Dear all, hello my friends

now i am back home in munich, germany. i can tell you it just tastes so sweet!
even if its 0 degrees outside, snowing and a hell of a difference to summer in australia, i t  i s  m y  h o m e!! ;-) its like heaven to see all my friends and family and listen to my music! i just love it, so happy to be here!!!.....
well enough of my bitter-sweet feelings over here ;-)
i had a very good flight from sydney to dubai, something like 15 hours, not much to tell otherwise. arrived in dubai about 6 o´clock in the morning and had some trouble to catch my connecting flight. the city was covered in thick mist and the check-in computers were down. so all the flights were delayed and gate changes announced almost every 5 min. nevertheless i saw myself sitting in the plane to munich 4 hours later i was supposed to. i had the luxury of having 3 seats for myself, so one of my comfiest flights. i enjoyed the next 7 hours with movies, games and good food ;-)
altogether 30 hours after i left my apartment in bondi beach, i finally arrived at the munich airport and had a very warm welcome by my parents!!
now i just had breakfast watching the thick snowflakes outside my window dreaming a little of the nice time to come, helsinki, christmas, snowboarding in italy, new-years, finishing my studies....
thanx for being my guest, hope you enjoyed reading and watching my adventures in down under, even though i was a little lazy in the end ;-)

Dominik

our chopper R44 VT-ZTZ

take-off with my friend and boss Nils as our pilot

starting to feel the first two g-forces flying a tight turn

the main olympic "telstra stadium"

me with fancy radio control

approaching downtown

nice view from the western suburbs to the skyscrapers of sydney

the harbour bridge

you can walk to the top and back....

...but flying above is just much better!!!

the opera house next to the botanic garden 

at the centre of the picture is Circular Quay, main ferry station of sydney

. . . .

if you take a closer look you can see the shark net securing the swimming area

nice little privatly owned island, would'nt mind to stay there for a while!!

one of the northern beaches, sometimes very hard to access because of the steep cliffs

having a walk in darling harbour, sydney

same walk... ;-)

at the aquarium with huge fishes

a leopard shark approaching tia

and the biggest of all the white shark

me having a schweinerbraten and franziskaner weissbier at the loewenbraeukeler in downtown sydney. yeehaa!!!

On the countrylink on our way to byron bay (12 hours in the train!!)

At about 7am having a coffee waiting for the accomodations to open

The beach at byron bay

Having a walk in the area, little bit rainforest behind me

and a little rainforest behind tia

and some beautifull lonely beaches on our way

The most eastern point of the australian mainland

Dolphins riding the wave, spoted from the lighthouse

We also saw humpback whales. those pics are from the net though, taken at byron bay. we've got our own  pictures but they're not that good cause i only have a very weak zoom.

Once we did a day trip to the hinterland with our guide mr. i cant remember. he was very nice though!

Someone was little afraid of those crazy loud birds ;-)

as long as you've got some jam, they wont let you go!!

Visiting Heikki, had delicious pizza, prepared first in the microwave then fried in the pan!

on our way back, again at the train for 12 hours, this time celebrating our 3 year together!

Rakkaat ystavat,

kaikki on hienosti taalla kaukana! Olisi ihana laittaa teille valokuvia, mutta nyt on superkiire. Laitan sitten kun palataan reissusta. Mutta kenguruita, koaloita ja vompatteja on jo nahty!!! Aurinkoterkkuja!

Liebe Freunde,

alles ist bestens bei uns! Wenn wir zurueck kommen nach Sydney werden wir auch Fotos einfuegen. Besonders spannend sind die Treffen mit den Tieren gewesen - Kaengurus, Koalas und Wombats!

-Dominik & Tia

Skyline of Sydney (circular quay) from the ferry

Jackass Penguin

Lion ;)

Meercats

young saltwater crocodile (bout 3.5m)

Finnish roo

german roo

australian roo

pregnant koala

kodiak bear

wombat - vombatus ursinus hirsutus 

After 2 finnish flat mates, finally the 3rd, best and beloved one arrived, my girlfriend :) It was really nice to see her again and I was already keen to show her all the beautifull places! We went to see the opera and the harbour brige, strolled around the botanical gardens and once got an invitation to a movie premier: The wind that shakes the barley. Was really nice irish movie about the former ira and we got lots of gifts as we were VIP guests!!

On the other days we enjoyed ourselves at the beach and took costal walks around the area. We also had some finnish lessons on a cliff. I was doing quite good, understood almost everything but spoke nothing :-) At the evenings we met with my boss nils and his girlfriend martina for drinks or went out with matilda for some pool action (billiard!)

One day we were invited for dinner at tias mums friends daughter, kirsi (hope thats the right order). the place was a little bit outside of sydney, a suburb called paramatta. we spent a wonderful night together, had delicious mix of barbecue and tapas and we guys drank a lot of beer whereas the girls had their fancy champagne.

Today there were no thunderstorms anymore, but the rain and strong wind continued. i went down to the beach but could not get to the waterfront because the wind carried so much sand. all the amazing colours with the dark sky and the wind agitated sea with its huge waves! arrrrr wonderful!!

Seit gestern haben wir unwetter warnungen mit gefaehrlichen stuermen fuer <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Sydney und die uferbereiche. Wir hatten ziemlich heftige gewitter und uebermaessig starken regen letzte nacht mit einem temperatursturz auf 13 grad L

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Heute hatten wir zwar kein gewitter mehr aber es hat trotzdem noch sehr stark geregnet und gestuermt. Ich bin runter an den strand gegangen und wollte zum wasser, war aber unmoeglich weil der wind so viel sand aufgewirbelt hatte das man fast nichts sehen konnte. Trotzdem war es ein sagenhaftes schauspiel mit all den verschiedenen farben, dem schwarzen himmel und die aufgewuehlte see! (hach is ja fast poetisch;-))

This is a picture from parts of the sydney harbour. not too bad! planes were delayed and roads were closed due to big puddlesand flooding. our flat was battered as well, the rooftop leaks a bit, so we had some water in our bathroom :-) but for now it calmed down. nevertheless according to the weather forecast we will have this kind of weather for two more days . the good thing, this is supposed to be the start in to the summer here!!!

so, for the moment its very good to work at home, read my books and start writing. have to do more stuff now for my internship (marketing plan) since tia is coming soon and i would like to have as much free time as possible. waiting for our panda excursion and other adventures ;-)

my old flat mate moved one week ago and now i've got a new one. Matilda, of course, from finnland, helsinki ;-) no worries, it was tia's suggestion, everything is under control! ;-) she is very nice, lots of humor and energy. at the moment she's caught a bad flu and minor food poisoning, but getting better already.

so much for now, talk to you soon folks!

Das obige bild ist vom hafen in Sydney. Flugzeuge hatten verspaetung und strassen waren teilweise gesperrt wegen ueberflutung. Unsere wohnung hatte auch ein bisschen was abbekommen weil das dach ueber dem bad etwas undicht ist ;-) aber fuer jetzt hat es sich erst einmal beruhigt. Das gute an der sache ist, dass nach australischer wetterregel angeblich immer nach diesen unwettern der sommer startet!!!

Es ist also momentan eine gute zeit fuer mich zum arbeiten. Ich lese meine buecher und hab angefangen zu schreiben. Ich will jetzt ein bisschen mehr machen weil tia ja bald kommt und da moechte ich dann so viel zeit wie moeglich haben und mit ihr unseren urlaub geniessen!! ;-)

Mein alter mitbewohner ist ja ungefaehr vor einer woche ausgezogen und jetzt ist schon wieder jemand neues da. Matilda, natuerlich wie kann e sanders sein aus finnland, Helsinki ;-) aber keine sorge, es war der vorschlag von tia, es ist also alles unter kontrolle!! ;-) sie ist sehr nett und hat viel humor. Momentan ist sie jedoch krank, hat eine kleine lebensmittelvergiftung und fieber, allerdings schon wieder auf dem weg der besserung.

So, so viel fuer dieses mal, bis demnaechst!

Hyvää Suomi! hieno tasapeli 1-1       Ger vs SanMar 13:0 huh huh

(ich glaube hier brauchts keine uebersetzung)