http://www.flags-flags-flags.org.uk/australian-flag.htm
http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Springs
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uluru
http://allrecipes.com.au/recipes/tag-6692/australian-dinner.aspx
http://travel.mapsofworld.com/australia/tourist-attractions/
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/
10/24/2011
10/23/2011
Finally things are happening!
Dinner was delicious! They convinced me to try one of Australia’s specialties, Minted Lemon Lamb, and I really enjoyed it. For dessert I had Mango Passion fruit Pavlova roll. Normally I think the dessert is the highlight of the meal, but passion fruit didn’t turn out to be my cup of tea…
I had a lovely evening (yes, I’m aware I sound like a grandmother saying that) and they even offered me a ride out of this place tomorrow! They’re going to Townsville in Queensland for the weekend and asked if I wanted to join! I instantly said yes of course (when I come to think about it maybe it wasn’t such a great idea) so you wont hear from me for a few days, except for occasional “I have not been kidnapped and murdered by anyone yet” messages.
I thought I’d give you a list of all the places I plan on visiting during my visit for you to look at while I’m away (and so you can all be incredible jealous of me ☺)
♥ Great Barrier Reef (Queensland)
♥ The Opera House (Sydney)
♥ Harbor Bridge (Sydney)
♥ Kangaroo Island (!)
♥ The Parliament House (Canberra)
♥ The Australian War Memorial (Canberra)
♥ And anything else my wallet can afford really
They are currently hunting a killer shark in Rottnest Island, so I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere near there for a couple of weeks. Also there has been some sort of violent protests in Sydney, luckily it wasn’t in Canberra which is the current location of HM Queen Elisabeth II. Can’t say I actually know what she’s doing there, but I guess you have to visit from time to time when you are head of the Commonwealth of Nations…
You can catch a glimps of her in between that Australian lady talking about her clothes.
So I guess that’s it for now! Take care and don’t miss me too much ;)
I had a lovely evening (yes, I’m aware I sound like a grandmother saying that) and they even offered me a ride out of this place tomorrow! They’re going to Townsville in Queensland for the weekend and asked if I wanted to join! I instantly said yes of course (when I come to think about it maybe it wasn’t such a great idea) so you wont hear from me for a few days, except for occasional “I have not been kidnapped and murdered by anyone yet” messages.
I thought I’d give you a list of all the places I plan on visiting during my visit for you to look at while I’m away (and so you can all be incredible jealous of me ☺)
♥ Great Barrier Reef (Queensland)
♥ The Opera House (Sydney)
♥ Harbor Bridge (Sydney)
♥ Kangaroo Island (!)
♥ The Parliament House (Canberra)
♥ The Australian War Memorial (Canberra)
♥ And anything else my wallet can afford really
They are currently hunting a killer shark in Rottnest Island, so I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere near there for a couple of weeks. Also there has been some sort of violent protests in Sydney, luckily it wasn’t in Canberra which is the current location of HM Queen Elisabeth II. Can’t say I actually know what she’s doing there, but I guess you have to visit from time to time when you are head of the Commonwealth of Nations…
You can catch a glimps of her in between that Australian lady talking about her clothes.
So I guess that’s it for now! Take care and don’t miss me too much ;)
Storytelling and cricket
Uluru was freaking amazing!! No words can ever describe how incredible and breathtaking that one mountain was.
I could show you a hundred pictures of it, but you wouldn’t understand. It wasn’t just the orange coloured stone, it was the whole experience. When we got of the bus a tall man wearing some sort of hat made out of feathers and leather approached us. He told us that he was going to be our guide throughout the expedition.
At first we all thought his outfit was for entertainment’s sake, but the closer we got to the mountain, the more it seemed like he was really attached to Uluru, or Ayer’s Rock as he called it, in some kind of way. And not just in a “Oh, this is such a beautiful place! Let’s live here!” kind of way, but in a more, I don’t really know how to describe this but it was almost as he talked about Uluru the same way he would tell us about his son.
I was all “It’s a rock man, chill” at first, but when he started telling stories of how the natives believed it had healing powers and how they had special rituals that could only be done here, he had me mesmerized (and trust me, the whole group was just as spellbound as me). And just like we noticed how his voice changed when he talked about Ayer’s rock, his eyes would shine in a special way when someone ask questions allowing him to go deeper into the stories of the aboriginals.
His stories was beautifully illustrated by the cave painting surrounding us and on our way back he told us how European settlers had come to claim the land of Australia. It all started with the arrival of Captain James Cook back in 1770. In a well-known European manner he claimed the east coast of Australia on behalf of Britain, of course without including any of the interests of the people already living there. Later the Englishmen basically used the country as a prison for a large number of their convicts.
The majority of you have probably learned all this at school, and unless you are going to Australia in the nearest future and plan on impressing the locals with you knowledge, you most likely don’t want to hear me retell the history of Australia. Therefore I found this for those of you who’s actually interested:
He’s even Australian so you get to hear their lovely accent. It’s in seven parts so it covers more than the essentials.
Over to something completely different, cricket! On the bus ride home we stopped by a neighbour town to get some food, and behind the little cafeteria we ate in there was a cricket match going on so we decided to watch.
I think the players were about fourteen years old, each team had it’s own suit and name so I figured it was two school teams playing each other. It makes sense because the school year is different in Australia; summer vacation for us isn’t at the same time as theirs.
Cricket is a very popular sport down here, I guess it’s the colonization fault as cricket has its origins in England. It’s also a widespread sport in India, which supports my assumption. In fact England has had a lot of influence overall on Australia’s culture. I might not be the right person to comment on the consequences of colonization but it’s kind of sad that an ancient culture had to be oppressed just because some wealthy men wanted to be even richer.
Other then that, all the Australian I have meet so far seem to be just as I expected them to be, friendly, welcoming and laidback. Another thing I have noticed is that it appears that they are a more thankful people than the Norwegians. I get the feeling that they appreciate family and traditions more than we do. They also seem to have a completely different view on strangers. Maybe that is because tourism is a huge business and many are dependent on travellers here. I like to think that it’s because they’re just nicer than most people though!
I’m going into town now (I know… Crazy, right?) to meet some of the guys I met on the bus trip to Uluru.
Byeee! (I really have no idea how you end a blog post…)
Picture sources: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rebrook/3652865917/in/pool-70793332@N00/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/68394487@N07/6224905490/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/amygoes211/3740695765/ & http://collider.com/uploads/imageGallery/Australia/australia_movie_image.jpg
I could show you a hundred pictures of it, but you wouldn’t understand. It wasn’t just the orange coloured stone, it was the whole experience. When we got of the bus a tall man wearing some sort of hat made out of feathers and leather approached us. He told us that he was going to be our guide throughout the expedition.
At first we all thought his outfit was for entertainment’s sake, but the closer we got to the mountain, the more it seemed like he was really attached to Uluru, or Ayer’s Rock as he called it, in some kind of way. And not just in a “Oh, this is such a beautiful place! Let’s live here!” kind of way, but in a more, I don’t really know how to describe this but it was almost as he talked about Uluru the same way he would tell us about his son.
I was all “It’s a rock man, chill” at first, but when he started telling stories of how the natives believed it had healing powers and how they had special rituals that could only be done here, he had me mesmerized (and trust me, the whole group was just as spellbound as me). And just like we noticed how his voice changed when he talked about Ayer’s rock, his eyes would shine in a special way when someone ask questions allowing him to go deeper into the stories of the aboriginals.
His stories was beautifully illustrated by the cave painting surrounding us and on our way back he told us how European settlers had come to claim the land of Australia. It all started with the arrival of Captain James Cook back in 1770. In a well-known European manner he claimed the east coast of Australia on behalf of Britain, of course without including any of the interests of the people already living there. Later the Englishmen basically used the country as a prison for a large number of their convicts.
The majority of you have probably learned all this at school, and unless you are going to Australia in the nearest future and plan on impressing the locals with you knowledge, you most likely don’t want to hear me retell the history of Australia. Therefore I found this for those of you who’s actually interested:
He’s even Australian so you get to hear their lovely accent. It’s in seven parts so it covers more than the essentials.
Over to something completely different, cricket! On the bus ride home we stopped by a neighbour town to get some food, and behind the little cafeteria we ate in there was a cricket match going on so we decided to watch.
I think the players were about fourteen years old, each team had it’s own suit and name so I figured it was two school teams playing each other. It makes sense because the school year is different in Australia; summer vacation for us isn’t at the same time as theirs.
Cricket is a very popular sport down here, I guess it’s the colonization fault as cricket has its origins in England. It’s also a widespread sport in India, which supports my assumption. In fact England has had a lot of influence overall on Australia’s culture. I might not be the right person to comment on the consequences of colonization but it’s kind of sad that an ancient culture had to be oppressed just because some wealthy men wanted to be even richer.
Other then that, all the Australian I have meet so far seem to be just as I expected them to be, friendly, welcoming and laidback. Another thing I have noticed is that it appears that they are a more thankful people than the Norwegians. I get the feeling that they appreciate family and traditions more than we do. They also seem to have a completely different view on strangers. Maybe that is because tourism is a huge business and many are dependent on travellers here. I like to think that it’s because they’re just nicer than most people though!
I’m going into town now (I know… Crazy, right?) to meet some of the guys I met on the bus trip to Uluru.
Byeee! (I really have no idea how you end a blog post…)
Picture sources: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rebrook/3652865917/in/pool-70793332@N00/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/68394487@N07/6224905490/, http://www.flickr.com/photos/amygoes211/3740695765/ & http://collider.com/uploads/imageGallery/Australia/australia_movie_image.jpg
Flags and cute guys
Hi again!
Stupid me managed to get the time all wrong, turns out the bus doesn’t leave for two hours… So I figured I’d tell you a little about this amazing country I’m in!
First of all, let me show you their flag (let's just pretend you've never seen it before and really care about it's hidden meanings...):
Pretty cool, huh?
Each of the colours in Australia’s flag symbolizes different characteristics and values of the people.
The blue symbolizes truth, loyalty, perseverance, justice and vigilance. White is a symbol for peace and honesty, while the red represents bravery, strength, hardiness and spirit.
The star on the right refers to Australia’s position in the southern hemisphere. The bigger star underneath the flag of the United Kingdom is the star of the Commonwealth of Nations and it’s there simply because Australia is a part of the Commonwealth of Nations. The official name of Australia is even the Commonwealth of Australia.
The country is a former colony of the United Kingdom, which is symbolized through their flag in the top left corner. Since they were under the United Kingdom’s control at the time they were obligated to include it. It’s an ongoing debate in Australia regarding removal of the Union Jack, but so far nothing has been changed.
Over to something far more exiting, I might get to see Jesse Spencer when I get to Sydney!
Just look at the guy...
He is performing with Band from TV on Saturday! He is such a good actor (he plays a doctor on House which is one of my favourite TV series). I’d probably go to his concert even if he sucked to be honest. Hugh Laurie might be a contributing fact to that as he is also in Band from TV…
That's all for now!
Picture sources: http://daytranslations.com/images/Flag_of_Australia_svg.png & http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/19600000/wallpaper-jennifer-morrison-and-jesse-spencer-19697993-1024-768.jpg
Stupid me managed to get the time all wrong, turns out the bus doesn’t leave for two hours… So I figured I’d tell you a little about this amazing country I’m in!
First of all, let me show you their flag (let's just pretend you've never seen it before and really care about it's hidden meanings...):
Pretty cool, huh?
Each of the colours in Australia’s flag symbolizes different characteristics and values of the people.
The blue symbolizes truth, loyalty, perseverance, justice and vigilance. White is a symbol for peace and honesty, while the red represents bravery, strength, hardiness and spirit.
The star on the right refers to Australia’s position in the southern hemisphere. The bigger star underneath the flag of the United Kingdom is the star of the Commonwealth of Nations and it’s there simply because Australia is a part of the Commonwealth of Nations. The official name of Australia is even the Commonwealth of Australia.
The country is a former colony of the United Kingdom, which is symbolized through their flag in the top left corner. Since they were under the United Kingdom’s control at the time they were obligated to include it. It’s an ongoing debate in Australia regarding removal of the Union Jack, but so far nothing has been changed.
Over to something far more exiting, I might get to see Jesse Spencer when I get to Sydney!
Just look at the guy...
He is performing with Band from TV on Saturday! He is such a good actor (he plays a doctor on House which is one of my favourite TV series). I’d probably go to his concert even if he sucked to be honest. Hugh Laurie might be a contributing fact to that as he is also in Band from TV…
That's all for now!
Picture sources: http://daytranslations.com/images/Flag_of_Australia_svg.png & http://images4.fanpop.com/image/photos/19600000/wallpaper-jennifer-morrison-and-jesse-spencer-19697993-1024-768.jpg
10/22/2011
Soon on my way to Uluru!
I’m so exited! I just checked with the receptionist downstairs and she told me they have daily bus trips to Uluru! Even though the bus looks extremely old and dirty and all kinds of gross things I almost can’t wait to get on it!
I haven’t really done anything worth mentioning since last time. It’s mostly because there is literally nothing to do in this area. Nothing! Luckily they’ve got free Internet access and great food. Otherwise I’d probably have died of boredom by now…
Sorry for my lack of enthusiasm, I know I should be thankful for just being in Australia, but I could just as well have spent the last couple of days back in Norway. But you know what? I’ll stop this right now. Starting now I will stop all the whining and negativity and start exploring this amazing country for real! Also, now you can all stop thinking about me as a spoiled little brat ☺
Besides, I’m going to Uluru in one hour! I’ll tell you all about it when I get back!
P.S. I know there’s a lot if explanation marks in this post, but I can’t help it!!
Picture source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Uluru1_2003-11-21.jpg
I haven’t really done anything worth mentioning since last time. It’s mostly because there is literally nothing to do in this area. Nothing! Luckily they’ve got free Internet access and great food. Otherwise I’d probably have died of boredom by now…
Sorry for my lack of enthusiasm, I know I should be thankful for just being in Australia, but I could just as well have spent the last couple of days back in Norway. But you know what? I’ll stop this right now. Starting now I will stop all the whining and negativity and start exploring this amazing country for real! Also, now you can all stop thinking about me as a spoiled little brat ☺
Besides, I’m going to Uluru in one hour! I’ll tell you all about it when I get back!
P.S. I know there’s a lot if explanation marks in this post, but I can’t help it!!
Picture source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Uluru1_2003-11-21.jpg
10/15/2011
Airportwhining from a very hungry traveler
Wohoo! Can you guess where I am right now?! I’ll give you a hint, it's that continent you never remember the name of. At least I never do.
You know how I said I was planning a trip to Australia? (or maybe you don't, depends on whether you actually know me or if you're some random stalker from Russia) After two days of delays and bad weather I’m here! Going to Australia has always been a big dream of mine, but I’ve never been much of a saver so to afford the trip I had to find a cheap solution. Just to inform you; cheap flights from Trondheim to Australia isn’t something you just stumble over. Luckily, after searching the Internet for some (a lot! Seriously, you have no idea…) of hours I found an affordable flight!
Trondheim (Norway) – Amsterdam (Netherlands)– Darwin (Australia)– Alice Springs (Australia). Almost a full day of travelling, which really isn't too bad when your travelling over 15 000 km.
On schedule, excluding the flight time, it would be 1 hour and 20 minuets in Amsterdam, 6 hours and 45 minutes in Singapore (!) and then 3 hours and 5 minutes in Darwin before I would arrive in Alice Springs at half past nine in the morning. Only problem was; nothing was on time. I tried my very best to focus on this:
(The only picture of Alice Springs where it actually looks like a nice place...)
However, after being stuck in a surprisingly ugly airport (considering Singapore’s standards) I had a hard time saying “Thank you” when they finally let me on board. You guys probably don’t care about what I ate at the airports or how many weird people I had to sit with during the flight, so I’ll just skip that.
It’s now half past nine in the evening, and I’m so tired I could probably fall asleep on the back of a jumping elephant. My current location is Alice Springs, or “the Alice” as everyone who lives here calls it. Alice is located in the Northern Territory of Australia, and the main reason for me being in this city, (excuse me; town, as Wikipedia calls it, as there is only about 27 thousand inhabitants) is that it was what cost me the least to fly to.
Still, it’s kind of convenient because it isn’t so far from Uluru! Uluru is actually one of the major reasons for all the blow-ins in Alice Springs. If you don't know what a blow-in is, google it.
Tomorrow I’m going to find the fastest way out of here, but with my luck I’ll probably be stuck for another day or two before someone is willing to drive me somewhere else. Right now all I feel like doing (except sleeping) is calling room service to get a large chicken sandwich to stop that purple monster inside my stomach from making any more of those loud noises, or maybe I’ll get an icebox cake, anything containing carbs is fine with me right now.
Tune in again in a few days, I’ll keep you updated!
Picture sources:
http://www.tourism.thealice.com.au/photo-gallery.html, http://www.kidsmaps.com/geography/images/fullsized/old-map-australia.png & http://farm1.static.flickr.com/98/370205584_013d1995e6.jpg
And for those of you who couldn't figure out what a blown-in was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Springs#Itinerant_population, better luck next time. You can always google how to learn googling...
You know how I said I was planning a trip to Australia? (or maybe you don't, depends on whether you actually know me or if you're some random stalker from Russia) After two days of delays and bad weather I’m here! Going to Australia has always been a big dream of mine, but I’ve never been much of a saver so to afford the trip I had to find a cheap solution. Just to inform you; cheap flights from Trondheim to Australia isn’t something you just stumble over. Luckily, after searching the Internet for some (a lot! Seriously, you have no idea…) of hours I found an affordable flight!
Trondheim (Norway) – Amsterdam (Netherlands)– Darwin (Australia)– Alice Springs (Australia). Almost a full day of travelling, which really isn't too bad when your travelling over 15 000 km.
On schedule, excluding the flight time, it would be 1 hour and 20 minuets in Amsterdam, 6 hours and 45 minutes in Singapore (!) and then 3 hours and 5 minutes in Darwin before I would arrive in Alice Springs at half past nine in the morning. Only problem was; nothing was on time. I tried my very best to focus on this:
(The only picture of Alice Springs where it actually looks like a nice place...)
However, after being stuck in a surprisingly ugly airport (considering Singapore’s standards) I had a hard time saying “Thank you” when they finally let me on board. You guys probably don’t care about what I ate at the airports or how many weird people I had to sit with during the flight, so I’ll just skip that.
It’s now half past nine in the evening, and I’m so tired I could probably fall asleep on the back of a jumping elephant. My current location is Alice Springs, or “the Alice” as everyone who lives here calls it. Alice is located in the Northern Territory of Australia, and the main reason for me being in this city, (excuse me; town, as Wikipedia calls it, as there is only about 27 thousand inhabitants) is that it was what cost me the least to fly to.
Still, it’s kind of convenient because it isn’t so far from Uluru! Uluru is actually one of the major reasons for all the blow-ins in Alice Springs. If you don't know what a blow-in is, google it.
Tomorrow I’m going to find the fastest way out of here, but with my luck I’ll probably be stuck for another day or two before someone is willing to drive me somewhere else. Right now all I feel like doing (except sleeping) is calling room service to get a large chicken sandwich to stop that purple monster inside my stomach from making any more of those loud noises, or maybe I’ll get an icebox cake, anything containing carbs is fine with me right now.
Tune in again in a few days, I’ll keep you updated!
Picture sources:
http://www.tourism.thealice.com.au/photo-gallery.html, http://www.kidsmaps.com/geography/images/fullsized/old-map-australia.png & http://farm1.static.flickr.com/98/370205584_013d1995e6.jpg
And for those of you who couldn't figure out what a blown-in was: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Springs#Itinerant_population, better luck next time. You can always google how to learn googling...
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