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Published: February 15th 2014
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Louise pedding a cute little "sheep"Christmas and New Years Down Under
We arrived at Miyako’s and Lasse’s place which is located a small hour outside of Brisbane later in the evening and were really happy to finally have a proper place to stay for the next couple of days. Especially the convenience of a kitchen with a fridge, a bathroom and two wonderful soft beds seemed to be pure luxury to us :-). But also in general did Miyako and Lasse live in a very nice and modern house which they themselves moved into only 2 weeks before we arrived. They also have a very cute puppy called Ashley who was just wonderful to play with although she was very easily distracted by other interesting things. Apparently she was very curious about the many frogs and toads which also here came into the gardens but it was very important to teach her not to eat any of them since the very wide spread “cane toad” would be deadly poisonous to her.
As Miyako and Lasse are vegans we enjoyed a very tasty curry dish with rice for Christmas dinner which was definatly different to our usual Christmas customs from back home but
also very interesting and good! The rest of the evening we spent chitchatting on the balcony/ terrace enjoying about 25°C and a couple of drinks. In the next morning out of habit we woke up rather early and used the opportunity to call back home and wish our families Merry Christmas. It was simply so insanely cozy to finally lay in each a big soft bed after camping in the car for such a long time :-). Since Miyako and Lasse were invited to a Christmas Pool Party in the afternoon (Christmas is celebrated on the 25
th in Australia) they were preparing a salad while we simply relaxed :-). After they left for their party we also quickly prepared some Danish meat balls and a garlic sauce before heading off to meat Ruwen and Marie as agreed. Luckily they were so nice to meet us close to our place in a park with barbecue facilities because Louise did not feel too well and couldn’t to drive too far that day. Once we arrived the feast could begin :-). Ruwen was doing the grill and we had heaps of the before mentioned Danish meat balls, 2 huge steaks, fried onion and
potatoes, pasta salad and a delicious dessert with fruit and yogurt. There was no chance that we could eat all the food we prepared, so it did really feel like Christmas with all the leftovers for the upcoming days ;-) We enjoyed our time and just chilled in the park talking, chitchatting and ended up again playing some cards for the last time. By darkness we wrapped up and drove back home to Miyako and Lasse and headed more or less straight to bed. Once again it was amazing crawling up in the soft beds, underneath the warm blankets in an air-conditioned room, and we slept like being in haven. The upcoming day we spent together with Miyako and Lasse, and we took their car to the hills behind Brisbane. Here they showed us a very cozy little village where we enjoyed a nice lunch. We had a great view over the surrounding areas, we slandered down the streets doing some window-shopping. We drove home for the afternoon and chilled on the couch, watched a movie together and enjoyed a nice pasta dinner before again turning in. We were supposed to head into Brisbane the next day, however we ended
Asleigh
Miyako playing with Asleigh up chilling around in the house, playing with Ashleigh and organizing our car a bit more and doing some laundry. For dinner we got takeaway from an Indian vegan restaurant, and this was delicious. Since it was our last evening together with Miyako and Lasse, we sat around talking all evening.
We went into Brisbane the next morning, where we enjoyed a nice walk through the inner town, went to the local fruit market and got some supplies for the next couple of days. We enjoyed being in a big city again spend quite some time gazing upon the skyline from the Kangaroo lookout point. Here we also cooked our dinner and ate with a wonderful view. We drove on in the later evening and stopped at a trucker stop rest-area for the night. It was a fairly good spot to sleep and due to tiredness and the need for getting some practicalities done we stayed a bit longer into the day. From here we drove on to Surfers Paradise where we went straight for the beach. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really a beach for swimmers and also the weather wasn’t really with us, so we just went for a
Asleigh
Louise playing with Asleigh walk, viewing the skyline of the city and watching the lightning on the evening sky. In the later evening we went into town for a kebab for dinner and a drink in one of the many bars. Once again we slept less legally, though this time on a deserted parking spot. Others slept here too, and some of them for several nights, so we felt rather safe. We headed inland the next day, and went to Tamborine Rainforest Skywalk. Here we walked between the treetops and watched another kind of rainforest than what we’ve seen so far. It was rather cool to walk between the crowns of the trees. On the way back to Surfers Paradise we passed a little village in where we decided to stop over. After a bit of window shopping and a very delicious piece of Lemon/passion fruit cheesecake we drove back to the coast. Also here we cooked dinner with an amazing view before hitting the streets of Surfers Paradise one more night.
Finally New Years Eve was upon us, and before leaving Surfers Paradise, Christian went for the hairdresser and we drove south towards Byron Bay. When arriving here, we found the city
At Miyako and Lasse's balconytotally overcrowded with hippies, apparently there was a festival going on these weeks, and therefore everything was booked out and not even parking within the town was proper possible. We had decided we wanted to go out for dinner, and therefore went to the tourist information asking for some recommendations. They we not too helpful and friendly, though we did get a newspaper with the program of the festival. We called up on an add saying beach party, and decided driving there. It was a further drive, though we got to see some of the surrounding nature, which was also cool. When arriving at the place there was no beach in sight and not too much party over the place, though we still decided staying for dinner, since we already drove the far drive there. We enjoyed a surf & turf and a nice burrito together with of course a nice cold beer ;-). In order to decide who will drive for the night we diced. Christian lost, so Louise was allowed to enjoy some drinks during the evening. We kept playing some games at our table, and with more people coming to the place more and more stuff was
Brisbane
City centre going on. There were some kind of games for everybody to participate in, and Louise got drawn to take part in “horse riding”. She had to stand with a teddy horse and move on some kind of command. It was fun for Christian to watch, and we enjoyed our time there. When getting closer to midnight we decided to go back into Byron Bay in order to be on the beach for the countdown. There was heaps of people, but nothing organized from the city, so everybody more or less just stood around looking out on the water. Suddenly somebody shouted “ten seconds to go” and everybody counted down together and screamed out “Happy New Year”. Two rockets got shot up in the air and after standing a bit around on the beach realizing that that was it, we walked back up to town where we called our families back home in order to wish them happy New Year in our time zone. We went searching for an open bar to get a drink; however most things already had lockout, so we ended up just chilling and walking around town doing some people-watching. For the night, we slept outside town
on a rest area along the highway.
All in all, it was cool to experience both Christmas and New Years in a warm country (for Christian the second time), though both of us are looking forward to enjoy those holidays back home in a year’s time, together with our families and friends.
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