Chapter 2: Melbourne in 24

Okay, this is a quick one but from what I saw in just a few hours......... Melbourne is really a beautiful city!!

The Christmas decorations around the city and the giant tree were welcomed reminders that it was in fact Christmas season, something I had trouble remembering in these tropical temperatures :)

Hamburger Holidays

(a small jump from australia back to the present...and the cold)

"Good morning dear Kaija and lots of luck!"

The note I found waiting for me in front of the coffee machine the first morning of my final tests in my German class. So sweet.


And let the holidays begin!! Off to Hamburg with Esther...





Water!! Boats!! I have a soft spot for cities on the water..........I wonder why?








Yes, that is snow you see on the ground. Don't let the sunshine and beach chairs deceive you, it was COLD!! But a nice cup of Gluhwein (or two) and about 5 blankets helps a little.










Look!! They even have a mini version of the Ballard Locks!! This IS a cool city :)





It was a great start to the holidays....We did have to drive around 6 and a half hours or so to get there and back, and it was UN-believably cold (the snow dumped on Friday, just as we arrived) but we actually had some great weather and even quite a bit of sunshine. Esther and I stayed with her sister for about 6 days and just explored the city and took it easy :)

The moment you've all been waiting for.......

Australia!!

(I hope your expectations aren't too high after waiting so long. Enjoy!)

Chapter 1: The Great Ocean Road
My first night in Australia we stayed in Geelong and got a head start on driving The Great Ocean Road. Here we are, leaving Geelong and heading for the coast.




Ocean!!




Yay, I'm in Australia!!! Jens and I, our first stop to enjoy the view and take a quick pic.


The official start of the Great Ocean Road.


We stopped to walk along the beach.


Despite the warm weather the water was still COLD!!


On the road again.


Beautiful coastline. Reminds me a bit of the Big Island of Hawaii.




Literally looking in every tree along the road for Koalas.




Stopping again to enjoy the "beach" and document our travels.


KOALA!! I found him!


There he is! Just chillin' by the side of the road, eatin' some eucalyptus leaves. Koala fact: Koalas spend 75% of their day sleeping in the trees and are most active after sunset, so its pretty cool that we found one during the day.


Isn't Heuey cute? Yep, I named him.


He poses so nicely. And look at that little furry Koala bum!


It looks like Scotland! We had to stop and take this one because we both were reminded of dear old Scotland.


And, we're back in Australia.


The 12 Apostles. The ocean has eroded these individual rocks from the original coastline.





Proof that I was actually there :)


A hidden little beach we found.




This is not such a great picture I know (too bad the sun was shining too brightly :) ) but this was really cool. You can just barely make out a dark shape at the "top" of the pool of water and that is an underground channel going out to the ocean. When a big wave came through it made such a loud thundering!!


Its pretty cool what the ocean and the tides can do. I'm such a nerd.






The end of Chapter 1. :)