The Land Down Under

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Its more than 2 months I have been in the 'Land down under.' Its about time I begin my much touted travelblog. Summarizing the last 2 months in simple words - JUST FABULOUS... Great colleagues & wonderful flatmates + hot weather & minimum clothing + cool beer & refreshing wine + white beaches & blue water + fresh air & laidback attitudes = FUN TIMES! Can't ask for anything more, except that Zsofi could be here. Australia is a great place for young couples - great private beaches, lot of nature, easily accessible and affordable!

As you all know, I will be staying in Brisbane for 3 months (January to April first week). I am working as a visiting researcher at the Queensland University of Technology to promote collaboration between Delft and QUT. Before arriving I secured my accomodation in a student house in the Westend area of Brisbane. Very good choice - I met some really cool people and made some nice friends.

The highlights of the past month -

- Watching Australian Open Tennis in Melbourne. One of the aims of my life is to watch the 4 grandslams + olympic tennis. I have been to Roland Garros, Aussie Open and Athens Olympics...just Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows remain.

- Surfing at Sufers Paradise (I have made a different blog for it)

- Watching Kangaroos in their habitat. Before coming to Oz, I thought kangaroos are very common and you find them running around. This is actually not true. Many of my colleagues who have stayed here their entire life have never seen a Kangaroo outside the Zoo.

- Weekly Barbeques: Barbeque is one of the Australian traditions - and people at 2 O'Connell st (I, me, we, us), being very traditional, keep up this tradition by arranging weekly bbq at the south bank followed by some frisbee in the warm lagoon at the street beach. The South Bank in Brisbane have public bbq and party huts, where there are free gas fired grills. There is no need to carry coal and other things. Just find a grill, press a button and you are ready to grill 😉

- Drinks at the Ship Inn with my colleagues. One of the highlights at Ship Inn are their Beer Towers. A Beer tower is a glass tower filled with beer. The tower is kept chilled by ice jackets that surround the tower - and you can pour beer as and when you want. Nice! My colleagues are really fun - motivate me to come to work everyday.

- Southbank! Southbank! Southbank: This is renovated downtown area - with nice swimming pools, lagoons, artificial beaches, rainforests. You can swim here day and night. Usually, once or twice a week (usually after our weeekly bbq's) I go here with my flatmates to swim and play frisbee in the night. The lagoons overlook the downtown skyline.

- Trip to New Zealand - Bungy jump off the Auckland bridge!

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Photos

Brisbane CBD
My friend, Ben, took this photo from the top of a hill close to our flat

Southbank beach
I have spent many evenings at this beach, during my stay in Brisbane

2 O'connell st
My flat in Brisbane. All the flatmates complain that the house is old, a bit unclean...but everyone agrees this is the best places. People living there make it the best!

Australian Open Tennis - Melbourne
Watching Men's doubles. Mahesh Bhupathi is playing against the backdrop of the Melbourne CBD.