Australia 2007 --> L'Olandese Volante

mercoledì, 31 gennaio 2007

26th January - Australia Day in Bondi Beach

On the late night of 24th January another Italian guest arrived in Alfred Park Accomodation.
Sebastiano took the same flight as me, but one day later. As soon as he arrived in the hostel he asked me and Federica something and we suddenly realised we were dealing with an Italian man.
He rented a car (he had to work in Sydney for a week from starting the following morning) and offered us a lift to the most gorgeous places in Sydney and the nearby. After a lunch together we saw a bright sky and decided to go to Bondi Beach.
20 minutes drive and we were on the stunning beach where people were celebrating Australia Day.

Me at the arrival in Bondi Beach (behind me the South side)

It has been a MUST to have a swim through Ocean waves (though I can't properly swim ahah), high waves with a strong current pulling you away from the shore.
After about two hours spent there we moved South heading to another beach, Tamarama, where next to the sand there was a big green area in which a lot of young people where playing cricket, fresbee and other outdoor sports, drinking some beers.

Another view of Bondi Beach (North side) from our car while going away

Here we didn't wet ourselves, but we could appreciate this tiny and small bay, not so popular as the greater Bondi, but still a wonderful place. It's really hard to let my readers get feelings and sensations, even the attached pictures will hardly create the same atmosphere.

Our arrival at Tamarama Beach

After 7pm we went back home, trying to be part of the great show which had been prepared for Australia Day: fireworks on the Harbour Bridge area.
Anyway I guess I am not very lucky with fireworks: for New Year's Eve in London I missed them because there was a massive building between me and them (even if I managed to reach the Big Ben and Parliament Square.
This time fireworks have been another time somewhere else, we discovered later on that they took place 2minutes drive far from where we was... dammit! So... no pics about fireworks, hope Bondi and Tamarama are enough!;-)

Postato da: DexterH46 a 03:10 | link | commenti
holiday, beach, sydney

martedì, 30 gennaio 2007

25th January - Temporary Accomodation

The real first day in Sydney saw me waiting for Federica's arrival in Alfred Park Accomodation (see below the pictures of the day, which actually have been made the day after ;->). We paid our fees and then we went out to have a look and start becoming more confident with the Sydney city centre.
We came out from the front door and... whaaaat?!?A cloudy sky was above us... f*cking hell!Where is the sun?Where is the summer?The weather wasn't anyway that bad, we could walk around wearing short sleeves garments for most of the time.
We looked for information about buses (and seen two girls who were going to the Big Day Out Festival, see below), strolled around George Street, bought something to eat, and started to collect phone numbers to call to find our next accomodation.
I've even met my exchange coordinator, the cool guy mysteriously named James Giggacher (I think and hope I spelled his surname properly), and learnt that apart from Chinatown (which is located in the centre) there's also a kind of "Little Italy", where Italian migrants settled when they arrived here. I will definitely go and have a look there, even if it will be either a 10 minutes ride on a bus or a 30 minutes walk to the west.
Anyway let's go back to the Big Day Out. When we got back home it was too late even to try to go to the great festival so, among the others, I've missed the Muse performance... even because I was still recovering from the longest journey ever. Nevermind, I'll find other good gigs soon, sure.
So we got back home, had a shower, and joined our Irish friends in the 4-beds dorm.

Two pictures of our hostel from the outside

Postato da: DexterH46 a 08:34 | link | commenti
sydney, accomodation

lunedì, 29 gennaio 2007

23-24 January 2007 - The Longest Journey Ever

23rd January arrived, and the adventure properly began. I woke up at 2.00 am (please consider I went to bed at midnight, just after I managed to close my suitcase, so 2 hours sleeping time), went to Falconara by car and caught the train to Rome. We were 5 people in the train at that time.. I texted someone and then tried to sleep again.
When I opened my eyes (it doesn't mean I've slept!) the train was full and nearly reached Rome. Quick breakfast and then I headed to the airport, did the check-in and went to the gate.
As soon as I got into the plane (see picture from outside) I noticed it was "slightly" different from Ryanair ones (though I still prefer the Irish ones because of their fares): I sat down on my seat and there was a screen just in front of me... cool! For the full length of the flight I could swap from watching either a movie or a tv programme, listen to a music album (I went for Coldplay "X&Y" once and Muse "Black Holes And Revelations"at least twice, very good music guys!), play some more intelligent (checker) and more stupid (Tetris and Arkanoid as well!) games, or eventually get all the information about the flight: distance made, distance left, estimated arrival time, maps from the satellite, night/day globe and so on.From this I could see the route: Italy - Greece - Lebanon - Saudi Arabia (then I slept a bit, I guess we didn't fly over Baghdad) India, Indian Ocean and Malesia.

Before landing the crew remembered us that bringing and commercing drugs is considered a very serious crime in Malaysia and is punished with the death. I am not interested in that, anyway on the second plane (from Kuala Lumpur to Sydney) I was next to a Dutch backpacker (a legend!) who told me that recently a Dutch guy had been hang because of that. Even the Queen of Netherlands could not make anything! Death penalty... I am always against it... but is just to let you know what you may face in Malaysia, even if someone puts some drugs in your baggage...so be careful!
By the way let's go back to the flight, I could just see some parts of Kuala Lumpur Airport (and I may buy stuff there on the way back, it seems so cheap compared to Italy!) before boarding on the second plane where I met the Dutch backpacker I mentioned before and had some chats with him... he studied abroad (as I did) while he was studying at University (he did something similar to me), then with is job he managed to visit lots of countries in Europe, South and North America, Asia, Africa and, for the first time, Oceania... cool!
We said "good luck" each other after we collected our baggage, then I went to the "Declaration point" (too many details, just say they were astonished by my surname...what's strange in it?!) and then to the hostel with a shuttle bus (I missed the free pick-up 'cause my flight made another 30minutes delay, as for the first route), going through the city seeing loads of young people crowding the streets (please note, it was Wednesday!).

Me and Federica have been allocated to a room together with two Irish guys, a boy and a girl, the former from Cork the latter from Limerick. The first night I was alone with them, but no worries, they are absolutely nice guys (even if when he speaks is veeeeeeeeeery hard to understand more than two consecutive words) and we shared our stories. At midnight I was finally sleeping in my bed, after a 35-hours travel, curious about the Sydney City I would have started to explore the day after.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 08:04 | link | commenti (5)
journey/flight

lunedì, 22 gennaio 2007

22 January 2007 - Itinerary Selection

Non si tratta del volo, ma del treno, anche se la tag associata è "viaggio/flight", scusatemi ma non ho voglia di cambiarla adesso.

12 ore e si parte per questa nuova avventura, e siccome è un'avventura, deve esserlo fino in fondo, e dall'inizio. Come fare per ragigungere l'aeroporto di Roma Fiumicino? Prendere un comodo Eurostar il giorno prima pernottando in albergo/ostello... o affidarsi al regionalino notturno che taglia gli Appennini dalla costa Adriatica a quella Tirrenica? Ovviamente, la decisione di una persona normale sarebbe per la prima opzione, ma qui la situazione è diversa: innanzitutto ancora devo fare la valigia (ma ho già ammucchiato la roba nelle vicinanze, ora dovrò trovare il modo di farcela entrare), ed in secondo luogo ne va del mio onore... mai su un Eurostar (se non a scrocco e per protesta eh eh)! Alle 3.46 comincia l'avventura dalla stazione di Falconara Marittima, si arriva a Roma Tiburtina e di lì direzione Aeroporto Leonardo Da Vinci. Poi del volo vi ho già parlato... ci risentiamo al mio arrivo, altro Paese, altro continente, altra lingua, preparatevi con l'Inglese! ;-)

Postato da: DexterH46 a 15:00 | link | commenti (3)
journey/flight

venerdì, 05 gennaio 2007

4 January 2007 - Flight Confirmation

Il contributo dell'Università di 900 Euro per il volo non è bastato, ma va bene, non capita tutti i giorni di riuscire ad andare con 230 Euro in Australia.

Il mio volo è confermato, il mio biglietto pagato, ora mancano solo i bagagli (e, sarebbe meglio, un paio di esami prima di partire) ed il 23 Gennaio potrò presentarmi all'aeroporto di Roma Fiumicino pronto per l'avventura nella grande Isola Oceanica.

Volerò con Malaysia Airlines, scalo a Kuala Lumpur e poi si prosegue per Sydney, dove arriverò per la serata del 24, giusto in tempo per riprendermi un giorno e partecipare ad Australia Day!

A dire il vero ho anche le date e le informazioni per il ritorno (ritorno?!?)... ma se già ci si pensa vuol dire che qualcosa non va... quindi le lascio nell'anonimato! Intanto se qualcuno vince al Lotto, alla Lotteria o al Totocalcio e vuole venire a trovarmi... potrò offrirvi al massimo vitto e alloggio, il volo ahimè no... anzi, cosa dico, se vincete mi offrirete voi un pranzo al ristorante più lussuoso! Ciao a tutti!

(Ps: quando sarò in territorio Australiano... dovrò adeguarmi e scrivere in Inglese... o in "Australiano", che in teoria è come l'Inglese, ma in realtà non propriamente perchè, come dice il mio predecessore Riccardo, "ci son un sacco di parole che gli Australiani si inventano, o usano totalmente a caso, specialmente quando si tratta di cercar casa"... enjoy!)

Postato da: DexterH46 a 15:21 | link | commenti (2)
bureaucracy, journey/flight

martedì, 02 gennaio 2007

22 December 2006 - Got the Visa!

After some troubles (err... I supposed, at least hoped, that my Visa would have been free of charge, come on, I am a poor exchange student!!!) on 22 December 2006 I finally got my Visa, which anyway is a bit unusual, is just an e-visa.

I haven't got any sticker to put on my passport, just an e-mail confirmation, but it will be enough (they say... and I hope!)... I mean, they wrote it so I don't wanna hear anything more about this! Bureaucracy, other than being an "impossible-to-spell word", is absolutely the worst thing in these situations... why isn't the whole world so easy to go, as actually is Europe for an European?

Anyway, I went on and on for a week trying an on-line application, calling the Australian Embassy in Italy and so on, but just after I put the credit card data for the payment (AUS$ 430... which means about €260... 260... fucking hell!!!) I received the confirmation for my Visa.

Except that I will definitely have to deal with "University bureaucracy" in the future, the most has already been done, so now I am happy, and begin to think about the flight and the accomodation... the adventure is near to begin, stay tuned!;-)

Postato da: DexterH46 a 12:32 | link | commenti
bureaucracy, visa

7 January 2006 - The first (second) step

Il mio viaggio si può dire che comincia il 7 Gennaio 2006*, quando escono le graduatorie per il Progetto Overseas. Sono alla "Sydenham Library" nel pomeriggio del primo Sabato dell'anno 2006 (festeggiato e cominciato a Londra, dove mi trovavo per lavoro), so che le graduatorie usciranno Lunedì 9 ma per curiosità dò una sbirciata.

Entro nel sito di UniBo, poi nella sezione scambi Internazionali e clicco su Progetto Overseas, poi inizio a guarde le graduatorie di mio interesse. York University, Toronto, 2 posti disponibili... 13° in graduatoria, non si può nemmeno sperare nel ripescaggio (ragazzi che vincono in più di un posto possono optare solo per uno scambio). University of Melbourne, 4 posti disponibili... 8° in graduatoria. Ho qualche chance in più, ma al momento sono tagliato fuori. Ultima carta da giocare... UTS Sydney, 4 posti disponibili... 3° in graduatoria! "Yes, cashback!!!".

Da lì in poi la lotta è stata con la burocrazia, esami da cercare per il riconoscimento, corse da un ufficio all'altro, aiuto pressochè inesistente da parte di chi invece dovrebbe fornirne all'interno dell'Università, ma la prima gara, forse la più importante, era stata vinta.

*(a dire il vero l'avventura era cominciata a metà Ottobre, quando ho dovuto sostenere il TOEFL, obbligatorio per fare domanda. In condizioni quasi pietose per un ascesso dentario che non mi permetteva di parlare, ero riuscito a strappare un punteggio di 263/300 nel TOEFL Computer Based... le Università partner chiedevano valori sul 220-230...)

Eccomi

Ultimi Commenti

Link

Archivio

Feeds