The title says it all… I am back in ordinary-boring-wet-cold little Belgium…

I boarded a plane Saturday evening to swap a warm, sunny and fun Melbourne with a cold, rainy and boring place in the middle of nowhere.. Now I understand why Australia needs tough immigration laws.. without those all the planes to Australia would be full and those leaving empty! 🙂

Regardless of the hot climate in summer, I found yet another place I ‘d prefer living in over Belgium… Sweden and Finland are obviously a lot closer, but I don’t know Swedish, nor Finnish.. true, people in Australia also speak a weird language, but at least that one is remotely related to English, which I do know a bit 🙂
On the other hand, regardless of whether I ‘d actually survive hearing Australian all day for more than a couple of weeks, getting into Australia is a lot harder than moving within the EU. They have expensive residence permits, exams etc… the only way in would seem to be finding a beautiful Australian girl (those seem to be available in abundance anyway :)) – preferably without the accent – who doesn’t mind catching a fish from the other hemisphere… 😀

That said, before I left on Saturday I thought I ‘d go to South Melbourne to take a look at that beach Melbourne is supposed to have.. Much to the regret of my feet, I decided to do everything on foot again.. and – yet again – it ended up being a much longer walk than I had anticipated. I did eventually get to the beach.. but unlike the beach at Manly in Sydney, there were almost no waves here.. probably because Melbourne is located quite far inland next a large bay. There was a lot of wind however.. on a day like this the bay looks like prime a prime sailing area! Looks like I was born in the wrong country to love sailing.. first Sydney, now even Melbourne looks like a heaven for small sailing boats!
On my way back to the city centre I came across Albert Park which sits almost in the middle of south Melbourne and consists largely of an large lake on where – again – a lot of people were sailing.. the longer I was staying in Australia/Melbourne the more frustrated I get with puny little Belgium so I headed back to my hotel to pick up my stuff and on to the airport to say goodbye to heaven and hello to hell.. 😡

When I arrived in London following a 22 hour flight I was welcomed by a lashing cold wind as I rushed from the plane through the gangway to the main terminal. Coming from a pleasant 25°C in Melbourne wearing only a t-shirt didn’t exactly help me feel happy to be almost home either.. So far I had been flying Premium, but the last leg of the voyage I sat in economy on a fully loaded BA flight.. I think that the hour I spend on that plane was more painful than the entire flight from Melbourne to London.. I couldn’t even fit my legs between the 2 rows of seats, much to the annoyance of my neighbours.

Arriving in Brussels was the usual anticlimax: grey weather, grey people, grey country.. In Scandinavia they at least have snow and somewhat private but fun people, in Australia they have nice warm weather and friendly though incomprehensible people, but all we have in Belgium is cold and tame closed minded people. 🙁

Didn’t have to go to work on Monday so slept for around 14-15 hours I think.. of course dreaming of palm trees, white beaches and pretty Australian girls.. 😀

Back in Melbourne.. I took a flight this afternoon.. and this may sound strange, but once I had dropped off all my luggage at the hotel and walked to South Bank I felt like I was back home.. I know I’ve only been here for a couple of weeks, yet it already feels a bit like home.. tomorrow I have to fly to my previous, more permanent, boring & cold home though.. pitty!! 😥

What I left today – even after only a couple of days – already hurt, so I don’t want to think about what tomorrow will be like.. flying back to that gray boring country that isn’t really a country anymore..

I ‘ll keep the happy thoughts for a bit longer though: Sydney was really great, just wish I ‘d had a bit better weather (as in more sun, not higher temperatures/humidity :)). I ‘d really love to have had more time here and a chance to sail here as well.. Sydney harbour looks really perfect for sailing a lazer or 420/470. With that kind of a back yard, who ‘d care about the sweaty days and scorching heat.. just jump in a boat and capsize a bit 😛

I went to langly beach yesterday, and while the weather wasn’t that great for sunbathing (sun didn’t show :)) I did take my last opportunity to swim in the Australian sea.. in Melbourne the beach doesn’t have any waves because it is just a large inland bay, but here, there were actual waves! Of course surfers were present everywhere and there were like two tiny strips that were cleared for swimmers.. 🙄
Since everyone has been warning me about currents I decided I should probably stay within these confines, but they should have really made them a bit wider.. anyway, there was no indication of how deep you could go so I ended up further off shore than even the surfers.. As for the waves, I don’t think they were as big as they get because the surfers weren’t doing that much surfing (dunno if that s normal) but the waves were definitely way bigger than on our little North Sea coast. Despite the rather cold water I did stay in for over half an hour and when I got back all my belongings were still nicely where I left them on the beach.. not that many people around that could have taken them, but still.. being alone I had no choice: either leave my stuff along or don’t go swimming.. I went for the option that had some fun.. 8)

Today I moved from a room at a friend’s place outside Sydney to a room in a backpackers hotel in the city center.. There ‘s a tiny detail to it though that ended up being a little more serious then I had anticipated.. since my hosts had gone to work, my motorised transport to the railway station was also gone.. and since I couldn’t check in before noon I wanted to stay at their place for bit longer as well.. It was one of those days though.. not really very hot, but HUMID! And then around noon the sun broke through the cloudcover… So instead of a relaxed walk to the station I went through a 25 minute long torment. I was carrying 3 bags so could barely walk properly and on top of that, the second I got out the door I was bathing in sweat.. Normally when you sweat, you expell excess heat and you are supposed to cool a bit. But with this high humidity all it did was drip off of me and ruin another set of clothing.. I think during that 25 minute walk I must have lost 5 kilos worth of water.. 😐

When I finally got to my destination, the change in accomodation couldn’t have been more extreme: in Melbourne I stayed in a very nice room, the room I had stayed in in Sydney so far was also comfortable, though a lot smaller, but the room at this hotel was even smaller, and basically only had a bed and a cabinet I wouldn’t even entrust my hated shirts to.. I had a toilet and shower (or something resembling it) across the hall, but that s about it.. It was also a lot cheaper than my previous hotel though, so I guess you get what you pay for. Still, all you really need is a bed.. and that was present – though I m not sure it was much softer than the floor. Everything else is basically excess luxury you can do without: something like a big room s just wasted space in a place like this I guess.
If sleeping here is doable – there s this large noisy airco build into the window, and when turning that off, I hear the air conditioning units of all the neighbours – I think I might actually enjoy it here. In the hotel I had all possible comforts, but there was little to do. Here on the other hand there’s always organized activities and a completely different atmosphere.. Now, if only they could combine the two.. 😀

So I managed to get here after all… Sydney!

Arriving here it felt like entering a Finnish sauna, only this one has no exit…
I’ve had some hot days in Melbourne – though not as many as I ‘d have liked – but not something like this.. I don’t mind the heat, but it s a moist sweaty heat.. guess by the time I get used to it, I will be on a plane back to sub-zero Belgium… and to be honest, even though I’m not yet dealing with the humidity too well, lying on a beach or in a park in the sun is preferable over freezing in Europe every time you go out the door.. Ideally I ‘d have a job where I’d have to work in Australia during (European) winter and in Europe during summer.. 🙄

Anyway, back to Sydney.. I’ve walked over the Sydney Harbor Bridge, in the Botanic Gardens and past what s called ‘The Rocks’.. a typical tourist area including the Opera house and a lot of restaurants and bars.. Looking at Sydney, it ‘s quite green, except for – again – a business district in the centre… to me it looks like a cancer in an otherwise beautiful city, but I guess I ‘ve gotten too much used to picturesque low rise European cities.
The weather was actually really good for walking.. there was a lot of sun and probably would have been quite hot if it wasn’t for a cool refreshing sea breeze. Which brings me to my next topic: sailing. This place looks perfect for sailing, both in larger yachts and smaller boats like a lazer, 420s or 470s. Pity I won’t be here for any longer but I think I ‘d want to come back, if only to get into a boat.. 😀

Till now I have stayed with friends, about a 45 minute train journey outside the cities centre, but I will be moving to a backpackers hotel in downtown Sydney today. I must say it ‘s nice to have slept outside a city for 2 nights.. much calmer, though the sounds of cards and drunk people is replaced by insects and other night dwellers. My sister ‘d kill to have the birds and trees here in our backyard at home.. :p I was able to get within a meter or so of a Kookaburra, which I’d never even seen till now.
Friends get to use their Dutch a bit – some could use a bit of practice I think (won’t say any names Milena ;)), but it can’t be so hard for such a language genius – and I get to tell them all the stuff that doesn’t normally end up in emails.. 😉 Anyway, it ‘s nice to actually see how they live here, and it s also nice to be here before my parent who have been talking about visiting them in Australia ever since they move 10 years ago 😛

Enough for now.. I have to pack my stuff and walk/crawl to the local railway station with all my stuff.. half of which I should have left in Belgium.. (my motorised transport s gone to work) 🙂 If i never arrive there, I ll likely be the puddle of molten human remains somewhere along the road…

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Okay.. I had a bit of a scare yesterday… largely caused by the excess power banks have nowadays…

Yesterday morning, whenever I tried to get money from an ATM it showed a message stating the transaction was cancelled by my bank.. I thought maybe they were having issues, but a few hours later it still didn’t work, so I asked my parents to check it out.. Than, yesterday evening (local time) I got a message that my VISA had been blocked, yet the card I had been having issues with was my regular MAESTRO card (which they said should be working fine).. So here I was – on the other side of the planet – thinking I had no working card left.. and with only 20$ cash remaining.

So I rushed to an ATM to try my MAESTRO card again and, miraculously, this time it worked fine.. But since I don’t like carying much cash on me – rarely ever more then 50€ – and I need a credit card to pay for my hotels, I went to a small night shop to try the VISA.. and surprisingly, it too worked, even though blocked according to the bank. I guess the bank was making mistakes, maybe confusing a new VISA card (current one is about to expire) with a replacement for a blocked card, I don’t know.. thing is these things can be awfully impredictable abroad..

And it s about to get even worse: belgian banks have got this brilliant idea: disable the MAESTRO function for getting cash from ATM outside Europe.. supposedly to fight crime.. but more than 90% of the abuse they are trying to block occurs within the EU, in countries like Spain, where it will keep working fine. So this no doubt is just another way of forcing customers to credit cards which are much more expensive when getting cash from an ATM abroad.. All major Belgian banks are in on this, at least some smaller ones (in Belgium) like Deutsche Bank aren’t playing this ugly game.. guess it ‘s time to switch banks.. 🙄

This time no tourist loaded bus trip.. the sky is crystal clear so instead I walked through some of Melbourne’s parks looking for a good spot to do absolutely nothing 😀

There s a lot of small parks all over Melbourne, most of them just outside the business district and in the suburbs, but plenty are within walking distance of my hotel.. I ended up in the Fitzroy Gardens and though not big, it was the perfect place for a nap in the shade..
Not much else to say about yesterday.. I merely enjoyed doing as little as humanly possible 😉

One thing I do want to praise: even in Scandinavia I’ve not seen this many public toilets.. and they are for free! I don’t think any European country can beat that 🙄

As for today.. I ll probably go swimming in my favorite outdoor pool in Melbourne North… well, maybe a little bit of swimming and a lot of idling in the sun 😉

Oké, I know I’ve never been very good at this, and probably never will be, but I don’t think I’ve had to do this much last-minute planning before…

I only yesterday got confirmation that this week is the last week I have to work here.. next week I have a week off in Australia, but I have no place to go or stay at yet 🙄
I can’t even stay in my current hotel because they are fully booked over the weekend so I ‘ll have to do some hotel hopping..

The idea is to go to Sydney next week, though I still have to get flight tickets, find a hotel and everything.. I think it ‘ll be easiest – and probably cheapest too – to stay with emigrated friends for 2 days and then move to a cheap ho(s)tel in the city – provided I can still find one…
Still have to find a hotel in Melbourne for one night too.. unless I don’t mind spending 36 hours in an airport… 🙄

Today’s conclusion: I hate planning anything 🙂