.. or?

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Melbourne part 1

2007-04-27T13:08:16Z

finally we dont have to stay in dodgy hostels with itchy bedbugs or stranger-roomies anymore! We live in a house! an actual house on the countryside with Ida's familyfriends. now im a happy camper! we eat proper food and skipping the goon, well, at least for a while. we lived here for over two weeks, now thats charity! and must say (even if it was on the countryside) i really enjoyed it!

yeah we are having a bbq!! fooood!!!!

the animal lover

wild kangaroos

we also went to healesville sanctuary where i saw koalas for the first time! awesome place this.

bird of prey

couldnt imagine this little fellow being a scratchy, stoned smelly mini bear

and then queen victoria market!!! fresh veggies and heaps of cheap vintage clothes not to mention the fresh seafood deli sections with the cheese and wine and all the delicates you can imagine! and so cheap! an absolute must when youre in Melbourne!

and theres also a nite market on wednesday

im eating a crocodile burger.. never smile at a crocodile, but eating them is ok

lots of bbq's. here we are with Rosie and her friends

St.Kilda, the place to be. Lisa (canadian chickadee) and me fighting over fries just a couple of minutes after they called me and Ida for an interview to Hard rock. we're boosting our egos and celebrating that we "got the job".

which pretty much happened so here we are. have done our scandinavian home shopping and done the swedish "eat as many meatballs contest". now we are ready to move into eureka tower. excited arent we

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Sydney

2007-04-28T05:33:26Z

took the bus with Fredrik down to Sydney, took us about 12 hours. yeesh. tried to sleep next to a snoring girl and a stinky hippie, even several sleeping pills wouldnt do it. we checked in at a hostel in kings cross. everybody else werent that keen on staying there (apparently the dodgy area of Sydney) but as i've been working in the most criminal area of London and lived in Gronland in Oslo, i think i can handle all the junkies and prostitutes or whatever comes with that. so Sydney was all about the nightlife. we met lots of English guys here that we basically partied with every nite.

are we having a good time here?

Lots of Pictures from Ida's blogg here. this was taken from a park near Newtown.

And this one is taken from Sydney Tower.

so Fredrik went back to Norway, christmas is coming up and we dont have much money. what to do? Lets move to Newtown into Joey's unfurnished uni apartment with no glasses, pots or anything so we actually had to steal some from the hostel. Probably not the best thing to advice other travellers but this was really really exceptional. And it was christmas... well, there are no excuses, its still bad karma so guess we just have to make it up by doing something that gives

Christmas morning, gee.. both of us homesick as hell. we went grocery shopping to at least make some of the christmas as traditional as possible so we made some traditional scandinavian christmas porridge and our only christmas decoration was an orange stuffed with cloves so we would get into christmas mood by sniffing it. mhm. not exactly the kind of christmas i would have imagined spending overseas.

"God jul allesammen"

check out that boat! thats where we're goin spending Christmas eve. so on the boat we could eat and drink as much as we wanted. a little bit disappointed with the food tho but this was a once in a lifetime opportunity anyway so whatever. Now, partaay..

couldnt exactly get enough of the view

no i dont want a kiss!

oh, ok

So now I can cross over "spending new years eve in Sydney" from my "to-do-list". But after this crazy night I wouldnt mind having another new years in this city. After all, there was a looot of alcohol that evening so wasnt so sure if the fireworks was just an illusion, or if it was actually happening for real. ??

new years eve babes.. this is when we moved into town to stay with Nick and Joey. a fancy pancy apartment with the biggest tv i've ever seen. we also started our new years eve here by playing kings. thats why i ended up looking like this ...

Happy new year everybody. (dont think thats what im saying)

im so happy, check out the fireworks

Time to leave this place after making the decision that Sydney is not for us. This is when Ida's familyfriend steps into the picture. Who lives in Melbourne on a farm with horses, two cats, goldfish and some chickens (no roosters (yay) ... so bye Sydney

Melbourne, here we come...

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Byron bay baby

2007-04-21T12:04:00Z

so we took off with Ida and Claudine to go to the magic place Nimbin far hidden between the mountains and valleys. there we met up the boys who had taken a daily tour trip from Byron Bay to well, to do sightseeing. When we got there i couldnt believe what I saw, the only thing that i was aware of was that this place is just unbelievable. it's just something about this place. it was like walking into a movie scene from fear and loathing in las vegas, well, kinda. sooo colourful and easy-going here. an old man with a beard that hadnt been shaved for years talking about the war in Vietnam. A girl with flowers in her hair swinging around the streets having a conversation with a motorcycle. sounds crazy? get over here and see for yourself

had a look around in a really interesting museum

then we met up the boys... whatever they were up to.

so we got to Byron Bay a little later that day and now its time to just relax. Byron bay is the city of peace and nature. But also a great place to surf and a fantastic place to party! there were also so many scandinavians. swedes and norwegians everywhere. really annoying, didnt come half around the globe to hang out with my neighbours. hell no. but one thing i liked about it was that we all had the so called traditional "lucia taaget" 13th of December. blondes walking around with candles in their hair singing songs in a different language, everybody else thought we had lost our minds. which we probably have by now.

merry x-mas to you all.

...Id Had the erning the money And the matureal trip. I decided i was gonna' Find a new way of life.... And so i took of on my bicycle. (go Rich! thats your thing) the way to get around byron ya'll. and dont judge the clothes, just came back from surfing! and the helmet is necessary, otherwise you can get a fine.

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Surfers Paradise

2007-04-23T12:05:08Z

when i first got to Australia (6th November) i got dropped off at Cavill Avenue, Surfers Paradise, with the shops and the beach and the skyscrapers. so now im here again, feels goood!

Surfer's paradise

And now that we have time for the beach it was time to do some surfing! so here i am, prepared to wake up 5 o'clock tomorrow morning.

and this is us the next day

sorry, dont have any piccies while im surfing, it wasnt quite as i thought it would be like. wind-surfing is waaay something else. even if i got so smashed by the waves and the board + got the biggest bruses ever i still love it! after all we spent the whole day on the beach, actually we spent days on the beach. the rest of the crew went one day earlier to Byron Bay so it was just me and Ida that went to Claudines place after the day when i fell asleep on the beach in Surfers, the worse day of my life.

later on the same day (my lovely Claudine let us stay at her place for a night so we were well prepared for the exciting ride to Nimbin the following day...)

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Brisvegas

2007-04-16T14:24:16Z

well this was great. not quite what i was expecting but hey, tomorrow we are going to Surfers so that will be fun! for some weird reason we stayed in chinatown with all the junkies and the homeless people. didnt dare to leave the area either, so we stayed at idas and fredriks hostel room eating pizza (or it started with us ordering the pizza, twice, and when me and Lars wondered the streets of Brisbane, we were lost) the boys got waaaay to drunk so me and Ida went out to a local bar where the cute bartender made sure we got drinks for the nite then we stopped at McDonalds where the guys working gave us free burgers and free fries and drinks. now how good is that. I know Australians compared to our boys back home are really generous but we never expected something like this! (didnt get much pictures here, not much to see actually, sorry guys.)

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Noosa

2007-04-21T12:33:51Z

after missing the bus in Hervey Bay where we absolutely didnt want to spend one more nite we decided to hire a car and get to Noosa as soon as possible. Cool So off we went and got checked in at a nice motel where we actually got our own apartment to share! so no stinky dorms to share with any freaks not to mention the itchy bitchy bedbugs.. So we started the evening off well by tuning on some music and bring on the playing cards til the manager stormed into the apartment telling us to Shut up. All shook up we took a taxi into town and went for some serious partying til Ida got kicked out for some ridiculous reason by the big bouncer, uuuuh... So off we went and me being moneywise decided to take a hike instead of a taxi back to the motel. Denmark, Pia and Tom joined me til we got lost in the middle of nowhere. there we were, somewhere on the highway. we went back to 7eleven and hitch hiked with a drunk gangsta fellow for 10box. the next day we felt for movies so we hired a dvd and 3 movies to watch including Wolf Creek and not even half way thru i had already packed my bags ready to leave this sick country!

we needed a couple of 'em breaks before finally arriving to our destination; Noosa

our motel

waiting for the bus thats gonna take us to Brisbane. arent we excited guys!!!

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Hervey Bay

2007-05-02T11:39:52Z

We were 9 people, team turtle in a car on our way to woolworths to get ready for the big trip, we need food, drinks, and lots of it! Cass is happy! Cause we are going to Fraaaser island everybody the world's largest island made of sand. yeesh. so thats some sandy stuff there! lets begin. so first nite, hmm. where shall i start. well after putting up the tents and sharing a box of goon with ida + some fun drinking games we all got a bit loud and tipsy. we moved to this other group that had camped just next to ours. so i wobbled to this crowd of people i dont know and jumped into the circle theyre sitting around going: HERE I AM! that's where the party started

we had so much fun! met so many people i dont remember today. Got absolutely battered! thats all i can say about that nite actually. the following day we went for a ride with the car and i met mr.turtle, who seems awfully quiet. maybe he's just sleepin or.. dunno..

later on we went to indian head to check out the tiger sharks. also saw turtles and sting rays, damn im high up!

and this is where i thought i knew everything about 4W-driving.. oops. just kidding, hehe. our car actually broke, and the tide was coming closer and closer. so we got stuck on the beach after a good push..

everybody happy with their food? not too sandy or? hehe.

2 cars eventually came and picked us up so we could go camping somewhere where it wasnt that much wind, nice! so we got into some sort of shelter before we started with the drinking games. the next day we went swimming in the cool lakes and then back to Hervey Bay. SHOWER!!!

team turtle

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