Brisbane – The Sunshine City

After a few days in Brisbane I had the time again to sit down and update my blog. Some friends asked me if I ever get tired of writing, but somehow I always find the motivation to sit down and type, simply because it is still a kind of diary. Sometimes I wish I could write some more funny stories or something more adventures but traveling alone isn’t always funny and adventures….So I just tell you what happened in my life even if it is boring for you ;)

My last few days in the Blue Mountain contained more walking, walking and walking. I really enjoyed the exercise. Even though I didn’t lose one damn pound….might has been because my host fed me very well.

Of course I had booked my flight 4 days in advance given that no one responded to my applications and I was given the feeling I am at the wrong place at the wrong time. It turned out that I received two days before my departure two calls from restaurants that would like me to turn up for a trial. DAMN, but as said before it was just not meant to be….I guess….

On the day of departure we drove to Richmond and Windsor and ended in Penrith where my train back to Sydney was leaving from. We stopped at a orange farm and ate THE most delicious oranges I ever had.

I arrived safely at the airport and waited a few hours on my plane. No worries, I wasn’t bored at all because the Sydney Airport offers free Wi-Fi (you got to love free internet).

As soon as I arrived in Brisbane my new hosts were awaiting me, not expected they picked me up from the Airport. Originally I planned to take the AirTrain to the city and meet them there. I immediately fell in love with my hosts, such a great couple. We drove through the city to their place and enjoyed a coffee together before I fell into a very dreamy and comfy sleep.

The next day I started again on my job hunt and some sightseeing. I was able to print some updated copies of my resume and walked…and walked….and walked. I dropped some of the resumes but no one was really looking for staff currently. I was now a little bit more demotivated than before. I mean, seriously, I am not that bad and my experience are worth something. But as always in life you only will make it if you try. So I kept trying and applied for basically every job I found on the net and was able to secure an interview for an office position for the next day.

I can’t be thankful enough for my host, in such a short time; they have done so much for me. I certainly will take them out for dinner as soon as I have a job. They phoned a relative who has a café in the city and asked him if he is currently looking and YES he was. So we agreed that I would stop by the next day to leave my resume and have a talk. So far so good I thought. Not very successful for a start but it is looking positive.

In the evening we enjoyed a Rugby Game together – New South Wales against Queensland (State of Origin) – which took place in the SunCorp Stadium in Brisbane. My hosts don’t live far away from the Stadium and you could hear the fans singing and screaming. What a great feeling seeing the game on the screen and hearing the noise from the window; a great experience.

This morning I got dropped off near the café (Thanks again to my host) and had a discussion with the manager and secured a trial shift for tomorrow. OF COURSE I will give my best and hope that I can secure the job for a few months.

Afterwards I went for the office interview and believe it was successful as well, but they will let me know on Monday if I will receive an offer. And I couldn’t believe it I received another two calls this afternoon for interviews on Monday. Now the ball is rolling and the offers come. I really hope I don’t mess that up this time and make the right decisions.

I like Brisbane, not too small and not too big. Close to the water and the people are very very friendly. At one point I was looking for a sightseeing object and couldn’t find it on the map. When I asked another pedestrian, she just said: “Let me google that for you”. And I actually found it this time (not like the war memorial in Singapore).

 The only thing missing now is a date to get some romance into the blog ;) And thanks again everyone for their support and love. I don’t know what I would do without you.

I hope you enjoyed this update and tune in again next time for some more news from the Sunshine City in Queensland.

Thank you (Blue Mountain)

After a little bit more than a week in the Mountains I have now booked my flight to Brisbane and I am very excited and positive that this time it will work out better for me. 
 

I need to remind myself to send out some postcards before I am leaving this awesome place, because I want that your wall at home or wherever you keep the cards are filled by the time I return.

If things are just not meant to be… (19.05.2011 Blue Mountain)

I am not sure how to start this blog entry. Normally I have already a vision of what I want to write and what kind of news I want to spread. This time it is different, I just have too many thoughts at the moment that I don’t know what to tell you first….. 
 

Maybe I just start out with how awesome my host has been to me and that without him I wouldn’t have seen most of the places around the Blue Mountain, which I consider amazing and magnificent. And that without him my first few days here would have been lonely and probably boring, so I have to thank him a lot for his time and effort.

Let’s go back to the day before yesterday (Tuesday). I started my day with walking to the Sublime Point and from there through a little forest to Katoomba, a great walk of approximately 8 km. Of course I was exhausted when I arrived there. I still was excited about my job which is supposed to start next week Monday.  I have been now nearly 4 weeks out of work, of which only 3 were calculated, so you can imagine I am running on a fairly low budget at the moment. The job came at the right time.

When I arrived in Katoomba I looked for the Library which offered free Internet and looked up a few things and did some further planning for after Blue Mountain (Budget and time calculation etc.) After that I continued my walking through an amazing park and was on my way back to Leura. All in all not a very excited day, but so far the daily work out has been good for me, the mountain air is putting me to a great sleep and I just feel fantastic.
 

The Mountains

I have spent now a few days in the Blue Mountains and really enjoyed it so far. The train took only 2 hours from Sydney Central to Leura and was really cheap too, I only paid 7,80$ for one way.

Luckily I have some great friends who hooked me up with their relatives in the Blue Mountains, very generous and I hope I can return that favour one day. I don’t even know how I ever can thank them enough to take me in, a total stranger.  It is rare these days… I hope I am not a big burden and tried to organize most of my time to keep myself occupied.

My lovely host took my around the area on the first day of arrival and I got to see some stunning mountain views as well as some beautiful waterfalls.

I love the beach, the feeling of sand under your bare feet’s and the sound of waves, but I love even more the mountain views and the hiking around, feeling above everything. If I would need to decide now where to live, I think I would choose the mountains at the moment. It could change in the future, but I feel really happy here.

I was able to see the three sisters from the Echo view point and we did a little bit of walking around.

The second day we went to the annual Ironfest in Lithgow. My absolute great host owns a fabulous historic Mercedes which he showed during the festival and which gave us free entry. I was able to see some really great historic cars and learn more about their stories. The Ironfest is a medieval festival where they show historic battles as well as some other local community activities.

After we returned to Leura I started to look for a job again. Apparently it is now a quiet season and a lot of cafes and restaurants don’t hire. I dropped a few resumes and hoped for a response soon. But I doubted it, because I am just not a professional with a lot of training and certificates, I only can convince with experience, which doesn’t seem a lot these days.

I returned to my host and spend the evening reading and planning ahead a little bit.

The next day I walked from Leura to Katoomba and tried my luck again and left even more resumes in all suitable places. Some of them were really friendly and I hoped that I would be lucky this time. After I nearly gave up and was looking at flights to Brisbane I received a call from a Motel that I can start as Housekeeper next week Monday. Phew I was relieved that someone finally gives me a chance to proof myself and that I can show that I am worthy to be employed. Let’s hope that it is working out because that would mean I can spend a few months in this wonderful place.

Later that day I received as well a message from a company in Sydney that they would like me to start a position for data entry. Of course now I had to make a decision, but it wasn’t a difficult one because the housekeeping position is fulltime and the data entry only casual.

I nearly gave up on my plans to continue traveling and was thinking of going home and just settle and just visit the places I haven’t seen during my next holidays. I was sad and demotivated because I tried so hard but nothing came back. But now everything looks more positive and as soon as I saved up again I continue to see more wonderful places in this world.

I thank everyone for supporting me during this small down time and hope I wasn’t a too big whining little girl ;)

Read you soon again with some more news from down under.