patrickinoz

Good bye Australia

2007-12-27T22:00:00.000+11:00

So, that's it for 2007! I hope I brought Australia a bit closer to you. If you’re interested in my new adventures in the UK have a look at www.patrickintheuk.blogspot.com.
I wish all of you a happy 2008!!!!

Christmas

2007-12-27T21:14:00.000+11:00

No comments as I’m running out of time once again… Just let me say that I had an awesome Christmas!!!! My first one at the beach, yeah! Thanks everyone for this wonderful time!

Anne with her new Labrador puppy Ruby

2007-12-27T21:09:00.001+11:00

Barbecue at the lake entrance

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Santa Photo with former flatmate Marina

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Dennis and me drunk on the dock at Lake Illawara

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Jo's graduation

2007-12-27T20:31:00.000+11:00

Jo in front of the UOW logo
Jo, me and Amy
Me with my former UOW tutor Susan
Jo and me
Dementor Jo
David, Jo and Jeff
Graduation lunch

Santa Photos

2007-12-27T20:24:00.000+11:00

My colleagues and me
Santa is over it

Australian high-tec at the funfair ;-)

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Private zoo

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Jeff's dog Reina and Pam's dog Cassie trying to get into the house

Another trip to Bombo

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Daytrip to Sydney

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In the National Maritime Museum

Lunar Park

Eating garlic with bread ^^

Circular Quay at night

Hyde Park

Clubbing with Kristina

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Windang Island

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A night in the opera

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My mate Michael visiting me in OZ

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Another roadtrip: 7 mile beach

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Road trip down the south coast

2007-11-14T18:29:00.001+11:00

I'm in the same expensive internet cafe so there'll be as few comments as in my last post. Here we go... Australian roads :-)

Shellharbour Bass Point

Bushranger's Bay

Killalea State Park

Cathedral Rocks

The Bombo Headland - definately one of my most favourite places in Australia so far

Kiama

On the way to Saddleback Mountain

Overlooking the Illawara region

Minnamurra Rainforest

2007-11-14T18:15:00.000+11:00

I'm sitting in an internt cafe and they are charging me 3 dollars an hour. So I won't say much and i'll just quickly upload the pictures of our trip to the Minnamurra Rainforest.

Big trees, bla bla..

The waterfall at the end of our hike.

Helpless tourists in the rainforst hunted by a wild dog.

Wollongong nightlife

2007-11-14T18:10:00.000+11:00

Ok, this is pretty much how i spent every night after beeing back in Wollongonf: getting pissed with Claudia and Morricio.

Back to the gong

2007-11-14T17:57:00.000+11:00

Ah well, what can I say? My Sydney job was awfully boring and so I packed my things again and decided to move back south. I scored a job as a photographer. And just as it's getting warmer I can spend my time close to the surf beaches. Awesome!

Sydney Aquarium

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Clubbing with Marina

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Another night in the Rocks

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Tim and Tina.

Me with Marina and Tim.

Jo with weird water melon guy.

Kadri (a colleague from YFU) and me.

My new flatmate

2007-10-10T13:19:00.000+10:00

This is my new flatmate Marina inflating her air mattress with her curling iron.

My mum visiting me in August/September

2007-09-25T14:12:00.000+10:00

This is my longest post so far. Well, I had to summarize about three weeks. So here we go... This is in Circular Quay, close to Harbour Bridge and Opera House.

My mum on the way to the Opera House.

My mum and me beeing as touristy as we possibly can.

Driving through the city...

The giraffes at Taronga Zoo, having Sydney's best view.

The bird show at the Zoo. Usually great entertainment, except that they had to cancel it after 10 minutes when we were there because one of the owls escaped and tried to attack some other animals.

On the ferry back to Circular Quay.

Afterwards we started a little pub crawl in the Rocks.

David and me after a couple of regular beers and honey beers.

And some impressions of our nighttime bridge walk.

And some pictures my mum took exploring the city on her own when I was working.

Enjoying lunch at Newport beach.

My mum having wet feet after she got surprised by a wave.

At Palm Beach.

Mum feeling home at IKEA and a visitor from the balcony while we were preparing our barbecue.

This is Anne and Ian's weekend house in Terrigal where we spent our second weekend. It's at the central coast about a one hour drive north of Hornsby.

The beachfront restaurant stripe in Terrigal.

A house for sale directly at Terrigal beach... too bad that it's not suitable for our money situation.

And some more pictures from Terrigal.

Pelicans watching the sunset in Gosford, about 20 minutes from Terrigal.

Mum exhausted after the weekend trip.

Mum struggling hard with her Japanese food at a Hornsby restaurant. Tim was a bit more relaxed about it as he's been to Japan.

And our last weekend in Wollongong. This is the view from the top of Mount Keira on the way down from Sydney.

The blow hole in Kiama, about 45 minutes south of Wollongong.

A lizard living in front of Jo's house.

Jo's birthday dinner...

Jo's dad Jeff made a Tiramisu Ice Cream Cake... as one of two desserts. His cooking is just the best. And it works for me... I got invited over to dinner quite a few times, and in my first seven weeks in Australia I put on seven kilos.

This is from next day's trip to the Southern Highlands.

This is where we had our very British Devonshire Tea.

Same day, different location... the lighthouse in Wollongong.

Wollongong Harbour.

Back at Jo's house at Lake Illawara.

Tati hiding in Jo's garage and signing her birthday card. Afterwards we got picked up by a limousine and drove into town for dinner.

In the limousine...

At the restaurant in Wollongong...

Hotel Illawara after dinner...

Jo's house.

Having lunch at the beach with some of my friends and former flatmates.

This is at Stanwell Park... one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. This day we had the full on Ozzie wildlife adventure. First, we got attacked by a magpie and then the beach was filled with thousands of bluebottles.

Close up of the bluebottles...

On our way back to the car we were accompanied by some Cockatoos that wanted to steal some of our ice cream.

The view from Stanwell Tops down to Stanwell Park and along the coast.

And our last night together in Sydney. We went to my mum's favourite area the Rocks for another pub crawl.

Our favourite pub: the Glenmore Hotel.

At Bondi on our way to the airport.

North head

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The spectacular view from North Head to Sydney's CBD.

Hornsby and northern beaches

2007-09-25T11:41:00.000+10:00

Eventually, I found a good place. The downside: It's in Hornsby, which is like the last suburb before the bush. ^^ At least it's got a massive shopping center with an ALDI about two minutes away. This is my new living room at nighttime. I've got two balconies... yeah... so the next thing I've got to buy is a decent barbecue.

The kitchen.

And the bathroom. Probably the best one I've ever had.

The other good thing about Hornsby: The northern beaches are not too far away. Jo came up for a weekend and we started a little roadtrip to explore the area. This is Newport beach, about a 30 minutes drive from Hornsby.

Jo beeing happy!!!!

Pittwater, the lake area left of the headland where the northern beaches are.

Palm Beach. Nadine, this is where they're shooting Home & Away! (they just call it Summer Bay on TV.)

Wollongong

2007-09-25T11:23:00.000+10:00

Just a shot of Wollongong during one of my visits at the weekend.

Moving north

2007-09-25T11:04:00.000+10:00

After I took on a new job in the northern parts of Sydney I had to leave Wollongong and search for a new appartment in the city. It turned out that Anne and Ian live very close to the office and so they offered me to stay with them till I found my own place. This is their house in Dural. Apparently, in summer they always have funnel web spiders in their pool. ^^ (Funnel webs are the deadliest spiders in Australia.)

And these are the stables in the garden where their horses used to live. They rebuilt one of the stables into a motel like room with an ensuite. So this was my new home for about two weeks.

This is the view from the veranda in front of the stables where I enjoyed my daily after work beer and cigarette. Living here was better than beeing in a hotel thanks to Anne refilling the fridge with beer and cooking great Ozzie food each night.

Christmas in July

2007-09-25T10:18:00.000+10:00

This is our "Feuerzangenbowle" at the Christmas in July party. A good old German Christmas tradition. The word to word translation would be something like "Fire Tonges Punch".

Another night in Sydney

2007-09-25T10:00:00.000+10:00

Jo and David after we had dinner in a German restaurant.

This is where we ended the night: The "Blue Horizon" Bar on the 36th level of the Shangri La hotel. (The quality if all these photos is a bit bad as I took them with my mobile.)

One of the drinks out of our league.

The view to the left.

And the view to the right.

Winter weather

2007-09-25T09:56:00.000+10:00

This is what Sydney looked like pretty much all winter long. I took this picture from the headquarters of Accor in Sydney, where I did a translation job for my first month in Australia.

New Patrick

2007-09-10T17:05:00.000+10:00

Me after going to a Wollongong hair dresser and adapting to Australian guy's fashion. ^^

A night with the Pratts

2007-09-10T16:22:00.000+10:00

These are some pictures of Anne and Ian Pratt and their family. My former neighbours from Waltrop Gisela and Andreas met them in a bar in Vienna last year. They gave me their number when I arrived in Australia and I got invited to dinner straight away. They also let me stay over in their Sydney appartment so that I could save some of my daily travel time to and from Wollongong. People here are just unbelievably helpful and supportive.

Ian, Rick, Paul, Shelley and me on a pub's rooftop in The Rocks.

The view from Anne and Ian's appartment in Sydney. I was able to see the Opera House lying in my bed.

A close-up of the view at nighttime. A bit blurry but still pretty impressive...

Heavy fog in the morning... and no more Opera views.

The view to the Opera from the Opera bar.

And the skyline dissapearing in the morning fog on my way to work.

Pamela and me posing on my new car

2007-09-10T11:32:00.000+10:00

Nan Tien Temple

2007-09-10T11:05:00.000+10:00

This is me at the entrance to the Nan Tien Temple in one of Wollongong's suburbs. Could I be any more touristy?

Yes, I can!

The Nan Tien Temple is apparently the biggest Buddhist temple in the southern hemisphere.

A big night out in Sydney

2007-09-10T10:54:00.000+10:00

A bottle of whisky to start the night and no further comments...^^

First weeks in Wollongong

2007-09-06T17:20:00.000+10:00

Amy getting dressed for a back to school party.

Tim at Wollongong beach.

Me and my flatmate Amy beeing drunk and stupid.

And again...

Wollongong beach and the lagoon right before sunset.

Me at Wollongong harbour.

Jo, Tim and Daniel at a Japanese restaurant where they through the food at you. And if you don't catch it with your mouth, well, then you missed the course...

Me, my friend Tati and my mate Morricio.

Amy showing her strength during one of our runs to the beach.

Wollongong beach after the big storm.

And the beach again...

Here's some proof of Jo's creativity. This is what I'm getting served in my favourite cafe by my favourite waitress. Yeah Litarnis!

This is Tati in her car after she decided to paint her dasboard. Well, she's got it back together. Good on ya!

Wollongong city beach with the lighthouse in the background.

And more sand and more water...

Me at the beach...

And Tati at the beach...

My flatmates and my new home

2007-09-06T13:22:00.001+10:00

My car in front of the house. My windows are the ones in the upper right corner.

Our party terrace.

The living room.

Flatmate Amy and neighbour Cassie.

Flatmate John and Cassie.

Amy and me.

My room. Theo is taken care of! Thanks Steffi!

My new car

2007-09-06T13:19:00.001+10:00

This is my new car. An 18 years old Toyota Corolla. I love it!

Back in OZ

2007-09-06T12:55:00.001+10:00

Jo, Tim and Pamela picking me up from the airport.

Right after the airport we drove to Brighton Le Sands and had a healthy Australian breakfast.

And then we went to the beach. In the background you can see the airport's runway next to the water.

And at nighttime we went to Circular Quay to have a beer at the Opera House.

This is the view from my hostel's terrace. I stayed there for the first three days... and then I took the train down to Wollongong.

This is at Jo's house. Look at what they do with the smokers in here. It's almost convincing.

My first Aussie Burger together with my friend Amy. We used to study politics together and she had a spare room in her appartment. So I moved in with her (and her Columbian flatmate John) straigt away.

This is my friend Tati. I met her at uni while I was job hunting.

This is at a James Morrison concert in the Enmore Theatre in Newtown. Thanks Tim for the tickets!!!!

The flight

2007-09-06T12:50:00.000+10:00

All right, there we go… with 21 kilos of luggage and a one-way ticket in my hand I boarded the Qantas 747 from Frankfurt to Sydney on the 30th of April. After I’ve heard so much about the fantastic palm garden in Singapore from Volker, for the next 12 hours I was looking forward to my stop over and a relaxing cigarette in tropical temperatures on the roof of Singapore’s airport. You probably spent enough time with me to know that I ended up with way more than one cigarette. So I found myself chain-smoking with other travelers and backpackers who I met on the airplane. After a while we realized that we’ve been practicing our habit in a non-smoking zone. Apparently, In Singapoore they would arrest you for things like that. Before we found out if this is just an urban legend or not we decided to quickly move places. We soon had to go back on the airplane anyway. The 50 TV channels on board, two more plastic meals and free drinks helped me to forget about another 10 hours in the uncomfortable economy class seats... and before I even realized I was back in Australia.

Ein Prosit auf Bochum

2007-09-06T10:23:00.000+10:00

So, this is what I was looking forward to for months and months. Before I’ll start with my actual 2007 impressions, there’s one more thing I’ve got to post here… in honor to Bochum!!!!

Das Bergbau Museum!
(The German Minung Museum)
This is Bochum's most famous landmark.

And this is my last good German kebap (we call it Doener) in front of the Mining Museum together with my very special (t.f.) friend Sandra.

Queensland (2004)

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Blue Mountains (2004)

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The Barossa Valley near Adelaide. (2004)

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So, this is where you grew up Nadine? :-) You could be working on McLeods Daughter's Farm today. I'm glad I had you as my friend in Bochum. Hope to meet you here at some point, though.

Wollongong (2004)

2007-09-05T16:51:00.000+10:00

My favourite Australian animal: The Kookaburra. Found on top of Mount Keira in Wollongong.

And the view from the top of Mount Keira. Apparantly, the name Wollongong comes from an Aboriginal language and means 'Where the mountains meet the sea'.

And some impressions from Kangaroo Island. (2004)

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Here are some pictures I took in Sydney. (2004)

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Coogee Beach in winter!

Bondi Beach, in winter as well.

The view from North Sydney.

The skyline seen from the Harbour Bridge.

Sydney's skyline as seen from the opera cafe, sitting on the harbour wall.

And me in front of the Opera House at nighttime.

Same building from the Circular Quay perspective.

The Opera House from the botanical gardens.

2007-09-05T15:01:00.000+10:00

Well, to start off I thought I just show you the highlights of my 2004 Australia trip:

Welcome to patrickinoz

2007-09-05T14:50:00.000+10:00

Hi everyone,
After some of you already suspected that I got lost in the land down under I decided to finally show some proof of life and to give you some impressions of what’s going on at the other end of world. So, welcome to my blog! I’ll try to keep my notes shot – firstly, because I think that pictures are way more interesting and probably give you a much better idea of Australia, secondly, because I’m too laze to write (as most of you have probably already realized by now) and thirdly, because I think that most of you are as lazy as me and prefer to just watch rather than to read. I’ll try to update this blog on a regular base and for anyone who is convinced by my pictures to come over and visit me, I’m more than happy to play the tour guide for you. So enjoy watching (and reading) what Patrick is doing in OZ.