Finally another story!
Door: Linda
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Linda
13 Januari 2016 | Australië, Darwin
Saturday January 9th 2016
I’ve just looked at the last story I have send you guys an realized it has been a while!!
So Monday the 28th of December I had to get up very early for my flight from Sydney to Launceston, Tasmania. Fortunately it was only 15 minutes to the airport by train, which I thought was pretty good. I had thought the airport was further away. My flight was at 7am, so I got up at 4:30am, this time I was the one to make the noise!!
The flight to Launceston went well, no weird things happened, until I got off the airplane that is. I was at the airport and the sun was out, it looked really nice, but when I got outside I had to put on my jacket, because the wind was really cold!!!
And then I had to figure out how to get to Bridport. So I asked someone about that and he said that if I waited right there, a guy would show up who always transferred people to Bridport. So I waited…and waited…at last this guy comes back to me saying that this driver might not come, because it was a public holiday…it was the 28th, already 2 days after Christmas and it is still a public holiday??
Anyway, I asked him what I was supposed to do then. So he talked to a cabdriver and this man took me to the bus transit in Launceston. Now the guy that was friendly enough to help me out with this, wasn’t really good at telling me about how much things would cost. He said it would be about $20,- to get to Bridport….well, it was $44,- just to get to the bus transit from the airport alone.
Where I learned that the bus wasn’t going because of the public holiday either!!! What the hell!!!! Luckily they cab was still at the bus transit, so I asked him how much it would cost to take me to Bridport. There was a fixed price for it, but he made his own price. Which was less, but it was still a fair amount!!
It was about an hour and 15 minutes to get there, we passed scorched fields, they hadn’t had any rain in months and you could really tell!
Of course I got to the hostel too early to check in, but it was alright, the room was almost ready. While waiting I had breakfast. The whole building looked a little cheap, as if it had been used for a while.
It was on the Main street and when you walked up the hill you found everything you would need, supermarket, post office, café’s and so on.
But that was about it! There were a lot of campsites and the ocean was right across the street, but there was not much more I could do there without a car…so basically I was stuck there!
That first afternoon I took a nap, since I had been up since 4:30 that morning. I had chosen the early flight thinking I would be able to go out and do things that afternoon. I chose this hostel, thinking I would be able to go on some of the excursions I had read about too….but no such thing. There was nothing to do really and especially if you didn’t have a car, you weren’t even able to do the things that were in the neighborhood… So I just walked around, mailed some postcards and went to the supermarket.
So on Thursday I had to get back to the airport in Launceston, to get my flight to Melbourne…In the brochure and on the yha website, it said that Bridport was only an hour away from Launceston. So I figured that if I left Briport around 9am, it would give me plenty of time to catch my 11:45am flight…But the bus from Bridport to Scottsdale was only going when the schools were in, since it was the summerbreak, there was no chance of taking that bus. Then the bus from Scottsdale to Launceston left Scottsdale at 9:30am, which would get me into the bus transit around 11:00am, but then I would still have to get to the airport.
So this was not going to help me. I asked the owner of the hostel if he knew about someone who had to go into Launceston that day, otherwise I would have to take a taxi again. Because I didn’t want to risk missing my flight.
Eventually he found someone who wanted to take me to the airport, but he also didn’t come cheap. I left Bridport around 9am and I was at the airport around 10:15am. And would you believe it, the flight had a half an hour delay??!!!!! Unbelievable!! Well, at least I was there on time, I’d rather wait an miss the flight any time!
This flight wasn’t a nice one. They set into landing like half an hour before actually setting the plane down and it felt like it took forever! Plus it was really shaky, I was glad to get off of the plane!
It was quite a long walk to the baggage claim, which gave me time to go to the bathroom!
Robyn and Peter were already waiting for me! I had met them on a cruise in October I think it was, when I had told them where I was going, they gave me their card and said I should come and see them. I had been in touch with them some time before and asked them if it was okay to meet them for New Year’s Eve, with all of these holidays in between it was hard to find another time. But they were happy to have me, so we met at the airport!
We walked back to the car and Robyn checked the ticket to see if she owed any money. The machine said she didn’t, so we were sure to be able to get out…not!!! When she put the ticket in, it said she owed $5,-…so she had to back up because the pole(sp?) wouldn’t go up. There was a last paystation right there, so Peter went there to pay the $5,-…turned out he had to pay another $19,-!!! That was really strange!!! No idea what went wrong, but we were happy that it wasn’t really busy, otherwise a lot of people would have had to wait for us to pay to be able to get out!! But we managed and talked about what to do for the day.
They had planned to take me into Melbourne and show me the city, but it was 41 degrees, which would be even more in a city, so we skipped that. I had already seen some of the Australian wildlife in Brisbane, so we didn’t have to go to a zoo and since I’m not really a beach-person, we also skipped Geelong. First we went to eat a sandwich at a mall, just outside of Melbourne and then Robyn drove us on the scenic route to Ballarat.
This is where Robyn was born, her parents still lived here. The Australian country side is huge and at the moment very dry! In Ballarat we got out of the car and walked around a bit, had a drink and went back to the car. It was nice and cool in there!
Then we drove through Daylesford back to New Gisborne, where they live. Which is about an hour’s drive from Melbourne. We had dinner and watched a cricket match on tv. Around a quarter to midnight we got into the car again and on a well chosen spot by Robyn, we watched the fireworks being set to light in Melbourne. It is illegal to buy and light your own fireworks in Australia, but here and there we did see some go up into the sky anyway. It was all very nice to watch! It must have been the quietest New Year’s Eve I have had so far!! In the Netherlands we are allowed to buy and light our own fireworks. On this day they start lighting it around 10am, but some idiots of course start at least 2 weeks before!! Probably can’t tell time!! And then of course around midnight everyone lights their fireworks, so it all goes up at once, which means there’s a lot of noise and smoke!
This was actually kind of nice, but I don’t think we will do that in the Netherlands any time soon. Too much money involved!
Around a quarter after midnight we went back home, to cheer in the new year with wine and a cup of tea.
The new year started around 9 am, when I got up and got dressed. I had some breakfast and around 10am, I tried to skype with my parents to wish them a Happy New Year. It worked, but my dad could hardly hear me, for the noise they were making outside!!
Then I went to get some bread with Robyn, who then made sandwiches for us to take to the Hanging Rock Country Races, horse racing!! Which is a new year’s tradition for the people from Melbourne and abouts, just like jumping into the ice cold sea on the first day of the year is a tradition in the Netherlands…I have to say I prefer watching these horse races anytime!!
The Hanging Rock is also a natural amphitheater and is used for concerts too.
There were 6 races with different distances and a different number of participating horses per race. Between each race there was about a 30 minute break. Meanwhile there were also races going on at a track in Melbourne, so during our breaks we could watch these races. On the other side of the tracks there were people on horseback keeping the kangaroos off of the track! It would have been nice to see one, but they told me it was a bit of pain to get them to leave!
I got to sit with Peter and Robyn, very close to the tracks, so I could see everything! We ate our sandwiches, talked to some people we met and tried to guess which horse would win the race. Peter had explained to me how the betting on the horses worked, but I didn’t put any money on my guesses. Even though I was right a couple of times, but I was also wrong at other times, so I guess you don’t really win at these things!
But it was a nice, relaxing day to start the new year! After the races we went to an Anzac Memorial, a huge cross on a mountain. Very peaceful. Then we had a drink at a hotel and decided to order some pizzas while we were there.
After dinner we went back to the house, where Robyn and I watched the movie “Picnic at Hanging Rock” based on a book set in the 1900’s about a couple of boardingschool girls that go on a picnic and disappear. It was really boring, so we didn’t see it all the way to the end.
On Saturday I hitched a ride into Melbourne with Amy (Robyn and Peter’s daughter) and Bradley. They were able to drop me off right in front of the hostel, which was great!
I was there around noon and they didn’t check me in until 1pm, I really had to sit there and wait an hour to be able to get my suitcase into the room…never even offered to put my suitcase somewhere so I could go out and walk around. But never mind I had some writing to catch up on, so that was alright. And when I did get to check in, I was the first one in the room, so I could take the single bed!!
It was very warm again! It took me a while to get out into the city, but when I did I had to go and find a store to buy some credit for my internet dongle. I found that, so I sat down somewhere to top it up…it took a while, in the end it was easier than I thought!
I was at a mall of some kind and I found an arts and crafts store…took me a while to browse around in there! By the time I got out of that store it was later then I thought it was. There was a free Circle tram going through the city, so I thought I’d try that, see where it would go….well, I got on and it was soooo full that I got off at the very next stop!!
I walked over to the Queen Victoria markets, a huge hall where they would have all kinds of stalls, if it were still open! Everything was empty, because it had been closed since 3pm, it was Saturday.
I sat in the park for a while and tried my luck at another tram. This time it wasn’t all that full, so I stayed on it until it was close to the hostel. I had dinner somewhere in the neighbourhood and when I got back I started to pack some stuff for my Great Ocean Road trip. It took me a while, because I had no idea what to bring.
But that will be another story, don’t want to turn this into an endless story with all the things I still have to tell you!!
Love
Linda
ps very busy writing the rest of my trip!
I’ve just looked at the last story I have send you guys an realized it has been a while!!
So Monday the 28th of December I had to get up very early for my flight from Sydney to Launceston, Tasmania. Fortunately it was only 15 minutes to the airport by train, which I thought was pretty good. I had thought the airport was further away. My flight was at 7am, so I got up at 4:30am, this time I was the one to make the noise!!
The flight to Launceston went well, no weird things happened, until I got off the airplane that is. I was at the airport and the sun was out, it looked really nice, but when I got outside I had to put on my jacket, because the wind was really cold!!!
And then I had to figure out how to get to Bridport. So I asked someone about that and he said that if I waited right there, a guy would show up who always transferred people to Bridport. So I waited…and waited…at last this guy comes back to me saying that this driver might not come, because it was a public holiday…it was the 28th, already 2 days after Christmas and it is still a public holiday??
Anyway, I asked him what I was supposed to do then. So he talked to a cabdriver and this man took me to the bus transit in Launceston. Now the guy that was friendly enough to help me out with this, wasn’t really good at telling me about how much things would cost. He said it would be about $20,- to get to Bridport….well, it was $44,- just to get to the bus transit from the airport alone.
Where I learned that the bus wasn’t going because of the public holiday either!!! What the hell!!!! Luckily they cab was still at the bus transit, so I asked him how much it would cost to take me to Bridport. There was a fixed price for it, but he made his own price. Which was less, but it was still a fair amount!!
It was about an hour and 15 minutes to get there, we passed scorched fields, they hadn’t had any rain in months and you could really tell!
Of course I got to the hostel too early to check in, but it was alright, the room was almost ready. While waiting I had breakfast. The whole building looked a little cheap, as if it had been used for a while.
It was on the Main street and when you walked up the hill you found everything you would need, supermarket, post office, café’s and so on.
But that was about it! There were a lot of campsites and the ocean was right across the street, but there was not much more I could do there without a car…so basically I was stuck there!
That first afternoon I took a nap, since I had been up since 4:30 that morning. I had chosen the early flight thinking I would be able to go out and do things that afternoon. I chose this hostel, thinking I would be able to go on some of the excursions I had read about too….but no such thing. There was nothing to do really and especially if you didn’t have a car, you weren’t even able to do the things that were in the neighborhood… So I just walked around, mailed some postcards and went to the supermarket.
So on Thursday I had to get back to the airport in Launceston, to get my flight to Melbourne…In the brochure and on the yha website, it said that Bridport was only an hour away from Launceston. So I figured that if I left Briport around 9am, it would give me plenty of time to catch my 11:45am flight…But the bus from Bridport to Scottsdale was only going when the schools were in, since it was the summerbreak, there was no chance of taking that bus. Then the bus from Scottsdale to Launceston left Scottsdale at 9:30am, which would get me into the bus transit around 11:00am, but then I would still have to get to the airport.
So this was not going to help me. I asked the owner of the hostel if he knew about someone who had to go into Launceston that day, otherwise I would have to take a taxi again. Because I didn’t want to risk missing my flight.
Eventually he found someone who wanted to take me to the airport, but he also didn’t come cheap. I left Bridport around 9am and I was at the airport around 10:15am. And would you believe it, the flight had a half an hour delay??!!!!! Unbelievable!! Well, at least I was there on time, I’d rather wait an miss the flight any time!
This flight wasn’t a nice one. They set into landing like half an hour before actually setting the plane down and it felt like it took forever! Plus it was really shaky, I was glad to get off of the plane!
It was quite a long walk to the baggage claim, which gave me time to go to the bathroom!
Robyn and Peter were already waiting for me! I had met them on a cruise in October I think it was, when I had told them where I was going, they gave me their card and said I should come and see them. I had been in touch with them some time before and asked them if it was okay to meet them for New Year’s Eve, with all of these holidays in between it was hard to find another time. But they were happy to have me, so we met at the airport!
We walked back to the car and Robyn checked the ticket to see if she owed any money. The machine said she didn’t, so we were sure to be able to get out…not!!! When she put the ticket in, it said she owed $5,-…so she had to back up because the pole(sp?) wouldn’t go up. There was a last paystation right there, so Peter went there to pay the $5,-…turned out he had to pay another $19,-!!! That was really strange!!! No idea what went wrong, but we were happy that it wasn’t really busy, otherwise a lot of people would have had to wait for us to pay to be able to get out!! But we managed and talked about what to do for the day.
They had planned to take me into Melbourne and show me the city, but it was 41 degrees, which would be even more in a city, so we skipped that. I had already seen some of the Australian wildlife in Brisbane, so we didn’t have to go to a zoo and since I’m not really a beach-person, we also skipped Geelong. First we went to eat a sandwich at a mall, just outside of Melbourne and then Robyn drove us on the scenic route to Ballarat.
This is where Robyn was born, her parents still lived here. The Australian country side is huge and at the moment very dry! In Ballarat we got out of the car and walked around a bit, had a drink and went back to the car. It was nice and cool in there!
Then we drove through Daylesford back to New Gisborne, where they live. Which is about an hour’s drive from Melbourne. We had dinner and watched a cricket match on tv. Around a quarter to midnight we got into the car again and on a well chosen spot by Robyn, we watched the fireworks being set to light in Melbourne. It is illegal to buy and light your own fireworks in Australia, but here and there we did see some go up into the sky anyway. It was all very nice to watch! It must have been the quietest New Year’s Eve I have had so far!! In the Netherlands we are allowed to buy and light our own fireworks. On this day they start lighting it around 10am, but some idiots of course start at least 2 weeks before!! Probably can’t tell time!! And then of course around midnight everyone lights their fireworks, so it all goes up at once, which means there’s a lot of noise and smoke!
This was actually kind of nice, but I don’t think we will do that in the Netherlands any time soon. Too much money involved!
Around a quarter after midnight we went back home, to cheer in the new year with wine and a cup of tea.
The new year started around 9 am, when I got up and got dressed. I had some breakfast and around 10am, I tried to skype with my parents to wish them a Happy New Year. It worked, but my dad could hardly hear me, for the noise they were making outside!!
Then I went to get some bread with Robyn, who then made sandwiches for us to take to the Hanging Rock Country Races, horse racing!! Which is a new year’s tradition for the people from Melbourne and abouts, just like jumping into the ice cold sea on the first day of the year is a tradition in the Netherlands…I have to say I prefer watching these horse races anytime!!
The Hanging Rock is also a natural amphitheater and is used for concerts too.
There were 6 races with different distances and a different number of participating horses per race. Between each race there was about a 30 minute break. Meanwhile there were also races going on at a track in Melbourne, so during our breaks we could watch these races. On the other side of the tracks there were people on horseback keeping the kangaroos off of the track! It would have been nice to see one, but they told me it was a bit of pain to get them to leave!
I got to sit with Peter and Robyn, very close to the tracks, so I could see everything! We ate our sandwiches, talked to some people we met and tried to guess which horse would win the race. Peter had explained to me how the betting on the horses worked, but I didn’t put any money on my guesses. Even though I was right a couple of times, but I was also wrong at other times, so I guess you don’t really win at these things!
But it was a nice, relaxing day to start the new year! After the races we went to an Anzac Memorial, a huge cross on a mountain. Very peaceful. Then we had a drink at a hotel and decided to order some pizzas while we were there.
After dinner we went back to the house, where Robyn and I watched the movie “Picnic at Hanging Rock” based on a book set in the 1900’s about a couple of boardingschool girls that go on a picnic and disappear. It was really boring, so we didn’t see it all the way to the end.
On Saturday I hitched a ride into Melbourne with Amy (Robyn and Peter’s daughter) and Bradley. They were able to drop me off right in front of the hostel, which was great!
I was there around noon and they didn’t check me in until 1pm, I really had to sit there and wait an hour to be able to get my suitcase into the room…never even offered to put my suitcase somewhere so I could go out and walk around. But never mind I had some writing to catch up on, so that was alright. And when I did get to check in, I was the first one in the room, so I could take the single bed!!
It was very warm again! It took me a while to get out into the city, but when I did I had to go and find a store to buy some credit for my internet dongle. I found that, so I sat down somewhere to top it up…it took a while, in the end it was easier than I thought!
I was at a mall of some kind and I found an arts and crafts store…took me a while to browse around in there! By the time I got out of that store it was later then I thought it was. There was a free Circle tram going through the city, so I thought I’d try that, see where it would go….well, I got on and it was soooo full that I got off at the very next stop!!
I walked over to the Queen Victoria markets, a huge hall where they would have all kinds of stalls, if it were still open! Everything was empty, because it had been closed since 3pm, it was Saturday.
I sat in the park for a while and tried my luck at another tram. This time it wasn’t all that full, so I stayed on it until it was close to the hostel. I had dinner somewhere in the neighbourhood and when I got back I started to pack some stuff for my Great Ocean Road trip. It took me a while, because I had no idea what to bring.
But that will be another story, don’t want to turn this into an endless story with all the things I still have to tell you!!
Love
Linda
ps very busy writing the rest of my trip!
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