crsrdmn.

after four more days in biarritz i was on the road again, travelling to paris to team up with my father.
we had this plan to do some cycling around the loire area. we started the next day from orleans.
to be honest the whole cycling idea was more the idea my father had when we planned a trip to france together.
suddenly i noticed that holidays and biking were’nt really what i expected it to be. to my defence the weather got quite windy not to say stormy and even my semi-pro biking daddy was a little surprised. nonetheless we ate great dinner and drank good wine every night. but i guess, that’s what france is about, right?
after three days when we made it near the city of tours we decided to go back to orleans by train. we stood another day in paris which was really great. it was my third time in paris but the first time i really found myself enjoying it. ok, the last time i’ve been there we got robbed while we slept in a park at pont neuf. that might very well be one reason for my ambivalent feelings for paris. anyway it was great.

finally on our way home we decided to take a route through belgium where we could visit the beautiful city of bruges. ever since that movie i wanted to go there to see what it’s like. i can tell it’s just like in the movie and maybe even better.

up next is a trip to california in march. maybe a little bit spring break in mexico? we’ll see…

since my five-week-travel in australia and korea too much time had passed. everyday i was thinking about the next big thing. well australia was expensive and i only had about 10 days left this year for some travelling to do. so i decided to do small trip and visit spain and france in this years off-season in september.

we took a cheap plane to santander, located on the northcoast of spain direct at the atlantic ocean. since australia i badly wanted to check out how surfin in europe feels like. i heard of a great spot called somo, which was just a ferry-ride away from santander. quite a surfing community established in this tiny city with the amazing beach.

the waves were quiete big and we had big problems to even get into the water. to be fair, the waves were very high and i’m still a beginner

a few days later we travelled down the coast to biarritz in france. biarritz is a beautiful place as well but i dont recommend that unless you have some good money to spend on things you can get much cheaper anywhere else. btw if you’re backpacking and still want to go, stay at the surfhostel. it is run by australians, you’ll have a board and a bike within the price. the stay was different then i expected because it has unlike a typical hostel very much the feel of a flatshare.

ok now its ten month since i left beautiful austrlia and it’s endless coasts. here’s some pictures flo took.
i’t still waiting for an immense amount of photographs vallentine took, but it seems he took that much that it’s hard to sort them out.

koalafrom the airplane / surfers paradisefrom the airplane / surfers paradisebrisbanebrisbanesurfers and dolphinsbond unibond unibond uninew years evenew years evesydneysydneysydneynew years evenew years evesydneysydneyfraser islandfraser islandfraser islandfraser islandfraser islandwallabyblue monutains

over the last two weeks, while it’s slowly getting colder, leaves are starting to fall, but still it’s truely beautiful in berlin, i found some releases that might perfectly match the upcoming moods.

here’s my favourite listens for the fall:

• chuck ragan – gold country
• parachute – losing sleep
• the orphan, the poet – in brevery
• athlete – black swan
• the goodnight anthem – nights to know you
• sleeping at last – storyboards
• nightmare of you – infomaniac
• kyte – two sparks, two stars
• fallbrooke – selftitled
• emery – in shallow sea we sail

yesterday we arrived in newcastle. the city is really ugly, not the best place to go for your holidays i can say. we didn’t even found a place to stay for the night because everything is booked out here at the central coast. that’s crazy. everyone seems to be heading to sydney for new year. we decided to stay at a national park near newcastle which was pretty awesome. sleeping in our van in the middle of the jungle. by the way, i’ve finally seen some kangaroos and koalas and wallabies. they have been shy the last weeks, but now they are everywhere. i also ate a lot of them. … ok, just kangaroo… so, tastes great by the way.

the landscapes here in new south wales are not exactly what i expected. everything is green and looks healthy and stuff. no desert or dry regions at all. the outback is just too far away to get there and sometimes i feel like we’re in ireland or something. but they say that it was a very rainy year. so that might explain it. anyway, just to mention it again, they have the most beautiful beaches i’ve seen yet.

today we’re driving up into the blue mountains. our last two nights before sydney. i guess there are still some awesome days ahead. hard to believe that holidays are almost over.

i’ll be posting some more pics when we’re in sydney…

after fraser we finally drove down to byron bay. 700 km left to sydney. byron is the number one hippie city on the coast i guess. everyone here seems stoned or worse. maybe thats why the owner of the hostel we were staying in kicked us out for no reason on christmas eve. he has been a real all-australian-asshole. so don’t go here. it is a big ripoff.

we had christmas eve dinner in lennoxheads at a stunning beach and champagne breakfast at the morning. but christmas in austrlaia is just not the same. i’m starting to miss home a bit.

still seven days to go. right now we’re in port macquarie. they have the most beautiful beaches i’ve seen yet.
let’s go surfing….

here’s some pics of our trip to fraser island natural reserve.
driving a jeep through the jungle and across the beaches is simply awesome.

the last few days we hang out in surfers paradise, perfect weather, nice waves and my first attempts to go surfing. i can say i wasnt that bad ok. maybe i was. but at least i managed to stand up on the board a couple of times.

surfers is a typical tourist city, scyscraper-hotels everywhere next to the beach, shopping malls, and night clubs. and that’s what we’ve been up to. shopping, drinking, dancing and getting sunburned. nice.

after that, flo and i went to brisbane again, where we met up with valentine who just arrived from singapore to join our roadtrip. some brisbane city visiting. i don’t like the city that much. nothing very special about it. but therefore, we’ve been staying at beautiful house in ipswich (near bris), where some friends of flo are living at the moment.

as i’m writing this blog entry, we’re about to leave for fraser island. one of the most beautiful places in australia people say…

some impressions from the last few days here at the gold coast. the weather is great right now and yesterday i got my first sunburn. ouch.

australia is a lot as i expected it to be. surfpeople and shops everywhere, everything is so far away, so many young people and it is super warm. but the sun ain’t shining. so that sucks a bit.

as you can see i was busy uploading pictures of seoul and the first two days in australia.
the flight to sydney was bad as fuck and i couldn’t sleep for a second. but i managed to catch a flight to brisbane right after that, so i didn’t lost much time to get here.

by here i mean gold coast, surfers paradise, bond university. (whoever came up wit these names) that’s where im staying right now with flo and all the mates he got here on campus. it is super nice. everyone is so kind and easygoing that i’m sure i will enjoy the next days. even if flo needs to study a little bit til the 12th of december when the semester is ending.

i just bought myself a pink guitar today. so flo and i are ready to hit the road and play a few shows, like in queer clubs and stuff. just kidding… but i’m serious ’bout the guitar. i love it so much because it is so tiny and pink and it fits my new shirt haha.

if you’re watching the pics and you are wondering why the heck flo has a belt around his leg.
it’s just that we got drunk and flo didn’t realised it but he kind of got biten by a snake. the typical stains and blood on his feet (wearing flipflops all the time). so we overreacted a little bit and called flo a doctor. for the time waiting we needed to stop the poison from reaching flo’s heart, as you could easily imagine. turned out that it wasnt all that dangerous. but a snake bite. everything down here wants to kill you, that’s for sure.

look, we have a christmas tree. isn’t it awesome? cheers on that.