Addicted to Altitude

Yes, I did it! :) Today was THE Day....Non-Tobacco-Day! Yes! The day to quit smoking...so everyone...just do it! - but, that's not THE day I was talking about. And I'm not even talking about the day I became older again (25 or 26 doesn't really matter - nobody's believing me anyway). Today was THE day I no longer only believed I can fly but found out how it is to "fly". My day started at 5:30 this morning (guess that was the earliest time I started a birthday ever). I left home at about 6 in order to be at the skydiving pick-up point by 7...

It was the coldest day in Sydney this year when I left the house. 8 degrees...it was freeeezing and windy...way to cold. But later that day, when the sun came out it turned to be a fantastic, bright and sunny day. Beautiful...

After arriving at the hangar we were sperated into groups of 4...i was in put into the last group so I could see the other guys jumping and landing before....

Then...after and endless time of waiting my name was anounced in the last group...and, as usual, the people started smiling when hearing the name. I'm glad to make people laugh without doing anything ;-)

So...then we got our jumpsuits...stylish in red and yellow :)...our tandempartners introduced themselves to us, gave us the jumping gear and then we headed to the plane...

After sitting there it took off and we started our 15 mins journey up to 14,000 ft. Then...short before arriving at the dropzone our tandempartners tightened our gear, the lights flashed red...the door opened and the 'fun jumpers' made their exit...and right after them we headed to the exit...siting at the edge, legs at the outside, arms crossed...there we goooooooo....

Right after the exit it was kind of twirling through the air until the 'flight position' was finally achieved. But, in contrary to my jump-mates, I really enjoyed those few seconds of iritation. And I also had no problems of not being able to breath (at least I didn't recognized it) like all others said. I simply just enjoyed it :) Then...after achieving flight position...2 taps on my shoulders and I knew that I could open my arms in order to create more uplift...so we had almost 60 seconds of free falling...200 km/h...an amazing view and so much fun...



After this the parachute opened and we started our 5 minute glide with a marvellous view at the blue mountains, the beach, the ocean and sydney at the horizon....

Then landing time...before we were told to lift up our legs when we're landing...so did I but we didn't hit the ground as many of the others but managed to stop while standing...what a great adventure, an amazing flight...but unfortunately the time in the air just passed quite to fast...but after this experience I am quite sure that there have to be more to come...I already started saving for the next jump :)

Man, what a birthday. I love it :)

And never forget: What goes up, must come down ;)

Blue Mountains Pt. I

Von Blue Mountains

Yesterday was Blue Mountains Day. After getting up at 5:45 and taking the Blue Mountains Line at 7:18 (Plattform 6 btw ;) ) to Katoomba we arrived there only about 2:20 hours later. In the middle of a nice, old fashioned (tourist-) village.

Then we made our way to the first viewpoint... The Three Sisters A marvellous view over the valley, the mountains and the three sisters was worth all the travelling so far.

After enjoying the great view we started our journey through towards the rainforrest section...walking down the Giant Stairway and testing our level of fitness for the first time :)

Down at the bottom we started walking....seeing a lot of wonderful and interesting places (right now I'm to tired to explain everything *g*). But after the first few hours of walking we took the steepest railway back to the top...(and it is really steeeeeep) and then continude our exploring into a different direction towards the cliffwalk.

Finally we returned at about 5 p.m. to Katoomba and arrived in Sydney at about 15 to 8...tired...tired...tired....but very glad to did this trip...and the next one will surely follow :)

Slowly but steady....

Darmstadt + Trefoils (sister-act =) ).

Fame :)

When leaving the office at the moment I usually listen to triple m radio station with my mobile since there is always a show on air at this time which is hosted by two comedians. Will & Lehmo. Pretty funny from time to time...so the right thing to listen to right after work. But a few days ago it was even more funny. One of the guys was talking about the most famous German besides Hitler...the other guy didn't know what he was talking about...so he said "maaaan, haven't you read the news? there is on German in the news all the time...you have to know him!" the other guy still didn't knew what he was talking about so he unsolved the riddle and told him that he is talking about Knut (pronounced in an Aussie way of course - sth. like knadd) the worlds cutest polar bear and the most famous German atm....yeah. We're famous over here. Thx to Knut right now they do not believe that we all run around wearing lederhosen but also have cute polar bears at home.

But at least they are right now talking about Knut when they are talking about famous Germans and not about this Austrian (yeah my Aussie Mates - he was AUSTRIAN! ^^)guy ;-)

More and more and more...

Today: Erlabrunn at the river Main

I like this gras

Ok, who of you was thinking about smoking while reading this heading? Man, you should know me better. I would never write here about the drugs I take (it's in my other blog) !

This is about the gras I was walking on today. Sounds strange, but I've never been walking on gras that felt so...hm...how to say...that felt, yeah, great. Was just fun walking on it. Sounds weird, but just do it yourself and you'll see what I mean ;-)

It was a beautiful day...(everybody is summing the u2 song right now, please (it's a beautiful day))....just relaxing. hanging out. doing nothing. great :)
After getting up this morning at about 10 a.m. I went grocery shopping @ aldi (as nearly every sat^^), had a pizza when I returned home and then headed for the bus to the royal botanic garden. some good music, my spanish book and a lot of sun. That've been today's ingredients of some nice hours down at the garden. Just sitting or laying on the gras and having this marvellous view

Von Royal Botanic...

makes one feel good (my photo was lying right beside me - so my view was better than this pic ;-) ).

While laying there, I saw some brides and grooms and a wedding ceremony. poor guys ;-)

When the night came closer, again, I saw a fantastic sundown

Von Royal Botanic...

had some dinner in front of the opera when leaving the garden and walked into the city nightlife...

It was a beautiful day (still summing! everybody! everybody!)

Gettin better..

Today: Berlin Berlin...

lets get ready to rumble...

Yesterday I saw a full contact fight live ;-) when I took the bus home after training from bondi jct to bondi rd, some guys with a little to much alcohol entered the bus...they became very noisy...until one of the other passangers said something to them...then they started arguing...louder and louder...so that even I, at the very end of the bus, could hear it...and then...it first looked like they stoped arguing, all of a sudden the drunk guy jumped to the other guy and they started fighting. within seconds the girl who was with the drunken guy started fighting too...but the other passangers intervened and captured the drunken couple...the bus driver stoped and they tried to move the couple out...a loud and unpleasent argument continude when I left the bus (only a few meters to our house..) but I still could hear them arguing when I already entered our living room...

interesting what happens when to much alcohol is on board...so kids, always remember this! ;-)

And I just can't get enough....

Thx one more time! And...greetings! ;-)

Coastal Walk

I'm walking...from Beach to Beach to Beach to Beach :)

Today I did the Coastal Walk (or Beachwalk - whatever :) ) from Bondi Beach to Coogee Beach and whilst doing so, I passed Tamarama Beach and Bronte Beach (and a helluva tourists ^^).

The distance from Bondi to Coogee is about 4 km, but it's pretty hilly (uhm, is that a word?) and with a lot of cool places to stop and enjoy marvellous views or the fascinating wildlife...

After passing a cemetery, a bowling ground, some interesting plateaus, nice beaches in Tamarama (very nice!) and Bronte and thousands of surfers I finally made it to Coogee. And once there, I didn't want to go home. Three Beachcourts :) and a really really nice atmosphore. Nothing to see from the big city...just a very very cool City at the Beach with niiiiice flair :)

All in all it was a very nice experience walking down the coast to Coogee. Think I'll be there more often in the future (but maybe I'll just take the bus). But it was very cool walking along the ocean...the air, the smell...

After coming back I had a walk through Hungry Jacks, took my meal down to the beach and had a relaxed dinner down there right beyond the southern cross.

That's the way life should be!

Eastern Beaches

World Press Picture of the Year

Yeah, believe me or not, today it has been arts time. The cultural highlight of my stay here in Sydney so far ;-)

After starting the day with some grocery shopping at Aldi and a late breakkie at the Royal Botanic Gardens (whilst having georgous weather, lying on incredible fine grass, finishing dorian gray and just enjoying to be here) I went to the NSW State Library in order to see the World Press Photos of the year. After entering the Library through a very fascinating door (insider =) ) there have been some very interesting photos. Everyone of the pictures was a highly ranked photo in its own category...but, seeing all those photos, one gets the impression that the more cruelty a picture shows, the more famous it gets. There have been a lot of war pictures (guess about 50% of the pics) and sometimes I started to wonder how the photographers got so deep into the war scene or into the jails were the people have been punished and so on...

One of my favorite pics was, of course, one of the world cup...but not one of those with ZiZu on it but one where a german girl (at least a girl in a german dress) is jumping full of excitement and shouting and screaming....a really nice pic what caught the atmosphere pretty good I think and made me look at it quite a long time and thinking and remembering about this great time we had back in the Summer '06.
'54 '74 '90 2010 :)

Another cool photo you can see above...there've been some nice pics from some french street dancers (yeah, even if they're french I like those pics ^^)...

After all, the exhibition wasn't that huge, but therefore it was free and pretty nice to see all those award winning pics (of whom some really caused different emotions...)

***Va te faire foutre!

Sorry to all kids and parents, this text should be rated M15 and parental advisory could be necessary.

At the very moment are about 10 french people in our flat...kind of sit in with one of my french flatmates...not quite a problem, actually...but the fact that makes this anoying is the fact that french people (not that I want to pull out stereotypes, but that's what I experienced so far) always speak french to eacht other. Even if there are non-french people right beside them. So my italian flatmate and me are pretty much seperated from the big bunch of people. nice. thx, mates!

No wonder why noone likes the french...in a foreign country, with other people from foreign countries...speaking french and seperating from all others...nice way of gaining multicultural experience...nique ta mére!

But despite this, I still love it over here - No worries ;)

Thx! :)

Von Sydney

But I want more, I want more, I want more...I want more than you can see obviously...(who has sung this song again? ;-) )

It's your turn ;-)

Von Sydney

Come on you people...make it a better place...;-)

Shopping @ Dymocks

I've done some shopping yesterday...;-) I really love hanging out in such huge Bookshops...and I could spent a helluva money there...but this time it was, again, time for an all time classic (thx to the recommendation :) ).

Von Sydney