Il mio Overseas a Sydney, Australia (Gen-Lug 2007)... e il mio periodo di Tesi all'Estero a Rotterdam/Utrecht, Olanda (Ott 2007-Mar 2008)!

7th July – Bondi to Coogee (Bondi) walk

My last “full” day in Sydney came suddenly.
I decided to do to Bondi to Coogee walk, a walk which was not supposed to be as much spectacular as the Manly Scenic Walk I did in April, but which anyway was worth to do according to the Lonely Planet guide.
I started from the golf coure north of Bondi Beach. There were some Aboriginal engravings on the rocks which looked interesting. At least it was quite easy to spot the stuff they were representing.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 09:23 | link | commenti
holiday, beach, sydney

12th April – Manly Scenic Walkway 3/3 (The way back)

After our relaxing 30 minutes on Manly beach it was time to leave both for me and for Daniel. I had to go to an event at the Business School, while Daniel had to go home. So Eva could enjoy one of the most celebrated pastime for a girl: go shopping. Me and Daniel caught a ferry just a few seconds before they closed the gate, and during our journey from Manly to Circular Quay we could appreciate the sunset while we were approaching the two most famous symbols of Sydney: the Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.Definitely the best time to catch a ferry back to the city to have these beautiful views. You are lucky, if you missed them, here they are for you.

Then I took a train with Daniel to move further south. At Central I came off from the train and went straight to the GSB where my Italian friend Alessandra was waiting for me. She had a pass for two to attend this celebration of the best students in the previous semester when a friend of her achieved the best performance in a subject. Since he was back in Italy he delegated her to get his prize, and since she had two passes, I could enjoy the high-level atmosphere (it was funny, I was full of sand after our walk among people who were wearing shirts and ties!) and especially the free food, free soft drinks and free alcoholic drinks!

Postato da: DexterH46 a 23:27 | link | commenti
holiday, beach, sydney

12th April – Manly Scenic Walkway 2/3 (Mission Accomplished)

We took a picture all together there, and then a few more to give an idea of where we were and how far Manly was.

 

With the sight of Manly in our heads, our speed increased a bit, even if we were often stopping taking hundreds of pictures... actually Eva was taking pics of any kind of flower was in our way, but it must be said that sometimes it was even mine and Daniel’s fault when we were showing her some hidden flowers that otherwise she would have missed! The time was passing but by something like 4PM we reached the Manly beach, after passing through the tiny Corso in Manly. We celebrated our success (err... actually the full walk includes two more kilometres I guess!) eating the food left from the lunch, and then decided to relax on the beach.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 14:13 | link | commenti
holiday, beach, sydney

12th April – Manly Scenic Walkway 1/3 (The first leg)

After the first 100 metres on a plane surface we started to walk under the shadow of the trees, switching from paths that required us to walk on slopes or small steps, to hidden beaches facing the Middle Harbour.
We often ended on the top of some cliffs metres above the sea. In one of them either I challenged Eva, or she challenged me (my usual memory...), to see who could stay further outside from the rock. The funny (as usual, it wasn't a serious one!) challenge stopped us for a couple of minutes, while we were trying to push ourselves at the most outside point we could. Well, I won... but let's say that my 1,80 height helped me to stretch the legs further away! ;-) 

Anyway we took the opporutnity to get one more picture of the beatiful places anyone can admire while doing the Walk. And it was not the only one. Moving through places named Fisher Bay, Sandy Bay, Clontarf Reserve (from where we took the above picture) we ended to Castle Rock, and it was time to have lunch. We were a bit late on our timetable, but it was because we wanted to admire the nature around without being just a passer-by. We sat down and relaxed while having our food and taking a few more pics.

We headed then to Grotto Point reserve where we could see an old lighthouse.
Going on we got to Crater Cove, from which it was possible to see the last piece of land of the "southern Sydney" next to the immensity of the Ocean.
It was something between 1 and 2 PM, and we were not seeing Manly yet...

Postato da: DexterH46 a 12:10 | link | commenti
holiday, beach, sydney

30th March – Great Ocean Road (1-Places)

Since I had the opportunity only for a short stay in Melbourne, I had to do as much as I could with no breaks, and no brakes! After an exciting day I had to wake up at 7.00 in the morning to do the Great Ocean Road trip. Luckily one of my roommates, Charlie from South Korea, had to come as well so he woke me up in time to get some cold water in the face to wake up and be ready for the mini-van that would have brought us into the adventure.

The first stop was near Torquay, precisely in Bells Beach, the place where the “Rip Curl” brand was born. Despite it was a cloudy day a lot of surfers were there to play with the waves, right in the place where every year Rip Curl holds a surf competition, with the best surfers coming from all over the world.

After our first stop we went on with our trip. The second stop was for breakfast, not much later actually.

The weather was still not the best one,but at least it wasn’t raining, so we could get off the van and stay under the sky while we were having some food and drinks. After the morning meal we had a few minutes to relax so I took a picture with the ocean behind me (even if without the zoom people who saw this picture said that the man wasn't me... eeeehhhh???!!! Oh yes, by the way... I am NOT walking on the water, it's just perspective plus the fact that I cut the bottom of the picture).

After our breakfast stop we jumped on the van again heading to the real starting point of the Great Ocean Road, which actually hadn’t begun so far.

The traffic was not crazy (it’s a nice road, but in a nearly unmanned area) so every single person took a picture of him/herself under the wood which sets the beginning of the popular track.

The early afternoon of the trip went on with us driving along the Great Ocean Road, with the aim of getting to the Twelve Apostles, but we also stopped a couple of times when we had the opportunity and when the landscape seemed to offer stunning views. Here you can find one of them, for the last part of the trip you have to wait a few more days...

Postato da: DexterH46 a 08:08 | link | commenti
holiday, beach, melbourne

10th March – Nico’s BBQ in Manly Beach

The second Saturday in March, the one after the most popular Mardi Gras, a good number of people gathered near Manly for a barbecue.
I say “a good number”, but it would be better to say “nearly everyone”, in fact there were so many people that I think only four or five of those I met earlier were not there, being somewhere else by themselves.
The had to begin in the late morning with a surf lesson, but actually it started in the early afternoon for me, since I’ve slept until quite late. Around 4PM I was catching a ferry from Circular Quay to Manly. Before boarding I had the opportunity to see some aboriginal people dancing and entertaining the passers-by.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 08:45 | link | commenti
holiday, party, beach, sydney

4th March - Frisbee BBQ in Dee Why Beach

I just quote the words written by the Ultimate Frisbee president Sujeev after the great BBQ we had in Dee Why Beach. The UF people gathered in the afternoon to have some throws on the grass, a swim in the water and... a BBQ with some beers of course! UTS Ultimate Frisbee Club: the best club ever, definitely!

<<Firstly I'd like to thank Rosie for organising such an awesome bbq yesterday on Dee Why beach and the 4 or 5 people we had trying to cook sausages on a less than perfect bbq.

Those clouds in the morning cleared up to produce and amazing day. People were swimming, throwing discs around on the beach or just bumming around on the grass.

Then we all came together to sample the cuisine. Tasty!

Sadly we still had a slab of beer remaining, so that may make an appearance some time in the future :P >>

Postato da: DexterH46 a 08:21 | link | commenti (2)
sport, holiday, party, beach, uts

17th February – Manly Beach and Shelly Beach/2

After the described conquest, a bigger and bigger crowd followed us and settled in the area. This lovely beach has some beautiful colours under the water, and it’s like a remote corner, distant 5-10 minutes walking from the more popular beach.

After the whole day spent there we moved back to our beloved house in Redfern, but while my friends caught a ferry in the late afternoon, I stopped a few more hours in Manly to meet Lucia, a girl from Pesaro who is a friend of a friend of mine (Andrea!!!). I haven’t got a picture with her, who has been really kind with me for all the time, but I have only got this image of the often mentioned Manly Beach. Now you know why I called it “jewel”.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 08:47 | link | commenti
holiday, beach, sydney

17th February – Manly Beach and Shelly Beach/1

After a week full of orientation events, a full day on a beach was the ideal. A group of five (best result so far) left the house in Redfern (Me, Harrison, Federica, Gauthier and the new entry Krista, who brought also two friends with her!) heading to another Sydney jewel: Manly Beach!
The journey began with a ferry from Circular Quay to Manly Wharf. During the travel we could appreciate some great views, including this one of the Harbour Bridge.

Once arrived in Manly we walked all along “The Corso” before arriving to Manly Beach. Since we wanted to take the popular “Manly Walk” (luckily we didn’t, it’s very very long and even hard, but we will take it…) we started to walk from Manly Beach to another area, a less popular beach called Shelly Beach, where there are no waves. For an instance it seemed me to be back in Italy, anyway I conquered the place together with my friends, here you can see some picture of the great overlord (me) after the great effort! ;-)

Postato da: DexterH46 a 06:13 | link | commenti (4)
holiday, beach, sydney

9th February – Coogee Beach

“Another day, another bay” I may say, exactly how I have put it on my Messenger account.
The weather seemed to be good friend for this day, so we went to explore another beach among those you can apprecciate in the Sydney area. This time we went to Coogee. The group of the day was formed by me, Federica and Ruzbeh, and left home in the early morning. At lunchtime I could have some food (watermelon brought from home!!!) on the beach to chill after the relaxing sunbathing.

In the early afternoon Dusan joined us, so the group was now composed by four elements, not bad for our house! When the weather started to change there was no more point in having a swim, so I decided to run on the beach, to keep fit at least.

Incredible but true, the only time I didn’t go in the water a bluebottle (which is a jellyfish) stung me! It never happened by any kind of jellyfish in 24 years and this little bastard, which has been brought on the shore by a wave while I was walking there, stung me.

My right ankle was full of this red spots, signs of the venom it has put inside my body, I had even to go to the Surf Rescue people (I thought I would have called them the first time I had tried surfing, not before!) to put some ice on it.

After I recovered from my injury the sky was absolutely cloudy, so we decided to catch a bus to go home. Anyway it wasn’t that late, it should have been something past 6pm, so already a good time to go, since we were out from the morning.

Postato da: DexterH46 a 06:44 | link | commenti
holiday, beach, sydney