The beauty of the pacific and the move to St. Lucia

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It's been a while - a lot has happened since my last entry!!



Travelled to the lovely pacific and went surfing in Surfers Paradise (well I made progress but the waves are insane and fighting them takes a lot of energy). The Gold coast in general is one of the major tourist spots on the east coast - lovely beaches yet bordered not by lovely mangrove forests or so but by huge hotels and shopping malls. Nightlife is great though, went to a club-crawl a memorable club was called beergarden with live-music and djs!). Met a nice Peruvian-Australian who stayed at the same hostel as I did (backpackers resort - good quality hostel with a volleyball/tennis court and a pool!!). Two weeks later we went to a friend of his up in Noosa on the Sunshine Coast - stayed at a beautiful beach house - greatest place I've seen so far.

Discovered a lot more of the things brisbane has to offer: Great weekend markets for food, clothes and knick-knack; my Peruvian friend showed me some of Brisbane's great nightlife ranging from posh to backpackers bars (apparently Australians enjoy going to good hostel bars such as 'Downunder' or 'Birdies'); awesome recreation centres like strike-bowling in Queenstreet Mall where karaoke, bowling, pool and lasertag are unlimited on Sundays 5-10 p.m. for just 25$!!

Getting so many pets at my first stay and the longer way to uni made me move into the granny-flat (a separate apartment with kitchen, bedroom, tvroom and bathroom) of an Austrian/Australien family for half the rent!! The family is great, watching the kids once in a while and talking German to them is a lot of fun (the little one hasn't grasped the concept of hide-and-seek fully yet - keeps on hiding in the same closet every time).

Hope to catch up with this more frequently now.

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Photos

Beach at Surfers Paradise
One can get an idea how close these buildings are to the beach - the water is still lovely though but also quite dangerous with rips (currents that drag u out into the pacific)

My first pet
Caught my friend in a trash bin before setting it free in the yard...probably a huntsman spider(?)

A very fine dinner
We had a fair portion of fine beef steak, fresh crabs and prawns and a small sidedish of boiled potatoes...

Market Day at UQ
An incredible amount of students are around to explore the massive amount of clubs and societies at UQ...being used to German university life this seems like a miraculous wonderland of student activities! Chapeau!!!